Golf's Big Three was supposed to own 2016. Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy had accounted for five of the last seven wins in major championships, and the stage was set for the trio of 20-something stars to take over golf and usher in the new, post-Tiger Woods era.

Early in the year, all signs pointed to that being the case. Spieth won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January, Jason Day ripped off back-to-back wins at the Arnold Palmer and WGC-Match Play, and Rory McIlroy had put together two top-5 finishes at the early WGC events. Coming into the Masters, the stage was set for a Big Three showdown for the ages.

Instead, we witnessed one of the most brutal final round collapses in major history as Spieth dumped two balls in the water on the par-3 12th and Danny Willett emerged as the victor. That proved to be the best chance any of the Big Three have had in the three majors this season as Dustin Johnson, who has usurped Spieth and McIlroy in the world rankings and is closing in on Day for No. 1, and Henrik Stenson put together tremendous performances at the U.S. Open and Open Championship for their first respective majors.

Now we arrive at Baltusrol Golf Club for the PGA Championship with each member of the Big Three desperate to claim a major title before the year is out. The question is, does it matter for golf if the Big Three goes majorless in a season?

"It won't mean anything," said CBS golf announcer Jim Nantz on Wednesday. "The game is so fluid, it changes all the time. It's not like next year couldn't be a replica of what 2015 was. It won't mean anything, I think it's just the strange thing about golf. Just when you think you've got the story nailed down something else surfaces. I wouldn't read too much into it.

"You know, Jordan turned 23, so he's old now. Rory, you know he's going to be winning more majors and Jason's only won two World Golf Championships and the PGA so he's done OK. So, look, golf's a hard thing to forecast. Trying to wrap your mind around a theme, we had a good one last year with the young brigade capped off by having Day and Spieth in a showdown at Whistling Straits. We haven't seen anything quite like that this year, maybe it'll happen here."

The Big Three is still having a good season as a whole. Spieth has two wins, Day has three wins -- including The Players -- and Rory McIlroy, while winless on the PGA Tour, still has six top 10s this season plus an Irish Open win, and he's consistently playing at an elite level.

The quality of play from McIlroy and Day has been there, and Spieth, who hasn't been quite as consistent, has shown flashes of the brilliance that he played with for most of 2015. Playing at a tremendously high level on a consistent basis is hard.

Really hard.

"When you're on, your on. At any level, when you're playing great you're bulletproof," said CBS golf commentator Nick Faldo. "You look at Rory when he won his two majors two years ago. That golf was amazing. No one was going to beat him, and then people ask, 'Well how many majors is he going to win?' And I say, 'You don't know, if you played like that every week, you'd win every week.' I said, 'He'll be disappointed to only get to 19 [if he plays like that] or he'll be delighted to get to five. And now, he's going to be delighted to get to his fifth major and start to get in rhythm again.'"

No member of the Big Three is going to be Tiger Woods. No one is likely ever going to be Tiger Woods, and that's OK. What we have now is a PGA Tour that's deeper and more talented than it's ever been with the top 20 players in the world all being ridiculously good with the capability of winning major championships.

That's a good thing. What we're learning is that golf can be interesting without a singular dominant force -- or a small group dominating. The duel between Stenson and Phil Mickelson on Sunday at Royal Troon was as fascinating as a round of golf can get. Watching what Johnson can do to a golf ball is awe-inspiring, and we've seen three major scoring records tied or taken down in the last two years.

The quality of play makes it extremely difficult to win even one major every year. That doesn't mean it's not still the goal for those elite players -- McIlroy said on Tuesday that it's still his goal and the benchmark that he measures himself to -- but it does mean that golf, and the Big Three, will be just fine going forward even if they all miss out on a major title in 2016.