Take a mulligan: TPC should NOT become a major
There's been a lot of the recurring banter about the TPC, and whether it should become a "fifth major"? USA Today's Jerry Potter has an excellent article about it here.
Frankly, I could really care less about the issue, if it were not for one thing: recognizing 5 majors will screw up the uniformity of conditions between Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. If Tiger is to break Jack's record of 18 majors, the conditions should remain as uniform as possible.
Making the TPC a fifth major now will effectively give Tiger many more attempts at majors than Jack. We could try to retroactively recognize Jack's 3 victories at the TPC, but those weren't even at Sawgrass (which became the site in 1982). The retroactive recognition of Jack's TPC victories would also be unfair in that the TPC only started in 1974, 12 years after Nicklaus became a pro. Jack would get short changed in the end, even though he currently has a 3-1 edge on Tiger in TPC victories. True, Tiger has won only 1 TPC, and it doesn't appear based on his stats that the TPC is Tiger's favorite tournament. But Tiger's got many years left to go, so making the TPC a "fifth major" would give Tiger a disproportionate number of attempts at winning a major compared to Jack. Bottom line: don't make the TPC a "fifth major" for the simple reason that it would screw up Tiger's run. Viva el tigre!
8 Comments:
The only reason that the 'TPC as a major' discussion comes up over and over again is that the PGA Tour feels left out of club when it comes to owning a major tournament.
Every year we hear the knocks at the PGA for having a 'weak field', which is a back-handed swipe at the PGA of America and all of those hacker club pros they represent. The PGA Tour should get over it, there are 4 majors and everybody knows which tournaments they are.
The PGA Tour reminds me of the spoiled billionaire who has everything a person could ever want but still isn't satisfied.
Interesting suggestion, sirspangler. In the past few years, I think the PGA Championship has been fantastic, though. Much fairer than the U.S. Open, which really got out of hand at Shinnecock, but still a stern test.
I can't really agree. The definition of a major has always changed over the history of golf and it will continue to do so. I understand that one would like to keep apples to apples with Tiger and Jack, but Jack already has an unfair historical advantage over Vardon, Jones, Hagen, Sarazen, Nelson, Hogan and Snead, who only had the opportunity to compete in a fraction of the majors that Jack did. If you read these guys biographies, you will hesistate to call Nicklaus the greatest golfer of all time based on 18 major victories.
To be recognised as a truly "global"sport,the venue of the 5th Major could be somewhere else,say Australia,South Africa ..or even in up-and-coming China??A true champion should be versatile in MOST conditions.
The discussion for a "Fifth Major" is F-ing crazy. Who needs another major? Four is enough.
Regarding the Players Championship being designated a major, the TPC at Sawgrass is a fine course, but not worth the designation of a yearly major. It is in great shape since the reconstruction, but the players can still shoot extremely low scores, and the design is anything but traditional. I do love the move of the tournament to May to give fans a great tournament once a month for 5 concurrent months.
As for the PGA Championship, I have loved the last few championships. Unfortunately, with the alterrations to Augusta, only the Open championship distinguishes itself from the other three majors. That may be an early and unfounded prediction for Augusta, since we have not seen how it plays in a tournament setting, but three of the majors have trended towards taking the shorter hitters out of the running (and yes, there have been exceptions, like Weir).
As for a fifth major, I wouldn't mind seeing one created as a world event. Played outside the U.S. and British Isles. Sure, it would hurt the comparison of current golfers vs. their past counterparts regarding majors won by a single player, but it would help to promote the game of golf. As it stands, the WGC tournaments were supposed to do this, and yet most are played in the U.S. perhaps the same difficulty it has met regarding holding an event worldwide would be felt for this major. But its standing as a major would help it to get past the difficulty of getting players to attend, as the WGC has experienced. Money is no longer a factor for the top players, but the title of major winner will never be deminished.
Thanks, Mr. Anonymous, for your PC addition to this blog! Can we all sing Kum-by-ah now? Golf is already "global" by virtue of players of numerous nationalities being represented on the world's various tours. So in your opinion, the addition of say, a "Bejing Open" to the major list will somehow add to the credibility of golf? Take another puff.
On (baseball) stat comparison inequalities: Barry Bonds.
On (golf) short hitter inequalities, Element21.
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