There is a real buzz around The Players Championship right now, after the PGA Tour dropped a huge hint about the tournament this week.
When the PGA Tour released a promotional video for The Players Championship on Thursday, there was a line right at the end of the commercial that caught everyone’s attention.
The promotional video ended with the line: ‘March is going to be major’.
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There has been talk for years now that the Players could be elevated to major status, and now Brandel Chamblee has delivered a seriously bold take on the situation.
The Players Championship moved back to its original March slot on the PGA Tour calendar back in 2019.
Some golfers prefer that date while others, like Justin Thomas, have suggested that TPC Sawgrass plays so much better in May.
However, the more interesting debate is whether or not The Players Championship should be given more prestigious standing in the game.
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Chamblee has never been one to shy away from sharing his bold opinions on numerous current topics in the professional game.
And that was no different on Friday, when the idea of the Players Championship becoming the fifth major was brought up.
When speaking on the Golf Channel during the live broadcast of the WM Phoenix Open, Chamblee responded when asked whether he believes the Players Championship should be classed as a major.
“First of all, we do ‘Live Froms’ from major championships,“ Chamblee said.
“We’ve been doing a ‘Live From The Players Championship’ since 2004, since I first started working at the Golf Channel. Just by that mere fact, we give it the attention of a major championship, we give it that prestige.
“So when you say, should it be a major championship, what constitutes a major championship?
“Of course, it’s history and tradition and reverence and all those things, but at the core, these are hard events to win.
“They’re meant to be harder events to win, because of the pressure, because of the setup, because, you know, everything’s right on the line. So they’ve got to be hard events to win.
“They’ve got to be great fields. They’ve got to produce indelible champions, and indelible moments.
“When you look at the Players Championship, with all due respect to the other four major championships, it is the best field in golf. It is the deepest field in golf.
“And by virtue of the fact that only one person in its 50 year history has managed to successfully defend it, I would argue that it is the hardest major championship to win.
“All the others have had far surpassing numbers of those successfully defending it.
“So, especially since it moved to TPC Sawgrass, which, in my estimation, save one hole, is perhaps arguably the best golf course that they play a major championship on from a shot value perspective.
“You can talk about aesthetics all you want, risk-reward holes, certainly, but I’m talking about a shot value standpoint.
“You cannot touch TPC Sawgrass.
“So in every single way that a metric could be used to measure whether something is a major, the Players, to me, stands alone and above all the other four major championships as not just a major. It is in my estimation, the best major.“
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It was put to Chamblee that Rory McIlroy surely wouldn’t feel the same level of nerves and excitement when in contention on Saturday night at TPC Sawgrass as he would at Augusta National.
“But by virtue of the designation of it being a major championship, there is more prestige attributed to it,“ Chamblee insisted.
“We don’t say Jack Nicklaus won 21 major championships because he won the Players’ Championship three times back in the ’70s.
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“But remember, major championships in men’s golf started out as one, then grew two, three, four, five, and six (including the US and British amateur championships).
“So the impregnable quadrilateral, which George Trevor wrote about, included two amateurs.
“That was the Grand Slam. It included two amateurs.
“So if you add the four major championships, there were six major championships.
“So we’ve always had this number that grows as time has gone on.“
Chamblee makes a good point there. If the Players did become a major championship all of a sudden, would it carry the same prestige as the four others?
It will be interesting to see whether the Players Championship does take on major status at some point in the future.
However, if golf’s governing bodies were to come to that decision, everyone who has won the Players Championship throughout the years would have to have their major records adjusted accordingly.
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