It is largely a notion of the golfing press in the United States that The Players Championship be considered the fifth major championship. You will not hear anybody from outside of the U.S. clamoring for this new status. Golf needs another Major like golf courses need another hole. It is a ridiculous notion that one more event needs to be considered a major tournament. Is it a significant tournament because it attempts to have one of the best fields in golf? Yes. But so are the World Golf Championship events and they do a similar thing. The Western Open also once held a similar status.

This week will be just the 33rd time this tournament has been held. In contrast to the “official” Majors, the Masters is by far the most youthful event at 72 years old. Think of how a reclassification would change the record books. First and foremost, Jack Nicklaus would get 3 more Majors added to his list. Since Tiger Woods has only won this event once, it changes his “to do” list by 2 more Majors. But would that really be fair to Nicklaus? Although he won the inaugural tournament in 1974 and twice more in the next 4 years, he was at the back-end of his prime by then. When Jack was most dominant in the 1960’s this tournament wasn’t even a twinkle in commissioner Deane Beman’s eye. Surely, he would’ve won a few more in the first 12 years of his professional career.

It would also be unfair to history’s golden champions such as Hogan, Nelson & Snead who never got the chance to play in this event. Then there would be the addition of several players who previously had never won a Major, such as Al Geiberger, Mark Hayes, Calvin Peete, Mark McCumber, Jodie Mudd, Craig Perks, Adam Scott and Fred Funk. And the four players who won this event twice – Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Steve Elkington & Hal Sutton – would magically go from having won one Major Championship to three. Many major champions would pick up another title as well, as Lanny Wadkins, Lee Trevino, Ray Floyd, Jerry Pate, John Mahaffey, Sandy Lyle, Tom Kite, Nick Price, Greg Norman, Lee Janzen, Justin Leonard and David Duval have all won it once.

No player needs a back-door Major win, so reclassifying this tournament serves no purpose at all - except to give the PGA Tour it’s very own Major. And I, for one, think it’s a good thing that the 4 Major Championships are all run by autonomous entities that are beholding to no professional golf tour.

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