WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- When Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were asked about the latest edition of golf's Big Three, it was Lee Trevino who answered first.
"Who?" he asked.
Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day, a reporter informed him. To which Trevino, who's not a member of the original Big Three but has six majors to his name, started counting off the major wins for golf's modern-day top trio.
The number is seven, a far cry from Palmer's, Nicklaus' and Player's combined 34. But, as was pointed out to Trevino, Spieth, McIlroy and Day have to start somewhere.
Four of the most legendary names in golf were gathered Friday morning at a ground-breaking ceremony for a new 18-hole mountain course here at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs that will overlook the nine-hole Oakhurst Links. The course they're designing -- the first time all four have worked together on a project -- won't be replacing Oakhurst, considered to be the birthplace of American golf. It'll simply be an updated, modern complement.
Just as Spieth, McIlroy and Day would be to Palmer, Nicklaus and Player.
"I think golf has an interesting future in front of it," Nicklaus said. "I think these guys are the future."
And, at this point, Spieth is leading the charge into 2016 with wins at the Masters and U.S. Open, a second-place finish at the PGA Championship and a fourth-place showing at the British Open.
"Absolutely remarkable," Player said. "But also Jordan Spieth is also such a wonderful young man. That impresses me."
Like Nicklaus, Player is optimistic about the future of the sport, especially with the new Big Three at its helm.
"Golf is very, very healthy," Player said. "Who will be the best out of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth? Time will tell.
"I think Rory McIlroy and Jason Day have a better swing than Jordan Spieth, but Jordan Spieth has a better short game. And in my career, the people with the best short games have turned out to be the best. But golf is an unpredictable game."
Nicklaus wouldn't limit the future of the PGA Tour to just Spieth, McIlroy and Day. He tossed out Daniel Berger and Patrick Rodgers as two other young pros who could soon join their elite level. But Nicklaus doesn't think the immediate future of the game can be limited to just the youngest generation on the PGA Tour. He feels Phil Mickelson still has plenty of golf left in him.
Then there's Tiger Woods.
"I think Tiger will be back," Nicklaus said.
However, when he does return, regardless of the level he's playing at, Woods won't be casting a shadow over the likes of Spieth, McIlroy, Day, Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson.
"You got some other guys who are really fine players, [who have] now have played a couple of years where actually they haven't been in Tiger's shadow and they've been able to do their own thing," Nicklaus said. "And they've sort of risen to the top."
As Trevino listened to Nicklaus break down the "very, very healthy" state of tournament golf, he waited to share his insight on the challenges of today's golfers navigating a world of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook that he experiences only from outside the ropes. Long gone are the days of a U.S. Open champion talking with two reporters under a funeral tent and having a margarita at the bar 45 minutes after walking off 18, as Trevino said happened in 1968.
"The difficult thing that I look at -- and we were speaking about this yesterday or this morning -- with players like Jordan and Jason and Rory, is that there'll be so much demand on their time now.
"It's a real tough thing," Trevino added. "Everybody's got a recorder. Everybody's got a camera. It's a tough deal for them. I don't know who's going to be able to handle that best. That's the thing: It's a tough situation but I love watching them."