The gripping battle to be golf's world No 1 takes to Bay Hill this week with Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Scottie Scheffler all vying for position at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
It was McIlroy who began 2023 on top following a searing finish to the season last year, only for Masters champion Scheffler to displace him by winning the Phoenix Open. Rahm has now taken over though, following his exhilarating win at the Genesis Invitational, birdying two of the final four holes to edge out Max Homa.
It's the first time in history that three separate players have reached top spot in a calendar year before we've reached March. And the fascinating battle is exactly what the PGA Tour needs in its continued battle with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour.
The permutations for all three players are less than straightforward, but McIlroy himself has lauded the situation: "I’m just happy to be in that conversation," he said, via AP News . "If I was purely a fan of the game and I see what’s going on, especially at the top, I think it’s a pretty cool thing."
And he was full of praise for the consistency of his two rivals: "If it’s not a win, they’re contending," he added. "Very rarely have you seen these guys in the past 12 or 18 months outside of the top 10, top 15, top 20. So just that relentless consistency week after week, month after month, building a really great body of work."
McIlroy will be looking for a return to the sublime form that saw him finish 2022 at the top of the rankings. He began the year in style, winning the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, but has been outside the top-25 in both PGA Tour events thus far.
It' Scheffler who will head in as defending champion, after holding on to win by a stroke from Billy Horschel, Tyrell Hatton, and Viktor Hovland last year. And PGA players will tee off on Thursday amid much media frenzy over the announced changes to their tour for 2024.
Commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed on Tuesday that a number of no-cut, limited-field events will be added to the 2024 schedule in what appears a direct response to the threat of LIV. The Tour will host eight designated 'elevated' tournaments with field sizes set between 70 and 78 players.
The move has been mocked by LIV Golf chiefs who described it as "imitation." Defectors Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, who were among two of the first players to make the controversial move, have also taken aim at the changes.
