London: Sir Nick Faldo has declared that golf’s depth of talent is one of its key strengths after the four majors were lifted by first-time champions for the second time this decade. Jimmy Walker completed the set, joining Danny Willett, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson in this maiden-breakers class of 2016.

The 37-year-old’s one-shot victory over Jason Day in the US PGA Championship on Sunday will inevitably lead to critics questioning the calibre at the top of the sport, with the so-called “big three” – Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy – failing to live up to the billing that they would dominate the majors. Yet Faldo believes it is testament to the quality that runs through the sport.

“Jimmy held off Day and, if you look at Stenson, Johnson and Willett, they all had established major champions in their wake,” Faldo said, in his role as CBS analyst.

“The talent now goes so deep that it is getting hard for anyone to separate themselves. There are so many players who can win and it makes it very exciting.”

The same occurred in 2011 and 2003 and, on each occasion, there was a rush to explain the phenomenon. Advances in technology and sports science have made the margins finer but that does not mean there has been a recession in drama.

Indeed, in this post-Tiger Woods parity era, anything but.

Day eagling the 18th to force Walker to make a par, and the latter then inexplicably going for the par-five green in two before having to hack it out of thick rough and holing a nervy three-footer, was a fitting finale to a major campaign full of incident; from Spieth’s meltdown at Augusta, to Johnson’s rules-rumpus breakthrough at Oakmont; to Stenson’s classic Open duel with Phil Mickelson.

Walker is a worthy member of the quartet. The unassuming Texan waited 187 PGA Tour starts to win his first title, but four years later has six, including this major. Walker was one of the few Americans to impress at the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles two years ago and Davis Love will be glad to have him in his ranks at Hazeltine.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Walker said. “It would be great to get back on the team. I remember when I left [Gleneagles], I did an interview and said I never want to miss another one again.”

Yet, while Walker’s rise has been a triumph for perseverance and patience, it has also been a success for Butch Harmon, Woods’s former coach. And this is the area in which two figures have monopolised 2016. The same as the Yorkshireman Pete Cowen, Harmon boasted two major winners this year, Walker adding to Johnson’s US Open.

“There were some mechanical changes we had to make; those were easy,” Harmon said, reflecting on the relationship which began in April 2013. “I had to make him believe how good he was. He wasn’t sure he was as good as I thought he could be. The last thing I said to him as he left the range [on Sunday] was, ‘Just go out and show them who Jimmy Walker is.’”