Through Tiger Woods’s 11 years in the wilderness between major tournament wins, professional golf searched for a successor.

Would it be Phil Mickelson, the once-snakebit lefty who is actually older than Woods but who got over the hump in 2004 to become his most formidable early-career challenger? How about Rory McIlroy, the phenom from Northern Ireland, whose brutal collapse in the final round of the 2011 Masters was immediately followed by his first major championship? Or maybe Jordan Spieth, whose Masters win in 2015 tied Woods for the 72-hole record?

Ultimately, it ended up being all of them, and therefore none of them. Each had a handful of major tournament wins and at times looked as if he could dominate the sport. But none emerged as the next Tiger. Golf itself stagnated as Woods struggled, his shadow looming in a way that was almost as impactful as his presence had been for the previous decade.

Now that Woods is back on top, the question is whether the sport can take advantage of his twilight years to build something that survives when his career finally does end.