AUGUSTA, Ga. » If this is the future of golf, it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry.

The new wraparound season on the PGA Tour has produced only two multiple winners in 21 official events, and their names aren’t Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. Both of those future hall of famers failed to make it through for a weekend date at the Masters for the first time since 1994, leaving Augusta National crowds as threadbare as the course’s pine trees that survived the wintry ice storms.

To get an idea how desperate the patrons were to follow someone they knew, the largest gallery was reserved for Rory McIlroy, and he teed off first as the last man surviving Friday’s cutline. The odd man out on the two-man pairing list of 51 competitors, the former world No. 1 played with Masters marker Jeff Knox, who shot a 70 to Rory’s 71.

That’s how it has gone this year for the game’s greats, who were noticeably absent from the leaderboard in Saturday’s who’s-that-guy third round. Granted, 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson and fellow Americans Matt Kuchar, Rickie Fowler and Jim Furyk are widely enough known among casual fans, but Furyk’s only major came at the U.S. Open in 2003, while Kuchar and Fowler have yet to win one.

Add relative unknowns Thomas Bjorn, Jonas Blixt and Miguel Angel Jimenez to the Masters mix and you likely had a lot of folks reaching for the channel-changer to see what was on ESPN.

Early on, Watson had a chance to run away and hide, particularly after hitting his second shot to within 3 feet at the par-5 second for a kick-in eagle.

But as Bubba has been known to do, his mental game wandered off course with three bogeys over the next six holes and suddenly that four-shot advantage was gone with the Augusta wind.

We all knew change was a possibility with a record 24 Masters rookies in the field, including 20-year-old man-child Jordan Spieth. The young Texan gave Maui golf fans a glimpse of greatness by taming the Plantation Course at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January. He followed up that second-place finish by missing the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Those who watched him play those six rounds, however, have a chance to say they knew him when.

Paired with defending champion Adam Scott, it was Spieth who was cool, calm and collected coming down the back stretch to shoot a 2-under 70 compared to Scott’s woeful 76. Now he is tied for first, in the final pairing with Watson for Sunday’s pressure-packed fourth round. How he handles himself at such a young age could go a long way in determining which direction golf is headed in the good, old USA. 

Because let’s face it folks, Woods and Mickelson are nearing the end. This year’s multiple winners — Sony Open champ Jimmy Walker and Patrick Reed — aren’t their likely replacements, despite Reed’s recent proclamation of being among the top five in the world. Reed failed to make the cut on Friday and Walker, who has won three times this season, fell hard on Saturday with a 4-over 76.

The 54-hole leaderboard is a microcosm of the new PGA, just a collection of touring pros trying to find their way in golf’s wilderness. That can’t be good for a sport in search of the next big thing. Is Spieth the answer, as McIlroy was thought to be before him? Sunday might go a long way in giving us that answer.

Reach Paul Arnett at parnett@staradvertiser.com or 529-4786.