Greg Norman put the full stop on a renaissance for golf in this country when shortly after the recent Australian Open he declared the sport was ''in great hands with Adam Scott and Jason Day''.
It should then come as equally great comfort for Norman to know that the next in line to take the baton and become the future of Australian golf are indeed ready to run.
The ''no names'' we've heard dotted throughout a dream summer, one dominated by Scott's pursuit of the triple crown and Day's breakout World Cup triumph, are worth remembering.
Those who should know say, with confidence more than hope, that rising stars such as Nathan Holman, Ryan Ruffels and Jack Wilson have what it takes to be the next Scott, Day or Geoff Ogilvy.
There are others, too, like US-based Australian Oliver Goss, who put his name on the national platform playing with Scott in last year's Australian Masters and next year will get to tee up in the US Masters, when Scott defends his green jacket at Augusta.
Wilson was the unknown 23-year-old trainee from Kingswood Golf Club who bolted in the final round of this year's PGA Championship on the Gold Coast to finish third behind Scott and runner-up Rickie Fowler.
But Wilson could yet become much more, as Scott later forecast, pondering whether ''we could be looking at one of Australia's next great golfers''.
Wilson also won the West Australian PGA Championship the month before his come-out-party on the Gold Coast - the first trainee to win an Australasian Tour event - and was runner-up in the NSW Open the week after the Australian Masters.
It was at the Masters where another 20-something who grew up idolising Scott unexpectedly stepped up to the plate.
Nathan Holman is his name. A natural athlete from Parkdale, he used his local knowledge of Royal Melbourne to surge to the lead of the country's second-biggest tournament - in just his fifth as a professional - and set up a day-three showdown with the world No.2.
Holman eventually slipped out of the top 10 over the weekend. But it was his ability to stay afloat in a one-on-one duel with Scott, in front of galleries the size of which he would have only walked in, not played in front of, that moved the reigning US Masters champion to label Holman the pick of Australian golf's ''generation next''.
Holman's coach, Marty Joyce, this week recalled a conversation he had with Steve Williams, Scott's caddy and probably the most famous bagman in the world after his association with Tiger Woods.
''He said he has seen a lot of players over the last 28 years and he was quite open with the fact that he thought that this bloke Nathan Holman is a serious player. As far as he was concerned, he could be the real deal,'' Joyce said.
Joyce, the head golf coach for the Victorian Institute of Sport, has seen his fair share of young talent come and go and has become pretty good at sorting out who will make it, and who won't.
Joyce believes Holman has what it takes to be great in a game where there are lots of great players and even they don't all taste major glory.
While he might not have banked a cheque like Wilson's $84,000 payday at the PGA Championship, Holman did manage to finish in the top 15 in the ''big three'' Australian majors.
For someone who only had just turned professional, it was an accomplishment of consistency.
His ninth-place finish at the Open at Royal Sydney was an example of what Joyce believes sets players like Holman and Wilson apart from the rest, a respect for the game's history.
''I always used to tape the Australian golf summer and watch it over and over again on video,'' Holman recalled.
''When I went to the Australian Open last week, I had never played Royal Sydney before but because I had taped the 2006 Open, I could pretty much recall every single hole just from watching it as a kid.''
For good friends Holman and Wilson, 2013 was about confirming what everyone else was saying - that they are good enough. Next year will be about taking on the world.
Both men hope to gain full Asian Tour status in 2014, and use that as a springboard to late next year hit qualifying school for the European Tour - the second biggest circuit behind the USPGA Tour - an opportunity they earned with high finishes in the Australasian Tour Order of Merit this summer.
Both agree that spending quality time in Europe is key, for the array of events in different countries and conditions will force them to develop an all-encompassing skill set.
It is that all-round game that wins majors, and is the same path Australia's greats like Norman and Scott trod rather than trying to rush for the ''big time''.
The US Tour is on the radar, but only when Holman and Wilson master the physical and mental side of the game to the point where their world ranking puts them into the top 50.
Joyce, who is in almost daily communication with both players, is bullish on their chances for prolonged success.
Firstly, Holman. ''He is technically as sound as anyone in the world for his age, and I'm happy to vouch for that,'' Joyce said.
In many ways, Holman embodies the future that golf officials hope ''the Adam Scott effect'' has created this summer. It was hoped that Scott's celebrated homecoming would give the next batch of talented teenagers and 20-somethings a reason to transfer their gifts to a fairway, rather than football or cricket.
Holman could have easily pursued an AFL career. As an under-18 he was not only a golf prodigy, but was also on the list of TAC Cup club Sandringham Dragons.
Thankfully for Australian golf, Holman chose to walk a path that diverged from the one taken by most of his sport-minded friends. But doing so presented its challenges.
''It's hard, because you are looked down on as a kid going through school playing golf,'' Holman said.
''It's not a contact sport, it's not footy, so you get called soft, and I definitely got bullied through school. It's something that is not noted enough.''
Not that he's complaining. This summer Wilson earned nearly $110,000 in prize money.
''You look back at all those people who were calling you names and I guess you're pretty happy with where you are,'' he said.
Aside from his physical skill, it is mental toughness that Joyce thinks will hold Wilson in good stead on the professional circuit. ''He's one of the hardest-working athletes you'll find, not just a golfer,'' Joyce said. ''He looks like he is always fired up and pretty tense, well, he's just so motivated to be good.''
Growing up in Echuca across the road from a golf course, it seems now that Wilson was destined to carve out a livelihood with a golf club.
But his rise has been different to Holman's. Not always picked in representative sides, Wilson took the ''trainee'' route, yet finished up in the same place - at the VIS where they have everything they need.
Joyce said his role was to educate the likes of Holman, Wilson, and soon Ruffels, about the patience required to make a career in golf, and ensure this current crop, regarded as the best for a long time, delivers the next golden age, rather than fall into the traps of previous generations.
''Most guys can go two or three years without a win, and you've got to understand that,'' Joyce said.
''Instead of sticking with their plan and team and just getting better at what you are doing, a lot of guys try to change things. But when you change things, you start again.''
Over in the US, Goss is doing it a different way, although the excitement over what he could mean for the sport in Australia is no less diminished.
After winning the West Australian Open in 2012, the 19-year-old amateur set his sights on the college program at Tennessee and next year will play in the US Masters by virtue of being a finalist at this year's US Amateur Championship.
He and fellow West Australian Brady Watt were the cream of Australia's amateur pool. But 23-year-old Watt - once the No.1 amateur in the world - has just turned professional and will join Holman and Wilson in attacking the Asian Tour.
Then there is Ruffels - an outrageous talent at just 15, who could be the leader of the generation after Holman and co.
He emerged as a major story at Royal Sydney, drawing plenty of media attention and sending officials scrambling for the record books as he became one of the youngest players to make the cut at an Australian Open.
Described as maybe the best junior talent since Day, the Victorian schoolboy also drew a comparison from Rory McIlroy.
''You're like me, just nine years younger,'' McIlroy told Ruffels after winning the Open.
Joyce goes a step further: ''I've said it openly, I think he's the best 15-year-old on the planet''.
The danger is that a mind so young finds it difficult to deal with such expectations. Ruffels would not be the first prodigy to suffocate under intense hype.
However if ever a kid had the support network to overcome the burden, Joyce said Ruffels' was it. His parents were both professional tennis players - father Ray was a three-time Australian Davis Cup representative and three-time Australian Open semi-finalist, while his mother, Anna Maria Fernandez-Ruffels, was a US Federation Cup player who won five doubles titles on the WTA Tour.
''Mentally, he's miles ahead of any 15-year-old I've seen,'' Joyce said.
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