What it would take for The Players Championship to become golf’s fifth major

Golf fans are getting excited for The Players Championship this year after the PGA Tour dropped a new trailer promoting the event in March. It has a good claim to being the fifth most significant event on the golfing calendar, especially when you look at how important it is at the top level.

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Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Golf fans are getting excited for The Players Championship this year after the PGA Tour dropped a new trailer promoting the event in March.
It has a good claim to being the fifth most significant event on the golfing calendar, especially when you look at how important it is at the top level.
The tournament draws an impressive field to TPC Sawgrass every year, and it’s perfectly positioned on the schedule as players ramp up their Masters preparation.
But there’s still ongoing debate about whether it should be classified as a major.
How The Players Championship could become Golf’s Fifth Major
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

The PGA Tour recently put out a trailer for The Players Championship featuring the tagline “March is going to be major,” which prompted Brandel Chamblee to make the bold claim that he would rank The Players ahead of the four existing majors.
That comment didn’t go down well with everyone, including Phil Mickelson, who has experience at TPC Sawgrass, having won there in 2007. Still, there’s a growing conversation about whether The Players should be given major status. On the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard discussed what it might take for that to happen.
“I love the concept of it, simply because it would be additive to what we have right now. I don’t think anybody in Ponte Vedra, I don’t think any players or any media are anticipating this is going to become a major and one of the other four majors is going to have to go away or it’s going to get crowded out of the scene. That’s not the case at all,” he said.
“They have five majors on the LPGA tour. There is certainly a precedent set here. I will go back to my own boring argument that I have always held to when it comes to The Players Championship being a major: you or I or the media won’t decide that, the fans won’t decide that, and the PGA Tour won’t decide that.
“It will come down to the players, and the players have to speak with one very, very clear voice that yes, this is a major championship. ‘This is our major championship’. That’s the way it’s going to work. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but it is interesting that it feels like we’re getting closer.”
The Players Championship already has a strong claim to being a major
Golf fans have never known a time when The Masters, the US Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship were not considered the sport’s four majors.
It would feel strange to change that now. It would also alter how people look at the history books, with Jack Nicklaus potentially being viewed as a 21-time major winner instead of 18.
Nicklaus, for his part, might point out that he often counted his two US Amateur titles in that total.
If it does happen someday though, it’ll likely be because players lead the push. As Hoggard said earlier:
“It will come down to the players, and the players have to speak with one very, very clear voice that yes this is a major championship.”
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