Despite the best efforts of the PGA Tour and a younger demographic of players and media who are keeping an open mind, The Players Championship still can’t crack the public consciousness of joining The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in being considered a major championship.
The Players will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024 so it’s had time. And the fact that it still isn’t widely recognized as a major has more to do with how entrenched the other four are.
Attitudes and history can change. When Bobby Jones was considered the best golf in the world in the 1920s and 1930s, he won 13 major championships. However, at the time, the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur were considered majors, along with the U.S. Open and British Open — largely because amateur golf was considered a higher level of competition since the professional game hadn’t yet blossomed and the Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club were still unrealized dreams by their founder — Jones.
Six of Jones’ majors were amateur events, five U.S, Opens and one British Open. And in 1930, when he won all four in one year, New York sportswriter George Trevor termed the feat, “the impregnable quadrilateral.”
Respect for Jones was so universal that gradually the Masters came to be thought of as a major, and when professionals such as Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson got into the prime of their careers, the PGA Championship also became more elevated.
Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus solidify the majors
The final piece of the puzzle in why the current four are accepted as majors was Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, whose powerful style of golf and charisma captured fans’ imagination. They especially cemented the Masters as perhaps the top dog of the grand slam events when they combined to win 10 times at Augusta.
Fast forward to the Tiger Woods Era. He had a poster of Jack Nicklaus on his wall at home as a young boy, with a list of Nicklaus’ 18 major championships. Woods dreamed of getting to that goal and he has 15, winning his last at the 2019 Masters — his fifth green jacket.
Woods followed the same script that Nicklaus and Palmer did: save his best for the majors, which only further served to keep their status at the top of the worldwide tournament food chain intact.
Majors history goes back nearly 160 years
Obviously, the majors have a rich history. The British Open is the oldest golf tournament in the world, having started in 1863. The U.S….
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