First-time winners have swept the start of the PGA Tour season
The start to this new PGA Tour season is unprecedented.
For the first time in Tour history, four first-time winners have won the first four events of the season: Emiliano Grillo at the Frys.com Open, Smyliie Kaufman in Las Vegas, Justin Thomas at the CIMB Classic and Russell Knox on Sunday at the WGC-HSBC Champions.
Going back to 1960, there had never been more than two first-timers to win in the first four events of a PGA Tour season, back in 1980 and 1990. The ’80 season was the only prior season in that span where the first two events were won by breakthrough champions.
Even with this never-before-seen start to a season, there’s still a long way to go before this year could topple the record 18 first-time winners in 2002. However, the beginning quartet of the 2015-16 season is reminiscent of a trend toward more and more first-time winners. Since 2010, there have been double-digit first-time winners during the PGA Tour season, except in 2012, with 11 maiden champions last season.
While the Scot Knox continues the streak of newbie winners, he also breaks another sign-of-the-times streak. At 30 years old, Knox is the first PGA Tour winner outside of his 20s in the last eight tournaments, dating back to when Jason Day kicked off the FedEx Cup playoffs with a win at The Barclays.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
