Casey talks a good game but has yet to make a cut in a Major; Rose's bloom of last year has faded a little this term. Questions still remain about whether a self-confessed " headcase" like Poulter has the make-up to take the ultimate step up, while it's hard to imagine Faldo ever leading the party animal life of his vastly gifted 21-year-old protege Nick Dougherty, who failed to qualify here.
Yet Donald? You just know Faldo would have time for a man who gave this snapshot of himself yesterday. "I don't have much expression on the golf course, don't show too much emotion and just get down to business," Donald told me during an appointment with his team sponsors, Ralph Lauren. "I'd say I'm pretty selfsufficient and driven; I only seek advice when I need to and most of the time I think I can figure it out by myself. Maybe I'm just stubborn."
Make that young, gifted and stubborn - and who does that sound like? When he opens his challenge alongside Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia tomorrow, he reckons he won't be fazed but will see this as an opportunity to do what Rose did last year in the opening round at Muirfield - that is, get the home crowd roaring as an Englishman eclipses the Tiger.
In any case, eminent judges reckon he'll be mentioned in the same breath as his two partners soon. "I knew from the first time I saw him in the Walker Cup that he was a special player; very serious, down-to-earth and driven like a young Justin Leonard," reckoned Davis Love. "A player with the world at his feet," chipped in Tom Watson.
They've been saying this since a boy from High Wycombe went to college in the States and started eclipsing Woods's records. Then, when he made more history by becoming the first European golfer ever to win a US tour event in his rookie year last November, veterans of the circuit like Love reckoned they'd seen a young player who "doesn't just have talent but the whole package".
What they admire is that he's done it the hard way. Making your mark on the toughest tour of all, in Chicago while missing your friends and family, may well have somehow given him an edge of hardness over his old mates. Even they sense that Donald really may possess the x-factor which will perhaps transport him to the top quicker than them.
People like Justin and Paul are still ranked higher than me right now," he reflected. "But it's nice to know they think I'm the one who might succeed the fastest - and I'd like to think I have the opportunity to do that too. One thing's for sure; having so many good players like them coming through at the same time spurs us all on, but I don't see it in terms of competition. It's about being the best I can be."
He admits to being very different to the friends he only sees rarely because of his US commitments. His only obvious nod to golf 's supposedly more youthful image comes with the blond highlights in his hair. "All good clean fun," he says. "Players who want to change the image of themselves and their game through their golf, that's fine with me."
He was asked if Faldo had ever given him help with his game and offered a wry smile. Well, he said, Nick was a nice guy but probably not the sort to openly volunteer advice. But then, he wasn't the sort to really seek it either. You couldn't help feeling that here were two of a kind.
