![\"Trap](\"\/b\/imgs\/trap_five\/tf_title.gif\")
This week, golf fans are getting an earful about “The Players.” They’re hearing what a great course it’s played at, what a great field it has, and how it’s just the teeniest bit shorter in stature than those “other” majors: The Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, and the PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
This week we’re going to investigate the top five reasons why “The Players” is not (and likely never will be) a major. The Players began in the same era as slap bracelets, fluorescent “jams,” Debbie Gibson, and Miami Vice. Heck, it began four years after I was born, and I ain’t that old. For that matter, the tournament is younger than even Tiger Woods.<\/p>\n Number Four: Finchem and Beman are no Bobby Jones, Pete Dye is no Alistair MacKenzie<\/strong> Tim Finchem and Deane Beman (despite the latter actually having been a professional golfer and an accomplished amateur) are no Bobby Jones, and as much as I like playing the occasional Pete Dye course, he’s no Alister MacKenzie. There is no mystical awe to railroad ties, and Tim Finchem’s obituary might read “He was great at riding Tiger’s coat tails.” As much good as Deane Beman did for the PGA Tour, putting him anywhere near Bobby Jones’ level is just silly.<\/p>\n Number Three: A Large Purse does not a Major Make<\/strong> However, there are a lot of reasons top-ranked players show up for The Players. It could be the $9M purse – the largest official purse in all of golf. It could be the five-year PGA Tour exemption earned by the winner. This year, the winner will also earn the same number of FedExCup points as the winners of the actual majors. On the World Golf Hall of Fame ballots, The Players is listed in bold print alongside those same four majors.<\/p>\n Suffice to say, it’s not the history that’s drawing a strong field – it’s the perks that come with winning (or even finishing T10). While The Masters could probably do away with prize money altogether and still pull the same field, The Players could not.<\/p>\n Number Two: Grand Slam = Four Runs<\/strong> Number One: It Can be Fifth Best without Being a Major<\/strong> As it is, The Players fails one of the most crucial tests of true major championship golf: that something is widely accepted as being a major without having been rammed down the throats of fans, golfers, and the media. The Players – and even the name attempts to peddle on the fame of “The masters” – is a top-tier tournament, but it ain’t a major. Finchem and company should be content with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Players is not a major. It’s almost a tautology – it isn’t because it isn’t – but this week we attempt to quantify exactly why The Players is not a major.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trap_five"],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nNumber Five: It’s Just Too New<\/strong>
\n![\"Miami](\"\/b\/imgs\/trap_five\/miami_vice.jpg\")
The Players (errr, Championship) began in Atlanta in 1974. The modern-day version – the one played at the TPC at Sawgrass – began in 1982. The U.S. Open began in 1896. The PGA Championship began in 1916 (and converted to stroke play way back in 1958). The Masters was first played in 1934.<\/p>\n
\nDo I really need to explain this one? The USGA and the R&A each have their own championships. Earlier in the 1900s, their amateur championships were also considered majors. The Professional Golfers of America created a tournament, and then the greatest amateur golfer of all time created his own tournament, making four majors.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Money\"](\"\/b\/imgs\/tapins\/money.jpg\")
Tim Finchem, the players, and the ink slingers worldwide routinely comment that The Players has the strongest field in golf. The field is large and there are no 67-year-old former champions, there are no amateurs, and there are no club professionals like we see in other majors.<\/p>\n
\nWhen Bobby Jones captured his four majors – “the grand slam” (or the “impregnable quadrilateral”) – he set a bar that’s never again been reached as the ultimate achievement. Even Tiger acknowledges that his “Tiger Slam” of 2000-2001 is not the same thing as a true “grand slam.”<\/p>\n![\"Grand](\"\/b\/imgs\/trap_five\/grand_slam_breakfast.jpg\")
Grand slams, of course, produce four runs. A home run with the bases loaded doesn’t increase a team’s score by five. Or, put another way, courtesy of Jeff Sluman circa 2003: “When you go to Denny’s and order the Grand Slam breakfast, they don’t give you five things, do they?”<\/p>\n
\nThere’s absolutely nothing wrong with hosting a top-tier Tour event. Though Finchem and his PGA Tour cronies act coy when asked if they see The Players as a “fifth major,” it’s well understood that if they could simply declare it a major, they would. They’ve all but done so in allotting FedExCup points, awarding massive prize money, and pushing the whole “platform” as hard as possible.<\/p>\n