American dominance of majors on brink of reaching 36-year high at the Open

The last time the United States won six majors in a row, Rory McIlroy was seven years from being born and the Stars and Stripes had not been lowered in the Ryder Cup for 25 years. The world was a different place in 1982, but on these ancient grounds the clock could easily turn back this week and Uncle Sam could be Uncle Slam once again.

What a turnaround it would represent for the US should one of their number follow the lead of Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed and Koepka again and lift the Claret Jug in Carnoustie on Sunday. It was only seven years ago that Darren Clarke’s Open breakthrough ensured that the US had gone six majors without a winner.

“European golf was very healthy a few years ago for a long time,” McIlroy said. “It seemed like every major someone from the island of Ireland turned up to, we were winning it. It doesn’t seem that long ago.”

But now the spikes are firmly on the other foot and as America’s current major champions are all under 30, the streak could last a while yet.

The US dominance does not only extend to the men’s majors. They hold the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, Walker Cup and Curtis Cup, the four most important transatlantic matches. This is an unprecedented show of force, but one which Tommy Fleetwood finds chillingly straightforward to explain.

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“America, there’s no other way to put it, they have an exceptional bunch of players at the moment,” he said. “It just so happens that it has been a run of American golfers that have won majors, but at the same time, they’ve generally been the best players in the world at the time that they’ve won them. You don’t really look at them as a nationality. You just look at them as players and people, and you can understand why they’re the ones winning.”

Is there more to it than quality of individual? Thomas sees something deeper and provides the intriguing viewpoint that it is not only American versus European, South African or Australian but, more importantly, American versus American.

“It is a very unique group of us, I guess you could say,” the USPGA champion said. “Obviously, we want to beat each other’s brains in. I never want to lose to any of my friends, especially my best friends. As weird as it is, sometimes it’s harder losing to your closest friends than it is to someone you don’t even know.”

If Thomas wants to crush the cranium of Spieth, and Spieth likewise of Ryder Cup partner Reed, then even Dustin Johnson and Koepka, the two most laid-back players on the fairways, are inspired by their own in-fighting.

“We’re competitive against each other in everything we do,” said Johnson, the world No 1. “We train a lot together and so we push each other in the gym and play a lot of golf together. So, yeah, we definitely push each other to get better and do the right things.”

Koepka concurred. “Right now, I’m focused on winning,” he said. “That’s the only thing I’ve got in my mind. Second place just isn’t good enough. I finished second a lot to DJ and I’m just tired of it.

“Once you win, it kind of propels you. You have this mindset where you just want to keep winning. It breeds confidence, but you want to have that feeling of gratification: I finally did this. How cool is this?”

Success breeds success and momentum creates momentum and Justin Rose recognises the urgency in the situation with a certain biennial dust-up looming in Paris in September. The US have not won on European soil in 25 years and the hosts could do without the visitors arriving festooned in every garland.

“There’s a bit of camaraderie amongst all of them,” Rose said. “I know Brooks and Dustin are incredibly close, and you’ve got Rickie [Fowler] and Thomas and Jordan as a group are all really close. It’s working really well for them. They’re spurring each other on.

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“I think the European Ryder Cup team is looking incredibly strong and we have a great chance in September. But we are not winning the right events. We are not winning the big events and that is key.

“I mean, listen, we’re only a team one week every two years. Obviously Rory [McIlroy], myself, Sergio [Garcia], Tommy and a bunch of players have been knocking on the door of majors in the last few years, but it’s definitely been pretty one-sided and the Americans are dominating. It would be lovely to turn that around this week.”

And if they fail to, how long could it go? From 1974 to 1977, American players won 13 consecutive majors. This could be just the beginning.