Who will be the next Y.E. Yang?
Yang, who stunned the golf world by taking down Tiger Woods last year in the final round of the PGA Championship at Hazeltine, will defend his title this week at Whistling Straits.
Actually, the only Asian male to capture a major golf championship fits the profile of five of the past six golfers to win a Grand Slam event.
Starting with Lucas Glover in the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black and ending with Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa in the Open Championship at St. Andrews last month, the five are much the same.
Good, solid pro, been around for a while before winning that first major title.
And there is a good chance there won't be a second.
Among the past six major champions, only Phil Mickelson, who claimed his third green jacket and fourth major title at the Masters, is a multiple major champion.
Glover was 29 when he made the U.S. Open his second PGA Tour victory. He has not won since.
Stewart Cink, 36, turned back Tom Watson in a playoff to win the Open Championship last year for his sixth PGA Tour victory. He remains stuck on that number.
Yang was 37 when he made the PGA his second victory of the year and his career on the circuit. He still is looking for No. 3.
Graeme McDowell, 30, outplayed the best of the best to win the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in June for his first PGA Tour victory and sixth around the world.
Even Oosthuizen, who is 27, had been a pro for eight seasons, winning five times on the Sunshine Tour and twice on the European Tour before surprising everyone, including himself, at St. Andrews.
In an era when Woods has claimed 14 major titles, Mickelson has taken four and Ernie Els and Vijay Singh each have three, this is what we often get because of the depth of talent.
When Jack Nicklaus was collecting his record 18 major championships, we also had Gary Player winning nine, Watson eight, Arnold Palmer seven, Lee Trevino six, Raymond Floyd four and Billy Casper three.
Hal Sutton beating Nicklaus to win the 1983 PGA Championship at Riviera was the exception, but these days, there might be 50 players in the field good enough to have a magical week and take home the title.
In those days, there probably were not more than a dozen or so.
Of course, there have always been gifted players who were one-and-done in the major championships, and usually that title comes later rather than sooner in a player's career.
Among the best of those have been Ken Venturi (1964 U.S. Open), Gene Littler (1961 U.S. Open), Bob Charles (1963 Open Championship), Tom Kite (1992 U.S. Open), Fred Couples (1992 Masters), Roberto De Vicenzo (1967 Open Championship), Lanny Wadkins (1977 PGA Championship), Jim Furyk (2003 U.S. Open), Tommy Bolt (1958 U.S. Open), Tom Weiskopf (1973 Open Championship), Corey Pavin (1995 U.S. Open) and Davis Love III (1997 PGA Championship).
Probably the most talented of the one-hit wonders was Lloyd Mangrum (1946 U.S. Open), who won 36 times on the PGA Tour and finished in the top 10 at the Masters for 10 consecutive years.
So, who are the top candidates to join the list this week?
Actually, a better question is, who is the current best player never to win a major?
For several years, the answer was Sergio Garcia, who at 30 has won 18 times around the world but has yet to live up to the immense promise he displayed as a teenager.
Garcia, who inherited the title from Colin Montgomerie, came close when he finished second to Padraig Harrington in the 2008 Open Championship and PGA Championship a few weeks later, but he has been mired in the deepest slump of his career for nearly two years.
So now, that unenviable title has fallen to Lee Westwood, 37, of England, who has 32 victories in his career and earlier this season claimed his second PGA Tour victory, in the St. Jude Classic.
Westwood keeps getting close, with five top-five finishes in the majors in the past three years, including second in the Masters and Open Championship this year.
However, he won't be at Whistling Straits because of a nagging calf injury that forced him to withdraw from the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational after two rounds last week.
Also near the top of the list, from oldest to youngest: Kenny Perry, 49; Scott Verplank, 46; Steve Stricker, 43; K.J. Choi, 40; Stuart Appleby, 39; Tim Clark, 34; Ian Poulter, 34; Henrik Stenson, 34; Paul Casey, 33; Luke Donald, 32; Matt Kuchar, 32; Justin Rose, 30; Adam Scott, 30; Nick Watney, 29; and Hunter Mahan, 28.
Who's next, and will it be this week?
