Since players and fans began to arrive at Bellerive Country Club on Monday, two main attractions have dominated conversations. There's the obvious one: 42-year-old Tiger Woods, his medically fused back and quest for lost glory, is playing in his first PGA Championship since 2015, here to punctuate a promising comeback season with his first tour victory in five years.
Then there's the Bellerive course itself and its 200 acres of sun-splashed grass, dry and patchy one day, soft and swampy the next.
Over the course of the next four days, the story of the tournament could shift back to what's been the story of American golf the last few years. The game's homegrown stars of the next generation have taken turns dominating courses, from one major championship to the next and, perhaps, again here this weekend.
A year ago, Justin Thomas, then just 24, hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy at Quail Hollow, continuing a year of major championships for American talents born in the 1990s. The trend has continued into 2018. Patrick Reed, 28, captured the Masters in April, followed by Brooks Koepka, 28, winning his second straight U.S. Open. Italy's Francesco Molinari broke up the party at the British Open, but nobody would be surprised if another American millennial captures the year's final major here Sunday.
Phil Mickelson, who at 48 has headcovers older than his peers on the tour, marveled at the rise of the young guns as he walked off the driving range Wednesday.
"It's a batch of young players who are winning tournaments and are classy and bring just a great energy to the game," Mickelson said. "Every era's had great players, but certainly they've been brought up with great instruction and they're very sound, fundamental players."
Of the 16 Americans ranked among the top 30 in the World Golf Rankings, nine are younger than 30. Four are 25 or younger, including two of the game's biggest stars, 25-year-olds Thomas and Jordan Spieth, the Nos. 2 and 8 players in the world.
The U.S. under-30 crowd has combined to win seven majors since 2014, with eight runner-up finishes. There's also 28-year-old Masters champion Patrick Reed, who along with Thomas and Koepka has secured a roster spot on the Ryder Cup team. Rickie Fowler, 28, is a three-time runner-up in the majors, the winner of the 2015 Players Championship, also known as the fifth major, and generally regarded as the best American yet to win a major championship. Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau are both 24 and will boost their Ryder Cup credentials with a strong week. Tony Finau, 28, is the world's only player to finish in the top 10 of the years' three other major tournaments.
And that's not counting 34-year-old Dustin Johnson, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, who unlike most of his future Ryder Cup teammates, actually experienced the 1980s.
Las Vegas likes the youngsters' chances. As of Wednesday, Johnson is front-runner -- 8-to-1 by Bovada.com -- but Thomas (14-1), Spieth (20-1), Koepka (20-1) and Fowler (22-1) are among the field's next six favorites.
Nobody seems happier with the upstart American talent than Jim Furyk, captain of the Ryder Cup team.
"They're more prepared to compete and win and challenge and be the best players in the world at such an early age," Furyk said. "I mean, you look down our list ... Koepka, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, all guys, I believe, under 30, Xander Schauffele. We have a bunch of young players that are prepared and mentally ready early."
"You just didn't see that 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago," Furyk, 48, added. "You saw a few guys, a Phil Mickelson, a Justin Leonard, and then it started jumping up to more. But now it seems like you have a lot more guys maybe not even finishing college, but coming out of college early or on time, but more prepared to be top players in the world and win golf tournaments. It's fun to watch. ... I think we have more good athletes. We have more depth playing the sport and the game.
"As a veteran player, being 48 ... I was a young gun when I was 26 or 27. It seems like now you look at 26 or 27 as developing late, and I was an early developer for my generation."
By the standards he set in 2015 with five tour wins and two majors, Spieth has slogged through a disappointing season, but a win Sunday would put him in elite company, securing the career Grand Slam. If Thomas takes home the Wanamaker, he'll become just the second PGA winner to repeat as champion, something only Woods has achieved. The 25-year-olds have been friends for years and often live together during tournaments, but Thomas is catching up in hardware with nine PGA Tour victories to Spieth's 11, including last week's Bridgestone Invitational.
"It seemed like Jordan pushed Justin to get going and now Justin's pushing Jordan to get going again," Davis Love III said. "I think they're going to go back and forth for quite a while and probably win a lot of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if both of them get the slam."
Why the recent surge for the young Americans? Spieth credited today's stronger junior golf circuits and their experiences in college programs -- Spieth played at Texas, Thomas at Alabama, Fowler at Oklahoma State -- as well as the amateur golf circuits that helped accelerate their careers faster than most of their predecessors on tour.
"I don't think that's going to change going forward," Spieth said.
There's also the Tiger factor. As children of the 1990s, Thomas, Spieth, Fowler and their peers grew up during the peak years of Woods' career, when he was the most dominant athlete in their sport -- or any sport. In 2000, 7-year-old Thomas attended the PGA Championship at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., Thomas' hometown, where he watched Woods beat Bob May in a playoff for his fifth major title. He was mesmerized and motivated.
"I don't remember a whole lot what I was thinking, but I do remember how cool it was, just hearing the roars and how many people and the shots that Tiger was hitting, the putts that he was making," Thomas said. "I remember ... man, I want to do this. Even at 7 years old."
Now, Thomas and his buddies are chasing Tiger's records, sharing his headlines and, in Thomas' case, joining him the next two days. He'll play alongside the 14-time major champion and Rory McIlroy, starting at 8:23 Thursday morning on hole No. 10.
For the top gun of the young guns, tee time is almost here.