Golf's New Big Three Ready For Masters Duel

It usually takes two to tango, but professional golf has always been a lot more fun when three players, at the top of their games for a protracted period of time, are going at each other’s throats.

We have seen that from the days of the Great Triumvirate – British golfers Harry Vardon, John Henry Taylor, and James Braid – who dominated the Open Championship and combined to win it 16 times between 1894 and 1914.

A better-known ‘Big Three’ was that of Masters founder and the greatest amateur to have ever played the game, Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, and Gene Sarazen in the 1920s.

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player in the 1960s and 70s were, without doubt, the greatest ever Big Three of all-time. They passed on the mantle to Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Phil Mickelson in early 2000s.

If the last couple of years are any indication, golf is on the verge of getting its new Big Three – defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm.

Their CVs may still not look as impressive as some of the above-mentioned gentlemen, but it is a work in progress. After all, Scheffler is just 26 years old, Rahm is 28 and while McIlroy may have been around forever, he is only 33.

On the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), the trio is now No1, 2, and 3, with the third-ranked Rahm enjoying nearly a two-point advantage (that’s a lot in OWGR calculations) over the fourth-ranked Patrick Cantlay. Very rarely have the top-three separated themselves from the chasing pack in such a fashion.

Since the beginning of 2022, they have played a combined 89 tournaments, won 16 titles, finished second eight times, and have recorded a total of 52 top-10s.

In the first seven weeks of 2023, Rahm won three titles on the PGA Tour, while Scheffler has won twice in the last seven weeks. McIlroy, who is looking for an elusive Green Jacket to complete his career grand slam, started the year with a win in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and looked in great touch in beating Scheffler and finishing third in the WGC-Dell Match Play.

“I just think it is down to consistency – you had Jon beating up everybody starting the year, and I had a little run there with Phoenix and the Players and Rory is up there like he seemingly always is,” said Scheffler, who had shown hot form early last year and won four titles, including the Masters, in six starts.

McIlroy felt that the intense competition between the three was only making them better.

“It just seems like every week that we’re playing, one of us three has got a chance to win that tournament. And that’s the level we all want to be at,” said McIlroy.

“I think that for me, seeing those two guys consistently performing at that level just pushes me to want to be better. A lot of that is just good, healthy competition, and hopefully we’ll continue to elevate ourselves through that competition.”

Rahm acknowledged they have been dominant forces in golf the past year, but it would be too early to bracket them into a ‘Big Three’ and compare them to some of the other threesomes that have illuminated the sport over the years.

“I would say you can call us that if we can do it for at least five-plus years like many of those players did. Even while Tiger was on his run in the 2000s, Phil and Vijay still managed to win 45 and 20-plus times themselves in that time frame,” countered the Spaniard.

“So, I think for us to be compared to something like that, we have a very long way to go. This could be the start, but still a long way to go.”

Rahm may have his reasons, but it’s rare for top three players in the world heading into a major championship in such sublime form. Drama and the Masters have always gone hand in hand, but the new ‘Big Three’ can just ramp everything up several notches this year.

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