Is There Something Wrong with Golf's Parity? Looking at the PGA Tour's Future After the U.S. Open

Parity (par-i-tee); noun - "Equality, as in amount, status, or character. " (Thank you, dictionary.com)

March Madness became what it is because of parity, thanks to stunning upsets by teams from who-knows-where and with I've-never-heard-of-that-guy leading the way to national prominence. And that word..."parity"...keeps springing up in relation to the NFL and MLB, with different teams making noise late in the season.

Don't even mention college football, will ya?

We've seen a wider range of good competitors ultimately benefit their respective sports. But in light of this year's U.S. Open of golf, with a dominating performance by Rory McIlroy that kept drawing comparisons to a decade-old Tiger Woods and gave us the 11^th straight new winner of a major championship, it begs two questions to be answered:

Is parity good for golf? And with all the talk revolving around potential new superstars, how badly does golf need another one?

Any recent golf fan knows the name Tiger Woods; the man dominated the PGA Tour for years, and still have a break legend Jack Nicklaus' 18 major championship victories. The effect of Tiger is well-chronicled in the golf world: Attendance and ad rates for events he played in were up across the board, and Tiger was one of those players who drew in the casual fan.

In short, he was the household name golf could build on.

When Tiger's life began spiraling out of control due to injuries (partially) and his personal life imploding (majorly), this generation's anointed star had fallen. Since, Woods has yet to win a tournament, much less a major, and a knee injury prevented him from playing in this year's Open at Congressional.

Look at the media outlets now: Rick Reilly just wrote on ESPN.com comparing Rory McIlory, he of the "Tiger-esque" beatdown of the field in the U.S. Open, to Phil Mickelson or Tiger when they were the headliners of golf. Heck, the article is titled "Golf's new era is here." And Reilly made a fair point when he said for a three-year window, golf fans were looking for a new "sheriff in town" after Tiger crashed and burned. But it isn't just one column, it's the entire blogosphere and every half-interested columnist and reporter attuned to the PGA Tour that is anointing (and secretly hoping?) McIlroy as golf's newest hope.

So what's this mean, exactly? One of two things:

Golf has been hurting more than we thought. Maybe not on the outside, because the sport's future was never in doubt and didn't seem to be declining much once Tiger's fallout had reached a finale. But with no superstar to market to the general public, no just-his-presence-ratchets-revenues-to-stupid-heights name on the leaderboard consistently, maybe golf has been trudging along and lying in wait for someone to carry it. That, or...

Fans want a clear, defined rooting interest. These two are likely related, but one addresses the sports as a whole, the other from the patrons' aspect. When Tiger continued to rock the world, the bandwagon kept growing and expanding as more people watched and waiting for him to overtake Jack Nicklaus' seemingly unbeatable 18 major championships. He was a conversation starter for the casual fan, something to bring up when running into friends at the sporting goods store. But more importantly, he was the go-to guy for people to cheer for, the one who drew the loudest cheers as a tension-filled put swerved down towards the hole and in, accompanied by the fist-pump and yell everyone knew and wanted. Tiger wasn't just a great player (Note: Past tense used until the future looks brighter), his passion connected with fans.

Maybe parity isn't so good for golf, after all. How many up-and-comers to we know of? After two major runner-up finishes, Jason Day is beginning to find a place of people's radars. But many of big names that were supposed to fill the void left by Tiger (Phil, Luke Donald, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood) haven't stepped up and grabbed the headlines for himself. There has been a different champion in each of the last eleven major championships. And with so many news outlets clamoring to crown McIlroy the 'next big thing' in golf, it leads to this conclusion:

Rory McIlroy will have more than just the pressure of being a major champion on his shoulders.

He has the hopes and dreams that golf its new superstar.