ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Score another for the \u201cPlayers Championship is a major\u201d crowd.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters Tuesday ahead of his title defense at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Russell Henley said he believes the PGA Tour\u2019s flagship event at TPC Sawgrass should stand alongside the sport\u2019s four majors, the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I think it\u2019s a major,\u201d Henley said. \u201cIt\u2019s our home tournament. I don\u2019t know the statistics on like what they say, like best field in golf or whatever, but, I mean, it is. And the history with that tournament? I mean, I\u2019ve always considered that a major in my mind. It\u2019s just such a tricky golf course, and it rewards great shots, typically. It visually is very intimidating. I feel like if you have a good week there you\u2019ve done a lot of really good things. You look at the past champions and it hasn\u2019t really favored any one player. People typically don\u2019t win it back-to-back, unless you\u2019re Scottie. But yeah, it\u2019s a tournament I always look forward to, I love the challenge of it, and I consider it a major.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henley\u2019s comments come a few weeks after the PGA Tour released an ad campaign for The Players, which starts a week from Thursday, that stated, \u201cMarch is going to be major.\u201d Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee then backed up those words by saying, \u201cWhen you look at the Players Championship \u2013 with all due respect to the other four major championships \u2013 it is the best field in golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PGA Tour also released a statement shortly after the commercial first aired: \u201cFans and players have long discussed The Players Championship\u2019s status as a major. We understand that is not for us to decide. Ultimately it is up to our sport and its fans to recognize what the professionals who play the game already know.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, other PGA Tour pros, including Rory McIlroy, have disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a traditionalist, I\u2019m a historian of the game,\u201d McIlroy said at Pebble Beach. \u201cWe have four major championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henley, 36, hasn\u2019t won a major or a Players title as part of his five career PGA Tour titles, though he agreed that winning at TPC Sawgrass would be high on the list.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely,\u201d Henley added. \u201cI mean, winning there, when you win on a golf course like that, with that kind of history, it proves you can do it anywhere, I think, for sure. Those closing holes are really tough, I would imagine, when you\u2019re carrying a lead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Score another for the \u201cPlayers Championship is a major\u201d crowd. Speaking to reporters Tuesday ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-502448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}