After 35 years on the professional golf beat, I’ve learned that the most revealing moments in our sport often come not from what happens on the course, but from what gets debated in the clubhouse. Rory McIlroy’s recent comments about The Players Championship and the major championship hierarchy fall squarely into that category—and they’ve got me thinking about the state of professional golf in ways that go far deeper than simple tournament classification.
The Identity Crisis Nobody Wants to Admit
Here’s what strikes me about this debate: we’re having it at all. In my years covering the tour—and I spent enough time in Tom Lehman’s bag to understand how players really think about these things—the majors used to be self-evident. You didn’t argue about them. You just knew. The Masters at Augusta in April, the U.S. Open in June, The Open in July, the PGA in August. Sacred. Immovable. Done.
Now? We’re seriously discussing whether a tournament that only exists because the PGA Tour created it deserves the same status as events that have defined championship golf for generations. That’s not just a scheduling question. That’s an identity crisis masquerading as a compliment.
McIlroy, to his credit, put it eloquently when he acknowledged that
“The Players is one of the best golf tournaments in the world. I don’t think anyone disputes that or argues that. From a player perspective, it’s amazing. From an on-site fan experience, it’s amazing.”
But then he added the crucial caveat that most observers glossed over. He doesn’t think The Players needs the major label—and more importantly, he suggested the PGA Championship’s real problem isn’t what it is, but when it is.
The PGA Championship’s Forgotten Advantage
In my experience, nobody talks about this enough: the PGA Championship used to be the final opportunity each year for a player to claim major championship glory. There was drama in that timing. Urgency. A last chance that carried genuine weight. When the PGA moved from August to May in 2019, it didn’t just shift the calendar. It shuffled the entire narrative of the major season.
McIlroy nailed it when he said what identity the tournament should have:
“I think glory’s last shot. I think it needs to go back to August.”
That’s not nostalgia talking—that’s a player who’s won multiple majors recognizing that a championship needs a reason for being, beyond just having the best players show up.
The PGA tried to counter by claiming its identity is “the strongest field in golf,” inviting the top 100 players without amateurs. Noble, perhaps. But strength of field isn’t an identity. That’s just a fact about who shows up. The Masters has Augusta. The U.S. Open has brutality. The Open has history and links golf. The PGA has… the strongest field? That’s like asking someone what makes them interesting and hearing, “Well, I’m usually in rooms with other interesting people.”
Why The Players Got It Right by Accident
What fascinates me most is that The Players Championship has become nearly as important as a major precisely because it isn’t one. It occupies this sweet spot on the calendar in March—early enough to set the tone for the year, independent enough to stand on its own merit, with prize money and prestige that rivals the majors without any of the historical baggage or annual comparisons that haunt the PGA.
I’ve covered 15 Masters Tournaments, watched every major shift in how the tour operates, and I can tell you: The Players works because it doesn’t have to defend its legacy. The Masters defends Augusta. The Open defends 150-plus years of history. The U.S. Open defends the notion that the toughest test wins. The PGA defends… well, that’s the problem, isn’t it?
The article’s conclusion gets at something important: adding the “major” label to The Players would actually diminish it.
“The truth is that The Players doesn’t need the label to carry its own weight; in fact, not being attached to the majors works in its favor.”
That’s exactly right, and it reveals something uncomfortable about our current golf landscape. We’ve created a tournament so good it threatens to overshadow one of the actual majors, and our solution is to either make it a major or move everything around again.
The Road Forward
If I had to bet, McIlroy’s suggestion about the PGA moving back to August makes the most sense. It gives that championship the thing it’s been missing: genuine narrative weight. It becomes the final chance again. The tournament of last chances. And it does what none of this other shuffling can do—it acknowledges that majors need something more than just good golf and good players.
The Players stays put in March, does what it does brilliantly, and doesn’t need anybody’s permission to matter. The majors return to something closer to their traditional structure. Everyone wins.
But here’s what I really think: the fact that we’re having this conversation at all means professional golf has never been healthier in terms of competitive depth and tournament quality. The problem is a good problem—too many great tournaments fighting for prestige. After three and a half decades covering this game, I’ll take that problem every single time.
