In regard to the emergence of a young, serious rival to Tiger, while that would be great for the game, it just doesn’t seem very likely to happen, if by “serious rival” we mean a young player who can start winning majors by his mid-20s and rack up 4 or more by the time he’s 30. Obviously, nobody has done that since Tiger came on the scene and, before that, the list of young guns who have reached that level of success at such a young age is impressively short: Ballesteros, Watson, Nicklaus, Player, Palmer, Jones, Sarazen, and Hagen. In order for such a titan to emerge and really compete with (rather than follow in the footsteps of) Tiger, they are going to have to start pretty soon, as Tiger is already 33. Most of the guys on your list are already closing in on 30.

Of course, guys like McIllroy and Kim are young enough to accomplish practically anything in their careers. However, I think it’s likely that Tiger will reach his 40s without having to share the limelight with any new steamrolling superstar. By that time, Tiger will be safely enshrined as a legend and it won’t make much difference to his stature in the game if Rory or Anthony happen to have reached the level of 5 careers majors.