Brandel Chamblee seems to cause controversy every single time he speaks, and his latest claim really took Lee Westwood by surprise.
Chamblee is well-known for being one of the most outspoken critics of LIV Golf.
So it should be no surprise that LIV star Lee Westwood isn’t the biggest fan of the former PGA Tour player.
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Chamblee did admit that LIV gaining world ranking points was the fair outcome in the end, so he deserves credit for that at least.
However, it often feels like he says things purely for effect.
And that almost definitely was the case this week when he made a truly outlandish suggestion regarding The Players Championship.
Brandel Chamblee’s bizarre Players Championship take
The golf analyst raised eyebrows on Friday when he made a seriously bold claim during the Golf Channel’s ‘Live From’ show at the WM Phoenix Open.
Chamblee suggested that the Players Championship stands alone as the best and most prestigious tournament in the world.
“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.
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“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.“
Stunned Lee Westwood reacts to Brandel Chamblee’s latest take
Westwood took to his social media on Saturday in reaction to Chamblee’s comments on The Players Championship.
And the 52-year-old was genuinely stunned by the American’s take.
“I’m worried about Brandel. Someone check on him please,“ Westwood wrote on his official X account.
Westwood was obviously being slightly sarcastic with his response, but his message was completely clear.
Chamblee’s take on The Players Championship was so laughable that numerous people involved with the game would have been taken aback by what he said.
Whether he said what he said to generate clicks and interest is the real question, though.
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