Why The Players Championship is Definitely Not Golf’s Fifth Major
For decades, many in the professional golf atmosphere have marveled at the top-tier field that The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass boasts year in and year out. The Players is arguably the most prestigious non-major or non-signature event in professional golf, coercing many into believing its status should be elevated. To further the idea of the event’s status change, the PGA Tour launched this year’s marketing campaign for The Players Championship during the week of the WM Phoenix Open, pushing the tagline, “March is going to be major.” The professional golf ecosystem and its talking heads were sent into a spiral, debating The Players’ legitimacy as one of golf’s major tournaments. However, despite the long-standing discourse surrounding the tournament’s status, there are multiple reasons why The Players Championship does not belong in the same conversation or category as the other four major tournaments in professional golf.
The Elephant in the Room: The Absence of the LIV Golfers
Of course, the lack of the best LIV players discredits the legitimacy of The Players Championship as golf’s fifth major, as of now. If major championships are the epitome of professional golf and its competitiveness, then the best players should always be included in their fields. Since The Players is a PGA Tour event, anyone who has teed it up in a LIV Golf event is banned from competing on the PGA Tour for the near future. According to the Official World Golf Rankings, nine of the top 120 golfers in the world play on LIV, meaning they are automatically ineligible to compete in this season’s Players Championship. However, all four of the major championship golf tournaments, and even the Ryder Cup, do include LIV golfers, hence their elevated status and bolstered merit. If this is the case, would the PGA Tour welcome some LIV players to future Players Championships? Would the Tour give up the governing authority of its flagship event to make room for the LIV players who qualify? The answer to both of these questions is: it is highly unlikely.
Who, or What, Would Govern the Tournament?
Across all four of the major golf tournaments in professional golf, there are governing bodies that run each individual tournament. The Masters is run by Augusta National Golf Club, the PGA Championship is run by the PGA of America, the US Open is run by the USGA, and the Open Championship is run by The R&A. Since The Players Championship is regularly on the PGA Tour’s schedule and is considered its flagship event, the tournament has become a quintessential part of the Tour’s calendar. While the four major tournaments are also on every PGA Tour player’s calendar, they are not considered regular PGA Tour stops because they are not governed by the PGA Tour. If The Players is a traditional PGA Tour stop, the Tour can control the field as they please; every player in the field this year has some sort of status on the PGA Tour. Contrary to The Players, all of the four major tournaments extend exemptions to numerous players without any sort of status on the PGA Tour, or, sometimes, any professional tour for that matter.
Exemptions, or Lack Thereof
Building off the idea that each major tournament has its own special exemptions that it dishes out to those who have earned them, here are a few examples. The Masters and Open Championship extend multiple invites to amateur golfers. The U.S. Open also welcomes amateurs into the field each year, but also has local qualifying for the tournament, putting anyone into the field who can place among the top in the respective qualifying events. The PGA Championship even opens its doors to about 20 non-touring professionals per year, thanks to their performances at the annual PGA Professional Championship. While The Players Championship also presents multiple ways to qualify for the event, only PGA Tour players are eligible for those opportunities. Yet, the PGA Tour tends to have the strongest fields week in and week out in professional golf; some players on other tours who rank higher in the Official World Golf Rankings system than others on Tour are unable to find themselves in the top-tier field at The Players.
To expand upon this idea, Casey Jarvis has been on a tear on the DP World Tour as of late and is up to 69th in the world. Garrick Higgo sits at 74th in the world, which is obviously lower than Jarvis, but Higgo’s PGA Tour resume earned him a spot in The Players Championship this season. If Jarvis does not have any status on the PGA Tour as of now, he was ineligible for any exemptions into this season’s Players Championship. In any of the four major golf tournaments, this would not be the case. The objectivity of the governing bodies that run their respective tournaments allows Jarvis, if he can qualify, to compete against the best in the world on the grandest stages, adding to the prestige and quality of the four real majors.
Just because a tournament is prestigious, highly competitive, and/or notoriously challenging does not put it into the conversation with the four major golf tournaments. Also, if The Players Championship were to become golf’s fifth major, where do you draw the line? Does the Memorial Tournament or Arnold Palmer Invitational need to become a major as well? In order for a golf tournament to be considered a major tournament, the best players in the world, regardless of age or tour, need to be in the field. If the PGA Tour’s affiliation with The Players and TPC Sawgrass allows it to do what it wants, and that is how it should be. However, The Players Championship should never be among the four major golf championships as long as the field is limited to active PGA Tour members.
