Big three Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will grab all the limelight, but Shane Lowry and Seamus Power believe they can spoil the party and capture the $4.5 million winner’s cheque in The Players Championship this week.

As the game’s top three go off together in their ongoing battle for supremacy at the top of the world rankings, Lowry and Power quietly fancy their chances as they target big years in the Majors and, their fingers crossed, the Ryder Cup.

Both made the cut but struggled in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill last week, but having shown flashes of their best golf heading into this week’s $25 million extravaganza, they have high hopes.

After finishing eighth in 2021, Lowry had a hole-in-one on the iconic 17th en route to a tie for 13th last year, and while he’s playing his fifth event in a row and his eighth in nine weeks, he feels a shot maker’s course like TPC Sawgrass is right up his alley.

“I think you get a course like this that suits me and my game,” said Lowry, who was fifth in the Honda Classic just 11 days ago. “You have to shape the ball around here and don’t just stand up and hit driver on every hole. It’s about playing golf.

“I certainly feel like I come here and it’s a major. Everybody’s here on Monday working. Everybody’s getting ready. It’s really got a major feel about it, so it’s one of the tournaments you want to compete in and do well in.

“The fact I’ve had a couple of decent results around here is nice and I can hopefully bring that to this week. Yes, I didn’t have my best week last week at Bay Hill, but that is a place I really struggle around, and actually making the cut last week was a result for me.

“LA was a place I’ve never liked in the past and I played quite well out there. Had a chance at Honda, so I feel like my game is trending in the right direction. Go out and give it my best this week and hopefully I can be there in the afternoon.”

Power’s 72nd-place finish at Bay Hill on Sunday was the first time he has finished outside the top 25 in nine starts since capturing his second PGA Tour win in Bermuda last October.

He had an ace at the fourth en route to finishing tied 35th on his debut in 2019, and after finishing 33rd last year, he’s looking to contend this week.

“I just love this golf course,” said Power, who, like Lowry, fully supports the proposed changes to the 2024 schedule. “Florida golf has never been my strength but with the over-seed here and I feel like I can really play and compete.

“My game’s in a good spot, so I feel like there’s no reason I can’t be in contention on Sunday.”

Power and Lowry, who is on the PAC, are both in favour of the new PGA Tour schedule for 2024, which will give them access to eight limited field, no-cut designated events designed to make the Tour more attrative to sponsors and TV audiences.

“It is good timing,” said Power, who is ranked 30th in the world and fifth in the FedEx Cup. “I think for me in the short term from my perspective, it’s obviously fantastic.

“People have asked me about the changes and I think time will tell. I’d be the first to tell you the macro economics of a corporation this size is tough for me to kind of grasp. But the top players are behind it, which is huge. At the end of the day, they drive the tour.

“Tiger (Woods) drove it forever. We saw it at Riviera, that’s who people come to see. This week it’s Rory and Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler and all these tops guys. I think the rest of the tour understands that. Obviously, you still want the avenues into these events and I think that’s the key. Once your good golf gets rewarded with avenues into these top tournaments, it’s going to be a really positive thing. It sounds like that’s the way it's going to be.

“But I do think long-term it will be very good. These last weeks when you see some of these elevated events, I know they’ll be shorter fields, but looking at that leaderboard it was incredible. That’s what you want to see and that’s what sponsors want I’m sure, so it’s a great product for the tour. Time well tell long term, but in the short term it seems like a good thing as long as the avenues remain open for guys.”

Power might be self-effacing when it comes to his stature in the game but he’s not fooling himself either.

“I’m up there, but obviously I realise these crowds aren’t coming out to see me,” he asid. “If you win an event like this, that can change. Now you’re trying to fight your way into that top category. It’s been a lot of good golf for me this season. Fifth in the FedEx Cup, really good spot. Feel really good about my game which is always the most important thing. When you’re doing kind of good things you feel like good stuff is on the horizon so that’s kind of exciting. Good run of golf coming up playing here, playing the Match Play in a couple of weeks and looking forward to the Masters in April. It’s the kind of stretch of golf you dream about, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Twelve months ago he was battling to make the top 50 who qualified for the Masters. Now he’s looking at the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the Ryder Cup.

“I’m definitely more comfortable I suppose and that’s the big thing feeling comfortable in these environments,” he admitted. “You got a little taste of it last year at the majors and this tournament, which is an amazing spectacle. You got a taste of what it was like and you’re even more motivated to get yourself in contention with a chance to win on Sunday.

“It is definitely different knowing that I have the Masters whereas last year at this time I was right around that 50th spot and you don’t know and you’re getting asked about it and you’re trying not to think about it. This year knowing all that makes things a little easier. You still have to go and perform but it certainly makes it easier in your planning and going out to play your best.”

Power, who hasn’t missed a cut since the FedEx St Jude Championship last August, puts his consistency down to his resistance to change.

“The big thing for me is I haven’t changed much,” he said. “You know, even my mental focus, which sometimes is off, it’s the same three or four keys that I have. Even when it comes to my own technical stuff whether it’s putting or chipping or bunker shots, I have the same two things that if it gets off I know I can rely on my own keys and I don’t really get away from that. So I haven’t gotten as far away from where I want to be as I have in the past. Just hanging in there and when it goes down the wrong path just do those things.”

He has the courage of his convictions and that showed when he set out his stall last autumn and won in his fourth start of the 2022-23 season.

“It was interesting because the fall schedule is a little tricky,” he said. “Decided to skip Zozo because I knew I like the course in Bermuda and Sea Island and Mayakoba and Congaree for the CJ Cup. I like those courses so I was gonna focus on that instead of the long travel to Japan.

“I kind of backed myself and my own belief in what I knew and it worked. That was a great start to the season. One of my goals for the season was to get to the Tour Championship in Atlanta and that hasn’t changed. Getting a lot of points was huge because this stretch, all the fields are strong and all the courses are tough. So being able to pick up another big chunk of points in Pebble and Phoenix and LA has been great. Obviously, there’s still a lot of golf left to go, but a great start.”

The Ryder Cup remains a big goal though he will likely need one of Luke Donald’s six wildcards given the competition from the top Europeans ahead of him in the world rankings.

“There’s a lot of golf left to go but the Hero Cup gave you a taste and we had some guys who’d been there and just the talks and Q&A’s and hearing the passion and excitement they have from memories, some of them might be 13 or 20 years ago, just the way they talk about it just like it was a week ago,” he said. “Hearing that and the passion makes you want to be a part of it. It is a huge goal as well. A long ways to go but in a good spot at the moment so just keep up the good golf.

“With good golf you reach some of these goals. As long as you’re not thinking about it on the course, you’ll be fine. It’s impossible not to think about it to a certain extent but as long as it’s not affecting how I prepare and how I play, I don’t mind. It’s just something that I’ve dreamed of for as long as I can remember and that’s not going to change especially as I am a little closer to reaching that goal. It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s going to take a lot more good golf over the next six months.”

Like Power, Lowry is positive on the proposed changes to the PGA Tour and his schedule so far this year.

“I think it’s great honestly,” he said. “I think the bad press has been from negative people and I think the best players in the world are going to be playing against each other more often in bigger events on some great venues and I think it’s going to be good for the game.

“Certain people don’t see that right now but I do think when it plays out we’ll be looking back on the changes and going, ‘yeah, they were a good thing.’ Like I said, the top players are playing against each other more often but it also gives the rest of the players a chance to play in those events more often. Like I’m looking at it you’ve got the four majors and the Players, which are the five big ones, and you’ll have the elevated events after that that are going to be huge and there’s an opportunity for a lot of guys.

“Like I’ve been involved in all the meetings. I was in Delaware for the very first one and what was proposed at the very first meeting is nowhere near what has happened. I think a lot of the top players have compromised as well and I think everyone is going to do well from it. I think it’s going to be good for the game. A January to August FedEx Cup is going to be exciting and going to be quick and hopefully, I can be a part of it all and do quite well.”

As for his busy schedule, he said: “No, I think this year is a bit of a one-off where I played a little more than I normally would. Played 8 of 9, never do that. Played 5 in a row, never do that. I sat down at the end of the year and planned out my schedule for what’s going to get me as best I can to the second week in April and I feel like I’m doing that. I have a week off next week and very much looking forward to it and after that it will be getting ready for the Masters.”

Lowry will play the WGC Dell Match Play before heading to Augusta and from there to Hilton Head.

“It was around this time last year I was playing pretty good golf and feel like I’m playing decent this year again,” he said.

As for that busy schedule, he said: “This is the game we’re in, we’re busy. People think you take a week off you sit on the couch and do nothing. I’m married with two small kids, so I’m busy there. And I want to be one of the best players in the world so I have to go practice every day. I know what’s around the corner and there won’t be too many days taking off between now and Hilton Head. It’s that part of the season I want to do well in.”