Heroes from the era of Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie must take full responsibility for influencing the current crop of Englishmen peppering the top of the world rankings.
According to Paul Casey (world no.6), these players - along with Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal have helped shape and inspire England's ten players in the world's top 70, most of whom, especialli Ian Poulter (No.5) and Lee Westwood (No.6) are in with a chance of winning the WGC CA Championship event at Doral this weekend.
"I think it's the result of the great European golf that I was watching when I was a kid," Casey tells AFP news. "(Nick) Faldo, Seve (Ballesteros), (Ian) Woosnam, (Bernhard) Langer, (Sandy) Lyle, Monty - these guys were my golfing heroes. Olazabal was quite young but he was part of that movement, too.
"I wasn't old enough to see Nicklaus, Watson, Player and Palmer but those Europeans got me interested in the game. And if you asked the other Englishmen who have now risen in the world rankings, that was the reason they got hooked, too.
"I's just that it has taken 20 years or so for us to hone our skills. Overnight success always takes 10 or 20 years. It seems very quick but it has been quite a long time."
Now the Englishmen are all aiming to become the first major champion of their generation.
"It's a bit of a race because we all want to win a major and we want to be the first guy to do it [since Nick Faldo]," Casey says.
Other English in the top 70 are Ross Fisher (23), Luke Donald (24), Oliver Wilson (36), Simon Dyson (54), Justin Rose (58) and Chris Wood (69).
With 24 Europeans in this week's field the American contingent are almost outnumbered and looking unlikely to challenge strongly - especially with their No.1 Phil Mickelson refusing to show before his practice round later today.
