Big 5 Golf

[harrisw0921]

curious as to see what you guys think the current Big 5 of golf is (for the past few years up to current)?

combination of popularity, star power, world rankings, consistency, longevity...etc

who do you think belongs in the Big 5 and its close contenders

and I'd say 5 choices since most of the elite players are neck to neck nowadays

unlike arnie jack and gary or tiger phil and ernie

MY pick

Rory, Speith, DJ, Day, Fowler

Close contenders: Bubba (closest), Rose, Matsuyama, Garcia

Edited August 9, 2017 by harrisw0921

[MacDutch]

To me, there is no big 5.

Speith? 

Edited August 9, 2017 by MacDutch

[Wally Fairway]

DJ, Day each have 1 major, Rickie is still looking for his - not a Big 5.
Rory gets healthy and finds his distances control and there is a Big 2; IMO Rahm and/or Matusyama are next up as stars, but they need to do it in a major too.

[saevel25]

Here is a list over the past 6 years (including 2017)

Name	Top 10's	Wins
Jordan Spieth	48	11
Rory McIlroy	36	9
Dustin Johnson	42	8
Jason Day	21	8
Tiger Woods	17	8
Matt Kuchar	38	4
Hideki Matsuyama	23	4
Bubba Watson	18	4
Justin Rose	24	3
Adam Scott	19	3
Brandt Snedeker	17	3
Jimmy Walker	10	3
Zach Johnson	18	2
Ryan Moore	17	2
Henrik Stenson	16	2

The top 5 should be Spieth, Rory, DJ, Jason Day, and Tiger Woods ;)

They are the clear top 5 when you consider wins. Since Tiger is on the DL, it should be the top 4.

 

[MuniGrit]

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Here is a list over the past 6 years (including 2017)

Name	Top 10's	Wins
Jordan Spieth	48	11
Rory McIlroy	36	9
Dustin Johnson	42	8
Jason Day	21	8
Tiger Woods	17	8
Matt Kuchar	38	4
Hideki Matsuyama	23	4
Bubba Watson	18	4
Justin Rose	24	3
Adam Scott	19	3
Brandt Snedeker	17	3
Jimmy Walker	10	3
Zach Johnson	18	2
Ryan Moore	17	2
Henrik Stenson	16	2

The top 5 should be Spieth, Rory, DJ, Jason Day, and Tiger Woods ;)

They are the clear top 5 when you consider wins. Since Tiger is on the DL, it should be the top 4.

 

Where is Rickie? Oh yeah overrated because he is popular and a good guy.

[klineka]

12 hours ago, harrisw0921 said:

Close contenders: Bubba (closest), Rose, Matsuyama, Garcia

Bubba has been irrelevant this season. Only 2 top 10s and 6 missed cuts out of 19 tournaments.

Matsuyama has 7 top tens, with 4 wins and 3 runner ups, and 1 missed cut out of 17 tournaments this season alone!!

Based on @saevel25 list, Matsuyama has more top 10s over the past 6 years, and he is currently #3 in the world golf ranking and Bubba is currently #51. 

How can you possibly say that Bubba is the closest when two of your criteria are world rankings and consistency? Winning the same major twice  but not much else isnt exactly consistency

Edited August 9, 2017 by klineka

[saevel25]

19 minutes ago, klineka said:

Based on @saevel25 list, Matsuyama has more top 10s over the past 6 years, and he is currently #3 in the world golf ranking and Bubba is currently #51. 

How can you possibly say that Bubba is the closest when two of your criteria are world rankings and consistency? Winning the same major twice  but not much else isnt exactly consistency

Since he posted that before my post, maybe he didn't know. I wouldn't fault him much for basing it on just pulling a popular name out of a hat.

 

[Wally Fairway]

While I get saevel25's post - IMO looking back 6 years as a glimpse into the future is peering a wee bit to far back.
Here is the current OWGR, but sorted by the points earning in 2017; and while that is only taking into account this year it is another data set to consider.

 

[saevel25]

6 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

While I get saevel25's post - IMO looking back 6 years as a glimpse into the future is peering a wee bit to far back.
Here is the current OWGR, but sorted by the points earning in 2017; and while that is only taking into account this year it is another data set to consider.

