On the day Tiger Woods signed another multi-million dollar deal - for between $20m to $25m (£12.5-£15.5m) over five years with the car giant Buick - details emerged of the US Ryder Cup players' charitable donations that have resulted from the summer's pay-for-play controversy. "They believe that they can win at a very early age and Aaron obviously proved that. "You have to have a totally different outlook as an older player and realise just how talented the young players are, and how mature they are. "The young players today, there's not a whole lot of intimidation," he said. Phil Mickelson won the Tucson Open in 1991 as an amateur and has been a frequent winner on the US tour but has yet to earn a major. Mark O'Meara was the US Amateur champion in 1979 but had to wait until aged 41 before winning the Masters and Open last year O'Meara saw Baddeley win on television in the States.

England's Luke Donald is the current NCAA champion in the States and has elected to finish his college degree, as did Matt Kuchar after grinning his way to high finishes at the Masters and US Open in 1998. College stars have not always fulfilled their potential. Scott Verplank was the reigning US Amateur champion when he won the Western Open in 1985 but has had to go back to the Qualifying School in recent years. Rose, who quit the amateur ranks after finishing fourth in the 1998 Open at Royal Birkdale, struggled for 18 months before earning his card for next season at the European tour school last month. They have given me the opportunity to play in events like this." In some ways, these kids are better off than the pros, who rarely have an chance to practice for eight hours a day for long periods.

There is always a corporate day, a course to design, business meetings to attend, not to mention all the travelling around the tours. Justin Rose showed how hard it is to adapt when he missed the cut in his first 21 tournaments as a professional. After his win, Rumford, a West Australian, said: "That's what it's all about That is what practising eight hours a day is for I owe a lot of my experience to the Australian Golf Union. Jones, a successful lawyer, would not recognise today's amateurs. Rather than golf being a hobby outside of work, the game is all they know.

Golfing bodies as well organised as the Australian Golf Union and the Swedish Federation give their youngsters all the opportunities they need to play and practice without having to earn a living. Francis Ouimet was 20 when he won the US Open at Brookline in 1913 and Gene Sarazen the same age when he won both the US Open and USPGA in 1922. Woods won the Masters in '97 at 21, taking the record for Augusta from Seve Ballesteros. Bobby Jones had won four US Opens and three Opens by the time he retired at the age of 28 in 1930. We have only just drawn breath from the stunning introduction into the professional ranks of Sergio Garcia, while the world's best player, by a country mile at the moment, Tiger Woods, is only 24 later this month. It is a little early to talk of Woods, Garcia and Baddeley as great a triumvirate as Nicklaus, Palmer and Player, but the game is no longer the preserve of the Pringle-sweatered thirtysomethings who appeared to dominate the tours over the last couple of decades. Golf has always thrown up its young prodigies, going right back to Young Tom Morris, who won four successive Opens before, following the death of his wife, he died, it is said, of a broken heart on Christmas Day 1875 at the age of 24.