So the trend continues. A new generation of young professional golfers is being unveiled in the US. The run of victories by players in their twenties that has been building on the PGA Tour this year lengthened on Sunday. After Anthony Kim won on the first Sunday in May and became the fifth of that age group in the past six tournaments, so Sergio Garcia on the second Sunday in May won The Players Championship and became the sixth. Garcia was 28 last January.

Something is happening here. Not for years have so many young men won so many tournaments. Suddenly we are seeing the generation that will follow Tiger Woods and one of them may even challenge the world No 1. Kim is young, physically fit, technically nearly flawless and is being touted as one of the hottest prospects to come along for ages. But just a minute. Didn't we say that about Sergio?

There was a feeling of a square being circled at a wild and windy Sawgrass on Sunday. Garcia has been promising for so long it is hard to remember that it was as long ago as August 1999 that he finished second to Woods in the US PGA Championship and everyone was predicting the start of a long rivalry.

It didn't happen. Garcia became the player who should win an important championship but never seemed able to do so. He was in the last group of the Open in 2006 and finished 5th. He was in a playoff for the Open at Carnoustie last year - and lost. He hadn't won a tournament in the US since 2005.

There was no doubt that he was the best player in the field at The Players. Paul Goydos, the man Garcia vanquished in the one-hole play-off, pointed out that Garcia's statistics were better than anyone else's. Garcia hit more fairways than anyone else. He hit more greens in the right number of figures than most and won even though he took 28 putts more than Goydos.

This victory was a triumph for Garcia and the broad smile on his face told the story. It was a boost for Europe's chances in the Ryder Cup in September. And it was a reminder that there is going to be golf after Tiger Woods. Welcome to the young Turks.