Monday, April 20, 1998 | 9:18 a.m.
PICKING THE favorite for this week's Las Vegas Senior Classic is as easy as one, two, three.
One, Hale Irwin.
Two, Larry Nelson.
Three, Gil Morgan.
They are far and away the dominant performers on the PGA Senior Tour and they drove that point home again Sunday when they finished 1-2-3 at the PGA Seniors' Championship in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Fact is, they drive the point home virtually every week they play. These three guys are killing their 50-and-over buddies with their fitness, their exquisite shotmaking ability and their will to win.
There have been 10 Senior Tour events played this year and the members of the Irwin-Nelson-Morgan trio account for seven of the victories. Go back a little further to the beginning of 1997 -- Nelson wasn't eligible for the Senior Tour until last September -- and of the 47 events played, Irwin and Morgan have won 20 of them.
It almost isn't fair.
Irwin, 52, has two wins this year after a record nine victories last year.
Morgan, 51, has already won three times this year and won six times last year.
Nelson, 50, has a '98 victory to his credit and is a hardened Vietnam veteran who habitually plays his best when the stakes are at their highest. Of his 10 wins on the PGA Tour, three of them came in majors.
When they're in the field, they're apt to be well up the leaderboard.
And they'll be in the field for the Las Vegas Senior Classic that opens Thursday at two courses, the TPC at Summerlin and the TPC at the Canyons.
Irwin won here last year and, if anything, it's even more likely he and Morgan and Nelson will contend for the championship this week because the tournament has been stretched from its usual three days to four. That extra day taxes the typical Senior Tour player and tends to drive the older players' scores upward.
Given that this week will be the second straight four-day tournament on the Senior Tour and the younger, stronger players on the circuit have only added to their advantage.
Not that they need any added advantages. Morgan leads in 11 statistical categories on the tour this year and Irwin sets the pace in another seven. In money won, it's Morgan ($776,580) first, Irwin ($740,650) second and Nelson ($471,920) third.
There are other players doing well -- Dave Stockton has $451,690 in earnings; David Graham has won four times in two years; Jim Albus and Lee Trevino also have victories this year -- yet the tour has become the stage for privatized duals by three great players driven by pride.
It could go on all year, Irwin, Morgan and Nelson doing nothing more than alternating victories and lapping the field when it comes to prestige and money won.
They each played well in Florida and Las Vegas shouldn't be any different.
Truth is, if anyone aside from the Big Three walks away with the championship next Sunday it'll come as a surprise. And therein lies the challenge for the remaining 75 players in the field: Coax one of their own into contention.
Given the results on the tour this year, it's easier said than done.
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