Patrick Reed wins the green jacket at the US Masters - but there's a bigger story

Patrick Reed wins the green jacket at the US Masters - but there's a bigger story

Patrick Reed receives the green jacket after winning the Masters in Augusta, Georgia

Every sport needs its superstars, and the biggest names in golf are back at the top table.

Patrick Reed has the legendary green jacket and deservedly so after dodging the slings and arrows of final round fortune amid the beautiful azaleas and treacherous greens of the Augusta National.

But there is a bigger story to emerge from the 2018 Masters, the first of the year's four major golf tournaments.

For all that he was ultimately found wanting when the going got tough, Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy announced his return to golf's top table.

Image: Rory McIlroy hits off the 4th tee during the final round of play

And the star of the final day was Jordan Spieth, the American shooting a 64 to finish within two shots of the winner.


McIlroy and Spieth, the two men most often talked about as The Next Tiger.

What's more, the real Tiger Woods is back as well. Never threatening to win, but finishing with a 69 to suggest that he may yet - at the age of 42 and after much surgery - add to his 14 major titles.

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Why does this matter?

Because every sport needs its superstars.

Image: Jordan Spieth finished with a 64 within two shots of the winner

The people who run tennis have been actively pondering for at least three years what happens when the lights finally go out on the exceptional era of Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and the seemingly indestructible Roger Federer.

Similar questions are starting to be posed in football, with Cristiano Ronaldo now 33 and Lionel Messi 30.

There is massive vacancy in athletics with Usain Bolt retired and no one yet certain whether Mo Farah can match on the marathon roads what he achieved on the track.

And cricket could do without one of its golden stars self-destructing as Australia's captain Steve Smith did over the ball-tampering scandal.

Image: Tiger Woods is back after surgery and at the age of 42

But with four wheels restored to Tiger's wagon and McIlroy and Spieth back on track, golf is sitting pretty again in its bid for its share of the headlines, the sponsorship cake and boost to youth participation in the playstation era.

That process will win further impetus when Europe try to regain the Ryder Cup from the United States in Paris in September - with that trio's names in lights.