[Brian Swartz]

So we have two Top-100 teenagers. That's definitely a record. Claudio Altichierro(87th) has been mentioned before. And also, Odimos Csollang(96th), who is insanely young at less than 19 and a half. Sure seems that more people are developing strong players these days.

On that subject, I've never seen as many 8.3 and up developing players as we have right now. Usually those slots are more guys in the Hakanson/Todhunter range. Sort of throws the usual calculus out the window. In a couple of years, we could easily have an entire Top 10 full of 8.5 - 8.65 or so players filling out after Perez, which is why I'm so pessimistic on Kasaravalli. In terms of depth of strong players, not necessarily elite ones but a step or two below that, this has a good chance to be the most competitive era the tour has ever seen by a healthy margin. It is not a good time to be breaking through. I'm curious to see whether this trend continues.