Once boasting the strongest and most competitive field in all of golf, with so many big names missing this year, including the defending champion, has the Players Championship lost the right to be branded as the fifth Major?
It’s still the PGA Tour’s flagship event staged over an iconic TPC Sawgrass with one of the most famous finishing stretches in all of golf, but there’s no doubting the field is lacking from previous years.
Most notably, of course, is the fact that for the first time since 2014 the reigning Players champion won’t be defending his title, with Cameron Smith part of the LIV Golf party banned from playing PGA Tour events.
The entire top three from last year’s leaderboard are missing, with Anirban Lahiri and Paul Casey also part of the banned LIV Golf group, and five of the overall top 12 won’t be teeing it up in Jacksonville this week.
Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson and Martin Kaymer are all previous champions who will be absent, while you could argue any tournament without the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka is weaker for their omission.
What makes the Players Championship a special event?
(Image credit: Getty Images)
In truth, I’ve never really liked the fifth Major tagline anyway, so would not be too sad to see it go – after all the Majors are the Majors, right? There’s four of them in the men’s game and that’s just fine, we really don’t need to be adding a fifth one, even unofficially.
And maybe now with the new designated events assembling the PGA Tour’s best players more regularly, not to mention the big-name LIV absentees, dropping the boast of it having the strongest field in golf doesn’t necessarily detract from the overall spectacle.
Justin Thomas echoed the sentiments of many of the players this week, when discussing what the tournament means to them and the lack of LIV players this year.
“I do not think that this tournament will lose that separation,” said the 2021 champion. “It’s a special week. It’s our championship. It’s our tournament. It’s a place I look forward to coming every year.”
And one way in which Thomas can explain the magnitude of the event is in the nerves he felt when tackling that incredible finishing stretch, which in itself is an almighty challenge even when the tournament isn’t on the line.
“To me, the nerves that I had playing the last couple holes here versus the last couple holes at another tournament that I’ve won is…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golf Monthly RSS Feed…