While fans may keep debating who the greatest golfer is, Gary Player had his answer ready.

As a former member of the 'Big Three', Gary Player dropped his picks of the golf top three just a few weeks ago, and Tiger Woods isn't in the number 1 spot.

"Jack is number one, Tiger number two, and I'm number three. There's not even a question."

Player made it clear how he made his picks. "How I judge the best players of all time is I say, 'there's the record book. That's the only way. It's the record book that's on paper. And Nicklaus has got the best record. There's no question."

And based on records, he's not wrong. Nicklaus beats Woods when it comes to numbers. 18 major championships against Woods' 15, 73 major top 10s against Woods' 41, and 19 major runner-ups against Woods' 7.

But Gary Player doesn't stop there, he explains why he ranks higher than Palmer

During his professional golfing run on the PGA Tour, Gary Player won 24 times in 449 starts. He also amassed more than 160 professional wins throughout the world.

On the flip side, Palmer has 62 victories on the PGA Tour in 703 starts. However, his worldwide wins account for only 95. It’s impressive, but significantly lower than that of Player. Furthermore, Player has two more major championship wins than Jones and Palmer. It's why Player thinks he should be ranked higher.

"When they judge players, it's quite interesting, they put Bobby Jones and Arnold (Palmer) ahead of me. You can't tell me that an amateur golfer has a record that I have in golf. His record is not close to mine. You look at Arnold's record, it's not close to mine."

While he has his perspective on the greatest players, who do you think are golf's top three players? Let us know in the comments!

Written by

Krushna Pattnaik

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar