The Big Three of professional golf's yesteryear will be reunited this summer during the U.S. Senior Open at Inverness Club.

Gary Player has entered the event, according to the United States Golf Association, and will join Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in the field June 26-29.

During a three-decade period from 1956-86, the trio combined to win 158 PGA Tour events and a whopping 33 major championships.

Player, who won nine majors, is low man among the three on the PGA Tour totem pole with 24 career wins.

But playing on the American tour was just a slice of his globe-trotting schedule.

Player, 67, is believed to have traveled more miles - 12 million-plus by his calculations - than any athlete in history and has posted more than 160 tournament victories worldwide.

A native of South Africa, Player is one of only five golfers in the game's history - joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods and Nicklaus - to have scored a career grand slam of the majors.

His nine major championships include three Masters, three British Opens, two PGAs and the 1965 U.S. Open.

As a senior golfer Player has 19 tour wins, and has added five major titles. He is a two-time U.S. Senior Open champion with wins in 1987 and '88. Miller Barber (1984-85) is the only other player to have won the Senior Open in consecutive years.

“It was definitely a desire to have the Big Three in our field,” said Senior Open tournament director Judd Silverman. “Having all three of those legends at Inverness for, most likely, the final time is going to make a special week even more special.”

Player was one of three major championship winners whose entries were announced yesterday.

Raymond Floyd, who captured the last of his four majors in the 1986 U.S. Open at age 43, and Lanny Wadkins, whose biggest career win came at Pebble Beach in the 1977 PGA Championship, will also be in the field at Inverness.

Floyd, who won 22 times on the PGA Tour, also won major titles at the 1976 Masters and the 1969 and '81 PGA Championships. He has since added 14 official wins and four more majors as a senior. The Senior Open is the only jewel missing from that collection.

Wadkins, 53, plans his Champions Tour schedule around his duties as a golf commentator for CBS-TV. He captured 21 titles during nearly three decades on the PGA Tour.

Japanese star Isao Aoki, who has more than 70 victories worldwide, Tom Purtzer and Tom Jenkins, who won last week's Champions Tour event in Alabama, also had their Senior Open entries listed yesterday.

First Published May 8, 2003, 2:27 p.m.