Umm, the OP's question was this,

13 hours ago, harrisw0921 said:

curious as to see what you guys think the current Big 5 of golf is (for the past few years up to current)?

My answer was very much applicable to this thread. I looked at past performance and came up with a top 5 list, or top 4. I think there is a decent drop off in performance from JD, DJ, RM, & JS from the next set of players. Look at it this way. Matt Kuchar, in the next group of players. Always round the top 10. He got spanked by Spieth.

8 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

While I get saevel25's post - IMO looking back 6 years as a glimpse into the future is peering a wee bit to far back.
Here is the current OWGR, but sorted by the points earning in 2017; and while that is only taking into account this year it is another data set to consider.

So you would rather take one years rankings versus 6 years of consistency?

[Wally Fairway]

As you pointed out, going back 6 year includes Tiger in the Top 5. I don't think he is in the Big 5, as I believe you have to play to be in the Big 5. And by using OWGR it recognized golfs global footprint (Rory with 17 wins, not 9 and Stenson and Rickie with 5)

My list - based on the OP criteria (popularity, star power, world rankings, consistency, longevity...etc) would be - Spieth, Phil, Rory, Sergio and the last one is a reach because they don't hit all the categories, Matsuyama (or Stenson, but he has really fallen off this year).

[saevel25]

2 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

As you pointed out, going back 6 year includes Tiger in the Top 5. I don't think he is in the Big 5, as I believe you have to play to be in the Big 5. And by using OWGR it recognized golfs global footprint (Rory with 17 wins, not 9 and Stenson and Rickie with 5)

Well guess what, before Tiger got injured he won almost 50% of his events that year. That enough puts him above the 2nd wave of players over a 6 year period ;)

If you read my post, I took him off and say the list should be a top 4.

I would even say, if you want to use the OWGR, then take an average over at least the last 3-4 years. I say consistently in the top 10, plus multiple win seasons, maybe a few majors, makes a pretty solid top 4 list.

[chilepepper]

Things are so fluid on the tour I don't think I'd try to name a big 5.......and I like it that way

[harrisw0921]

10 hours ago, chilepepper said:

Things are so fluid on the tour I don't think I'd try to name a big 5.......and I like it that way

 

just that ever since TW fell out of dominance, there hadn't been a single spectacle in golf and the PGA tour's appeal is reliant on these group of "bigger" names hence this topic.

 

[ChrisP]

On 8/9/2017 at 11:47 AM, MuniGrit said:

Where is Rickie? Oh yeah overrated because he is popular and a good guy.

Fowler? Overrated? You don't say. How can you say that after all those majors he's piled up?

My Big 5 would be Spieth, Rory, DJ, Matsuyama and Day.

[NJpatbee]

On 8/10/2017 at 3:11 PM, ChrisP said:

Fowler? Overrated? You don't say. How can you say that after all those majors he's piled up?

My Big 5 would be Spieth, Rory, DJ, Matsuyama and Day.

I would agree with the above Big 5.  Fowler perhaps in the future.

[Wally Fairway]

On 8/10/2017 at 3:11 PM, ChrisP said:

Fowler? Overrated? You don't say. How can you say that after all those majors he's piled up?

Add another major Top 5 for RIckie this year, to go with his T5 at the US Open. A good year, but not quite up to his 2014 T5, T2, T2, T3.

Meh - Sergio had 20+ Top 10's before winning one, I'll give this RIckie guy a little bit longer too.
 

[Marty2019]

On 8/8/2017 at 11:55 PM, harrisw0921 said:

curious as to see what you guys think the current Big 5 of golf is (for the past few years up to current)?

combination of popularity, star power, world rankings, consistency, longevity...etc

who do you think belongs in the Big 5 and its close contenders

and I'd say 5 choices since most of the elite players are neck to neck nowadays

unlike arnie jack and gary or tiger phil and ernie

MY pick

Rory, Speith, DJ, Day, Fowler

Close contenders: Bubba (closest), Rose, Matsuyama, Garcia

It's interesting that you wrote that on Aug 8, and one week later, the projected PGA Player of the Year is not in your list of 5 or in your close contenders.  

Everyone was talking about "the big 3" a year or so ago, and since then, two of them haven't done much.