Golf Channel ran a segment last night on Live from the Players about making The Players a major championship. They presented both sides of the argument, the gist of it was:
Reasons for:
- It is the best and deepest field of the year
- It is the most important win outside of the 4 majors
- The tournament venue is challenging and has the aura of Augusta (though admittedly less)
- None of the current 4 majors is owned by the PGA Tour (and ultimately the players themselves), this would give the PGA Tour it's own major
- Brandel made the point that we would then have a major in April (The Masters), May (The Players), June (The US Open), July (The Open Championship), August (The PGA Championship) which would lead nicely into the Fedex Cup.
Reasons against:
- What would you do historically? Would Jack now have 21 majors? Tiger 16?
- 4 majors seems like a good number (most players like having just the 4)
- People don't like change
I honestly think it should be a major and pretty much already is given the field and the importance of the tournament. The only thing missing is the 'major' label.
What does everyone think?