Column: Majors can have impact on others in different ways
Major champions today create memories for tomorrow.
Some of them, anyway.
Still to be determined is whether the grit Patrick Reed showed at Augusta National — holding off Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler in that order — resonates with a junior who is just getting into golf or motivates one of Reed's peers.
"It's such a nostalgic game," McIlroy said last summer. "People remember when they watched Jack (Nicklaus) win a U.S. Open or Tom Watson chip in at Pebble Beach. Whatever generation it is, that's what they're going to remember and that's their fondest memory."
McIlroy was among five major champions who were asked about their fondest memory of a major (excluding those they won).