Should Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass be a fifth major?

How The Players Championship fits into golf’s calendar sparks an annual debate, and now the players themselves have had their say.

The talk about this week’s tournament at TPC Sawgrass being the men’s game’s ‘fifth major’ went into overdrive last month.

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Former professional turned commentator Brandel Chamblee raised eyebrows by sharing his belief during the Waste Management Phoenix Open that The Players is not only a major, but “the best major”.

Chamblee comments came as the tournament’s marketing team caused a stir with the slogan ‘March is going to be major’ running on its advertisements on US television.

In response, defending champion Rory McIlroy tried to shut down such talk.

He joked that he would love to have seven major championships to his name, instead of his actual tally of five, courtesy of his victories last year and in 2019 at TPC Sawgrass.

But the career grand slam winner made his stance very clear.

“I think The Players is one of the best golf tournaments in the world,” McIlroy said last month. “I don’t think anyone disputes that or argues that.

“I think from a player perspective it’s amazing. I think from an on-site fan experience it’s amazing. It’s an amazing golf course, location, venue.

“But I’m a traditionalist, I’m a historian of the game and we have four major championships.”

Chamblee doubled down on his comments on the eve of the tournament at TPC Sawgrass.

He dismissed McIlroy’s tongue-in-cheek remark about increasing his career major tally.

“I would in no way advocate for retroactively giving major championships to those who won The Players Championship before being named a major championship,” Chamblee said.

“Because they did not go to bed Saturday night thinking they were playing for a major championship.”

But Chamblee insisted that The Players should be elevated to major status based on the quality of the field.

There are no amateurs or club professionals at The Players, only the PGA Tour’s best.

“If a major championship is supposed to identify the best player against the strongest field in golf, The Players Championship already meets that definition as well as any championship in golf,” Chamblee said on Golf Channel.

“Analytical models like Data Golf frequently rate the field at The Players Championship as the best field in all of golf.

“So, is it worthy? Absolutely.”

Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley agreed that the strength of the field is impressive saying based on that, The Players does deserve to be a major, but “with the addition of some players from LIV”.

The Irishman also presented his view that if the men’s game was to expand to a fifth major, it should be a major played outside of the US.

“I’d like to see it on the road,” he said.

“I’d have a problem with four of the five majors held in this country.

“The jobs of the major championships is to broadcast the sport around the world and that means people coming to watch it.

“We don’t get that opportunity at the moment.

“Scottie Scheffler, the best player in the game, hardly ever goes on the road.”

He later added: “We’ve got to throw our eye out to the rest of the world.
“I’m looking at Japan, I’m looking at Korea, maybe Australia.

“Maybe not Europe because we have The Open there already.

“This is a global game, remember. It’s not an American-centric game.”

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Former Australian professional turned commentator Paul Gow agreed, saying Australia should be home to a fifth major.

“It’s a big event. I know they’re all the Americans are calling out (for it to become) the fifth major. No chance,” Gow said.

“It should not be the fifth major. It’s just owned by the PGA Tour… So they’re just trying to feather their nest there.

“They only own the President’s Cup, right? They don’t own the Ryder Cup, which is the biggest money maker of all. They don’t own the four majors. So this is a way to prop themselves into a major. The other major should be here.

“The fifth major should be in Australia. It should be off American shores for a start.”

Like Gow, McGinley believes the talk of adding another US-based major is a sign of greed.

“This is serving the agenda of the PGA Tour, which is trying to raise more money because of the exorbitant prices of everything that’s gone up in the game since the Saudis became involved,” he said.

“This is a money-driven agenda.”

Chamblee somewhat agreed that the game needed to go more global.

Although, on an infrequent basis with The Players staying put in Florida like The Masters is in Georgia.

Instead, he would have the third major of the year on the move, every so often.
“I don’t know why the PGA Championship doesn’t move around the world once every five years,” Chamblee said.

“Because the PGA represents the Professional Golfers’ Association. They have that in Europe, they have that in Japan. They have that all over the world.

“It should move around to reflect the Professional Golfers’ Associations of Japan, or Korea, of Australia.”

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The players themselves arrived in Florida’s Ponte Vedra Beach this week prepared for the fifth major questions.

And most of them have sided with McIlroy.

