Day Wins The Players: R.I.P. Big Three, Big Four?

It was so fun while it lasted! But just as soon as we had settled whether to capitalize, numericize, trademark or copyright the Big's, Jason Day's brilliance joined forces with Spieth/McIlroy/Fowler inconsistencies to render a temporary halt on all inane labels. At least for this month.

As many of the scribes reporting on his 2016 Players win note, you get the sense Day has made all of the right scheduling moves, has his personal life in a place that will allow him to exceland is best positioned for a great summer. He's not Baker's Bay cool, so there is that.

Mark Cannizzaro is the first to burst Big bubbles.

But the reality right now — and it was accentuated this week at Sawgrass — is this: Day is “The Big One.’’ He stands alone as the best player in the world until further notice.

The gap between him and Spieth, who missed the cut this week, and McIlroy, who finished eight shots behind him, is widening.

Like Woods always did, Day, who communicates with Woods frequently, seems to have a more intense desire to remain at the top than Spieth and McIlroy, who were No. 1 before him.

Gary Van Sickle is (almost) ready to declare the Big Three/Four dead.

You heard it here first: The Big Three may be dead. Now it looks more like a Big One—Day, your Players champ and three-time winner this year—and a Medium-Large Two—Jordan Spieth, he of the Augusta Hangover, and Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland’s champion footballer.

Day has six wins in less than a year. He struggled all weekend with his game and, gee, he still won by four. He is not only one of the game’s longest hitters but he’s near the top in putting stats. That combo, barring 12-handicap iron play, is close to unbeatable.

As GolfChannel.com's Randall Mell points out, Day's ability to play well on a variety of courses, including the one that played a few radically different ways last week.

He seemed to win on two different courses, with changing conditions making  the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course such an extremely different  test on the weekend. His ability to navigate the diverse tests is a testament to the growing versatility of his game. He is honing more tools than Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. He has a power game Spieth can’t match, and he’s continuing to refine a dependable short game that McIlroy can’t yet consistently match.

Rex Hoggard was most impressed with Day winning minus his A game.

He didn’t look like a man on a mission. There was no swagger, no abundance of confidence that he was playing a different game, although there rarely is with Jason Day, just a cautious optimism born from the fact he’s been here before.

Alan Shipnuck of Sports Illustrated on the sudden gap between Day and friends.

Rory can't putt, his 100-yard game is a mess, he seems to battle a stretch of ennui at every tournament. Spieth is fighting his swing, he's had a chance to win the last three majors and failed pretty spectacularly at two of them. Meanwhile, Day has no weaknesses in his game and is playing with a ton of confidence. I can see him putting the hammer down and really separating himself. In fact, he's already done it.

Alex Myers on the astounding numbers.

No one else has more than two wins during the time Day has picked up his last seven titles. He’s just the fourth player to have multiple wire-to-wire (without ties) wins in the same season and he’s the first to have three such victories in a nine-month span. And with each win, his desire to get better grows.

“I've never been more motivated to be No. 1 in the world. I've never been more motivated to try to extend that lead from one to two,” Day said. “All the hard work that I've put into my game right now has paid off, but I've got to keep working hard to win as much as I can.”

And one more number from PGATour.com's Helen Ross:

...joins Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and David Duval as the only players who reached double digits in victories before turning 29.

That said, Day hadn't exactly been among the favorites entering THE PLAYERS.

The highlights from PGA Tour Entertainment: