The Majors & the Future

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by saskriders

Winning an Olympic medal will be seen as huge though, especially considering you will have to get through a qualifying tournament too

Well, the guy who won the Johnnie Walker Classic on the Nationwide Tour had to get through a qualifying tournament at some point.  Doesn't make it a major.

Originally Posted by Wansteadimp

I hope so but can't see it, who bangs on about Olympic Gold medals in tennis? The only one I can remember is Steffi Graf and then only because she did it in the same year she won all four slams.

Are there going to be qualifying tournaments or will they just go off the World Rankings at a given date?

I assume it will be similar to the US Am format.  Each country will qualify its players; all will play a stroke-play qualifier (36 holes?), and the top-32 will play a match play bracket format.  Has the format been announced?

[BallStriker]

Olympic Golf will be a 72 hole, stroke play tourney

as i understand it, the top 15 in world rankings get in (regardles of country) and then world rankings are used to fill the remaining spots (but only 2 players from any country that are outside the top 15).....60 players total.......not sure if there has been recent discussion on change, but this is what i heard.

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by BallStriker

Olympic Golf will be a 72 hole, stroke play tourney

as i understand it, the top 15 in world rankings get in (regardles of country) and then world rankings are used to fill the remaining spots (but only 2 players from any country that are outside the top 15).....60 players total.......not sure if there has been recent discussion on change, but this is what i heard.

I wasn't aware that was the format, but that's stupid.  So Zimbabwe can field an Olympic golf team, but they have no chance of actually playing for a medal because they have no golfers in the top 60 in the world?  That's not what the Olympics are about.

Maybe I'm understanding it wrong, but it won't be the Olympics.  It will be a WGC event.  Or a mini-olympics, with only 8 or 9 countries represented.

[The Recreational Golfer]

The U.S. Open and the British Open, the championships of golf's two governing bodies, aren't going anywhere.

The Masters isn't going anywhere, because even though it isn't really a championship of anything and thus not a major, so many people have drunk the Augusta Kool-Aid we're going to have to keep putting up with it, so there's three.

The PGA Championship? Dump that but keep the Masters? Never happen.

The Players? We already have one major too many. We don't need two.

[allin]

Besides tradition the forces behind majors are money, where the best players come from and a large number of golfers. Asia is the area most likely to combine these elements in the future. If a large number of Asian pros are in the top 50 and 3 or 4 are top 10 for an extended period then their travel and playing preferences affect what happens. Right now tradition, USA money, number of participating golfers, number of top pros from the USA and other English speaking countries, travel and weather all favor the status quo. Eventually Asia may develop a tournament that replaces the PGA as the fourth major. My guess is that 20 years or more is a likely time frame.

[tristanhilton85]

Originally Posted by The Recreational Golfer

The Masters isn't going anywhere, because even though it isn't really a championship of anything and thus not a major, so many people have drunk the Augusta Kool-Aid we're going to have to keep putting up with it, so there's three.

Except it is a major...

[The Recreational Golfer]

We do not live in a perfect world . . .

[Wallstreet]

I don't think they will drop any of the majors.  And I don't think they will ever add a major. Golf has always been about tradition.  The Masters is the youngest major and if that never gets dropped (which it wont) I don't see any of the older majors going.

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by Wallstreet

I don't think they will drop any of the majors.  And I don't think they will ever add a major. Golf has always been about tradition.  The Masters is the youngest major and if that never gets dropped (which it wont) I don't see any of the older majors going.

Well, technically speaking, the Masters and PGA Championship are the same "age" as far as Majors are concerned, because neither was referred to as a Major prior to Arnie's comment in 1960 about winning a "a kind of slam of his own".

And, the PGA Championship is a championship of the PGA of America.  It's not a national championship, or whatever the Masters is.  So long as the USA remains the center of gravity of world golf, then the PGA's position is secure.  However, as golf grows more globally, I can see the global golf community gravitating away from the PGA of America, and the PGA Tour in general.  I'm not predicting that, specifically, but it certainly seems plausible that it can happen.  In that case, I could see another national Open replacing or augmenting the Majors circuit.  The Australian Open has been a pretty big deal for the last decade or so, and it's played on a Major caliber golf course.  If, in 50 years, the PGA Tour leaderboards look like LPGA leaderboards do now, then it's not inconceivable that a fifth tournament with just as much prestige as a Major could arise somewhere in Asia, and people might tire of going to Oklahoma in August.

It could happen.  Golf has a lot of tradition, but professional golf, particularly as we know it now, isn't that old comparatively.

[brocks]

Well, technically speaking, the Masters and PGA Championship are the same "age" as far as Majors are concerned, because neither was referred to as a Major prior to Arnie's comment in 1960 about winning a "a kind of slam of his own".

Arnie's remarks, and the media hype that followed, set the four majors as we know them in concrete, but the Masters and PGA were certainly referred to as majors long before that. In fact, the British Open declined in prestige so much after WW II that some golf writers stopped referring to it as a major, and spoke of the "three majors," i.e. the Masters, US Open, and PGA. It's important to remember that before things like WGR points and FedEx Cup points, the only thing that made a major a major was public consensus, and exemptions. And by that standard, the PGA was the "majorest" of them all, because winning it got you a lifetime exemption to every PGA event.

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by brocks

Arnie's remarks, and the media hype that followed, set the four majors as we know them in concrete, but the Masters and PGA were certainly referred to as majors long before that. In fact, the British Open declined in prestige so much after WW II that some golf writers stopped referring to it as a major, and spoke of the "three majors," i.e. the Masters, US Open, and PGA.

Okay, good point.  I was thinking that they more or less "evolved" as Majors with speculation (hype) that year that Arnie might win the slam.

Of course, the underlying point still remains:  if the Open Championship could cease to be called a Major, then it could certainly happen to the PGA Championship.  Avoiding Oklahoma in August might not be as compelling a reason as avoiding the Luftwaffe, but people are soft these days.  Golf is more fickle that people give it credit for.  Although the commercial machine built around the Majors is formidable, and at this point is like a self-licking ice cream cone.

[Patrick57]

I can't think of a country or continent that could possibly make an argument for holding a major. However, if it were to be decided on beauty and prize money then South Africa would probably be my choice. By pure volume of golfers, I would choose Japan. For the amount of major winners in recent times and the fact that half of the western world seems to have originated from there, I would choose Ireland. To give the honour to a country with a big chip on its shoulder, I would choose Germany. And finally because the game will probably be dominated by them as soon as they learn how to grow, I would give it to China

[MEfree]

Lots of thoughtful comments so far, many of which I agree with- no immediate changes but you never know what the future holds with trends moving in the direction of Asia and the S Hem.

Originally Posted by BallStriker

Olympic Golf will be a 72 hole, stroke play tourney

as i understand it, the top 15 in world rankings get in (regardles of country) and then world rankings are used to fill the remaining spots (but only 2 players from any country that are outside the top 15).....60 players total.......not sure if there has been recent discussion on change, but this is what i heard.

Originally Posted by k-troop

I wasn't aware that was the format, but that's stupid.  So Zimbabwe can field an Olympic golf team, but they have no chance of actually playing for a medal because they have no golfers in the top 60 in the world?  That's not what the Olympics are about.

Maybe I'm understanding it wrong, but it won't be the Olympics.  It will be a WGC event.  Or a mini-olympics, with only 8 or 9 countries represented.

Yes, according to what Ball Striker wrote, it is limited to 60 players, but not the OWGR top 60.  It sounds like you will have the top 15 in the world regardless of country and then up to 2 players from each country outside the top 15.  My interpretation is that the 45 players outside the top 15 would come from at least 23 different countries (due to the max of 2 per country).

I don`t think this will be viewed as a major anytime soon, but it still will make the winner happy/proud.