Who are those guys?

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Sergio Garcia, and others, are rising to a new level.

Every player on the PGA TOUR wants to be one of those guys.

You know who they are -- the players who seem to be in the mix every week. Obviously, Tiger is the best of those guys and will be until someone unseats him. I hate to quote Ric Flair but "to be the man you have to beat the man." And there is a driving range full of guys sharpening their tools and honing their skills in his absence hoping that a tamer Tiger returns to the PGA TOUR next year.

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The likely suspects, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh, have shown that at times they can upset the apple cart. Those guys are, well, those guys. When you see their names on a leaderboard you know that they aren't going to back up. To beat them you have to go get them. Right behind those guys, though, there are a group of young players who have started to emerge. These guys, led by Sergio Garcia, are quickly proving they, too, will be forces to be reckoned with in years to come. At 28, Sergio is still young in human years but certainly not in golf years. He has been on the scene for so long we tend to forget that his best golf is likely in front of him.

Now Sergio has company and these young guns are coming from all over the globe. The leaderboard at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola offered striking proof. On Saturday night Sergio led by three over Anthony Kim, the son of Korean immigrants, and five over Colombian Camilo Villegas. Anthony and Camilo both picked up their first two PGA TOUR victories this year in prestigious events. Camilo captured the final two events of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, including a come-from-behind win at East Lake on Sunday. Anthony ran away with the Wachovia Championship, a tournament that Tiger Woods was unable to defend after arthroscopic knee surgery. Later in the summer Anthony won AT&T National, which Tiger hosts and benefits his foundation.

If there is someone poised to challenge Tiger upon his return many believe that the uber-talented Kim is just the man. That's an awful lot to shoulder for a young man who trails Tiger by 62 career victories. One thing is certain, though, someone will inevitably break away from the peloton and try to chase down the No. 1 player in the world. But if you are going to challenge Tiger first you have to become one of those guys.

Sergio, at times, has shown that he is one. Until Sergio shows that he can win multiple times each season -- and wins a major -- he won't quite have the same mystique as some of the slightly brighter luminaries. Those guys win more often than not when they get the chance. Stewart Cink said early this season that Tiger has spoiled all of us in making winning on the PGA TOUR look easy. Actually, he has done more than that. He has created expectations of winning and lived up to even the loftiest.

But Tiger isn't the only player whose name raises expectations when it climbs onto leaderboards. With 34 PGA TOUR victories each, Phil and Vijay certainly raise the collective pulse of the golf world when they put themselves into contention. On Sunday at THE TOUR Championship, though, we saw the beginning of a changing of the guard. Anthony and Camilo showed categorically that they don't care whose name is on the leaderboard -- they just want to win golf tournaments. And what a show they put on with Phil and Sergio over the closing stretch at East Lake.

This was one more indication that we are finding answers to some important questions on the PGA TOUR. I don't really know what a q-rating is but I am pretty sure that Anthony's and Camilo's are pretty high. We already know that Sergio and Phil have popularity that reaches beyond the world of golf. If the flashy Villegas and the exuberant Kim continue on the paths they have forged early in their careers it seems like their respective popularity will know no bounds.

What we saw at East Lake were four guys who weren't thinking about second place. Villegas came storming back from double bogey-bogey on the front nine to shoot the low round of the day. The lead was shuffled among the four main contenders all day but in the end it was Camilo's second consecutive victory.

Winning multiple times in a single season isn't enough to make you one of those guys. If you can keep doing it, though, you move into that elite circle at the top of the PGA TOUR's food chain. But what I like most about these guys is that they are hungry for more and that is how you become one of those guys.

John Maginnes is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.