Pro golf's majors are in great need of a major overhaul

By Clive Agran,
Contributor

At the risk of upsetting George W. Bush and my vast army of American fans, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the golfing goodies are not being fairly distributed.

Watching The Masters over the weekend, I found myself asking, "Why should the U.S. host three out of pro golf's four major championships?" And, seemingly not content with three-quarters of the cake, some are lobbying to have the Players' Championship designated as the fifth major, which would raise the American share to an obscene 80 percent.

Next thing you know, some rich Yank will make a billion dollar bid for all the British Open Championship venues, move his company's headquarters into what was previously the R & A clubhouse and re-brand the Open as the Schnickleberger Pretzel and Root Beer Megabuck Challenge, or something equally ghastly.

If you think I'm crazy just reflect on what recently befell those two great British sporting institutions, the football clubs of Manchester United and Liverpool. ‘Institutions?' Sorry, I meant ‘franchises.' (How demeaning for two of my country's greatest sports clubs to be reduced to the same commercial playing field as Dominos Pizza.)

Off the top of my balding head, the only other sport that I can think of that has four major events is tennis, which evenly divides what they call the grand slam titles between the Old and the New World with England, France, Australia and the USA each hosting one apiece. Although it favors the northern over the southern hemisphere by 3:1, many more people sensibly live in the top half rather than the bottom half of the globe, so that's fair enough.

Other top sports similarly make an effort to spread the really big events around. Football (soccer) and rugby union move their World Cups all over the place, while only Americans have the cheek to call the final of their domestic competition the "World Series," as they do with baseball.

At least baseball is their game and so I suppose there are at liberty to call it what they want but golf, dammit, began in Britain and belongs to the whole of mankind. For goodness' sake, the U.S. hasn't even won the Ryder Cup for ages, so who gave them permission to host three majors? If Americans are as fond of democracy as they claim, why don't they let the people decide and give every golfer who possesses a handicap certificate a vote?

Look, I'm not dismissing the significant contribution that the U.S. has made to the game - not least the seemingly universal cry of "Get in the hole!" - I just think the goodies should be more evenly distributed. Accepting, for the time being at least, that the U.S. Open, the Masters and the British Open should stay where they are, the authorities should have the courage to scrap the exceedingly ordinary and far too sweaty PGA Championship in favor of something with more universal appeal, something called The World Open, say.

But where should it be held? The only sensible thing to do is rotate it around everywhere that doesn't presently host a major, which is the world minus the United States and Great Britain.

Given its considerable civilizing influence, golf can play a key role in encouraging previously undemocratic countries to appreciate the real benefits of living in a free and open society. A little generosity on the part of the U.S. now could reap a rich reward in terms of peace, prosperity and golf cart exports for years to come.

April 10, 2007

Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management.