A New Big 3?

That's the buzz, isn't it? A new golden age of golf dawning right here in 2012.

Phil Mickelson has long been compared to Arnold Palmer -- the swashbuckling gunslinger who attacks the course with ruthless abandon.

Tiger Woods has long been compared to Jack Nicklaus -- the methodical strategist who dissects the course (and the field) with cold calculating logic.

And now (I think it was Jack who said it over the weekend, but I don't remember for sure) I heard someone compare Rory McIlroy to Gary Player -- the smallest of the original Big 3, a globetrotting international player who had a game much bigger than his very athletic frame.

The Big 3 were TV gold during the early 60s. I found this photo of them from 1962. The caption on the photo notes that the Big 3 won 34 majors in a span of 28 years. (Clearly the caption is part of a much later Rolex promotion.)



Here's the only footage I could find on YouTube of the old TV show. But for those of you who have never seen any of Big Three Golf (GC reran it for a while), this will give you an idea what the show was like. (BTW, only part of the video is in slow motion.)



I don't know if a new golden era of golf is really on the horizon... but it's certainly causing a lot of speculation. If nothing else, it's going to be fun.

And we'll get our first taste of it tomorrow at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Let's see if it lives up to the hype.

The photo comes from the Rolex blog.