Leadbetter: There is no comparison with the real Big Three

Decades on from their heyday the Big Three of Player, Palmer and Nicklaus are still revered. Leadbetter thinks McIlroy, Spieth and Day don’t come close to the legends.

Leadbetter doesn’t buy into the theory that “Jason Day, on the other hand, is very McIlroy’s self- inflicted time away from the mechanical, with the modern, power golf game due to the injury sustained in a footswing. ball kickabout with friends last year has in “Of the three, I would say Rory has more any way affected his golf swing. shots in his armoury than Jason or Jordan. “Oh no,” he exclaims. “Rory still has “He also hits the ball so high, that it will that beautiful motion – what I stop no matter where it hits the green.” would call a dead- slow momenWhile that will certainly be a bonus at tum in his swing – and it is a Oakmont, Leadbetter points out that so thing of beauty. often the winner is a dark horse, with the all

“It is free- flowing, it is fluid. round tools to get the job done. But he does at times have one “I look at Lee Janzen and Andy North as or two issues to deal with, even prime examples. Both won the US Open the great Jack Nicklaus was not twice,” he points out. immune to swing flaws at times. “I think Phil Mickelson will be a factor as “But Rory can drop the club – he chases that elusive title, and former what we call the plane coming winner Webb Simpson has found his game down, with the end result of a block or again, having been one of the players really a hook – and that is something that could be affected by the change from the long very costly at Oakmont. putter.

“But he does have the added bonus of hav“As William McGirt showed at The ing his coach with him, someone who’s been Memorial last Sunday, the depth in rich talat his side since he was a kid, so in many ent nowadays means a shock result is always ways he is old style. just 72 holes away!”

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