“It’s not a major for me,” FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood said.

“Saying it’s not a major doesn’t demean it any way, and it doesn’t make it any less big than what it is.

“It’s always been The Players Championship. We’ve called it the fifth major forever. I think four majors sits perfectly.”

Fellow Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick agreed that there is no disrespect in saying that The Players does not reach the heights of a major.

But it is still a sensational tournament.

“It’d be right up there in terms of my career highlights,” Fitzpatrick told BBC Sport.

“It’s not the same as winning a major but it’s the next best thing.

“It’s the biggest PGA Tour event of the season so to win would mean a hell of a lot – no doubt about that.”

The general consensus is clear: The Players is big, but it is not major.

If they were talking football, they might say that is like a derby but not an FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

If they were talking cricket, they might say it is the Champions Trophy but not the World Cup.

Or if they were Australians talking about AFL, they might say it is like 100,000 people inside the MCG on Anzac Day for the annual clash between Collingwood and Essendon but it is not Grand Final Day.

There is nothing wrong with not being the pinnacle.

Every sport needs its big drawcard events outside of its biggest days.

The fact The Players gets compared to a major is a massive compliment.

It does bare a lot of similarities to a major, The Masters, in particular.

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It is played at the same venue every year with a series of signature holes that are instantly recognisable upon turning on the television.

Like the Masters in April, March is The Players’ time – since it moved from May back to its traditional spot in 2019.

Those attributes are partly why Billy Horschel told Sky Sports at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week that he believes The Players should be given major status.

“I’ve said it for a while – I think it is a fifth major,” Horschel said. “Whether it gets voted a fifth major, it doesn’t bother me at all.

“If between the majors and The Players, if all I won was a Players Championship, I would consider it a major because that’s what I think of the event. I think when you look at the history of the event, the way it’s promoted, the way the support is in the Northeast Florida community, I think it deserves to be a major.

“I am biased – I live there. I have a great relationship with a lot of people in the PGA Tour, not just the top execs. There’s a lot of people that work there that do so much for the PGA Tour that don’t get the recognition. I would like to see it a major, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – MARCH 07: Billy Horschel of the United States.Source: Getty Images

One of the biggest arguments against The Players being a major is the field.

As the event is run by the PGA Tour, there are no LIV players present.

Whereas at a major the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Australia’s Cameron Smith strengthen the quality of the field.

“If it were made a major championship, qualifying criteria would open us as such that they would be able to play here,” Chamblee said.

Before the split in the men’s professional game, The Players could genuinely lay claim to boasting the strongest field in golf.

All of the PGA Tour’s finest take part for a shot at what was once the biggest prize purse in the sport – the US$25 million (A$35m) prize pool this week is now blanketed by the US$40 million on the line for the season’s top 30 performers at the Tour Championship.

This year that includes Brooks Koepka.

The ex-LIV golfer does not have automatic entry into the Tour’s signature events, but courtesy of his 2023 PGA Championship victory, he will tee it up this week for the first time since 2022.

During his pre-tournament press conference, reporters attempted to lure Koepka into having a dig at LIV by endorsing The Players as the fifth major.

The five-time major champion was not getting involved in a slanging match, but provided a measured take on The Players’ spot on the calendar.

“I think you’ve got to have one big event on the PGA Tour, and it’s their staple, and I think it’s a good thing,” Koepka said.

“I think anytime you can have an event where the best players on the PGA Tour come together, you look at that, you got the BMW on the DP, every tour has one big event where their main — everybody comes together, everybody plays that event, and you’ve got the best players on that Tour playing at the same time.

“I think that’s what makes this event so cool. I think it’s awesome that we come back to the same golf course every year. I think that’s really, really fun and makes it enjoyable.

“I mean, I know what you’re trying to bait me into saying, but listen, it’s the Players Championship. Everybody knows it’s a tournament you want to win. It’s a tournament that’s, like I said earlier, the kick-off of the big season of the golf, and that’s what makes this fun.”

With The Masters less than a month away, The Players is the perfect lead-in.

A testing, entertaining golf course whets the appetite for the bigger things to come.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

It might not be the fifth major.

But it is a tournament with most of the best players in the world wrestling with a golf course that does its best, thanks to a lot of water, to force them to implode.

It will be thrilling to watch.