The Majors

I don't know if this has been brought up before but I have thought for a while that playing three of the four golf majors in the U.S. is wrong. With golf needing to be promoted across all the world what would be the harm in having one of the four rotated perhaps across Australia, Asia and Southern Africa? You could still keep the US Masters and Open as they are the 2 most prestigious US majors- I think the US PGA has the feel of any ordinary USPGA tour event- it's certainly lacking something. For years American golfers have been criticised for not playing more tournaments outside the US so this would be a perfect opportunity to take the game to the rest of the world. What do people think?

IMO, there should be one major on each continent: US Open in US (America), The Open in UK (Europe), China Open in China (Asia), Australian Open in Australia (Australia) and South African Open in SA (Africa)

Masters should be like any other competition, especially now when they've slaughtered the course...

Augusta is what the majors is all about don't you think?

No, I don't think that. Why should I?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia The Major Championships, often referred to simply as the "Majors" are the four most prestigious annual golf tournaments in men's professional golf.

Once the majors where the US Open, US Amateur, British Open, British Amateur. There is nothing to say that this could not change again...

I just can't see Augusta not being a major. All the history that is in that place. If you haven't been then you need to go. It is the most beautiful golf course on the planet. What about the 86 Masters when Jack won or Larry Mize's chip in, not to mention all the other memorable moments. In my opinion it is the best of the majors. Since I said that what are everyone else's favorite majors?

The Opens are really the only true Majors. The Masters is a limited field and always presents the same challenge every time.

The Majors have always been the four they are at the moment, peter3. The US Amateur was included in that list because it suits the american media to believe that some of the top guys have another couple of Majors to add to their haul.

The amatuers were included in the "Impregnable Quadrilateral" because at the time the border between amateurs and pros was much more fuzzy. "Majors" was more an invention of the press and probably the R&A and USGA. I still think those 4 should be the counters as far as majors go because they are the pinnacle of the game in each discipline on each side of the pond. The Masters was only included because it suited Palmer, who was one of the instigators of the concept of the Grand Slam, cos he had already won 2 or 3 of them when talk turned to Majors. The USPGA being a Major was probably just the USGA seeking to appease the PGA in an effort to avoid a schism which would weaken the USGA's strength against the R&A when it came to rule making.

Whatever the case the Majors stand as they are just now. Talk of adding the TPC is nonsense, its the PGA Tour trying to feel more important.

As far as moving the Majors as peter3 suggests, its a fine democratic idea which would reflect the balance of world golf, certainly in the coming decades and in the world of pixies and fairies who live in gumdrop houses on lollipop lane, it would probably happen. But The Masters is too important to the PGA Tour now and the USPGA wont relinquish the Major status of their championship. And if you were to have 7 or 8 Majors it would dilute the status of the others. China will certainly be entitled to a WGC event being held there in a few years which is probably as close as you would get.

Augusta.....I dont think they have slaughtered the course, the score only drops through the floor when its flat calm and a little damp. We compare the winning scores at the Open and the Masters unfairly against the other 2 majors. A great player in form with luck going his way at the right times can shoot low numbers at the Open. The exceptionally penal set ups for the US Open and USPGA tend not to allow that kind of thing to happen.

Simply put StevenT, american pros tend not to like to travel, not many of the comforts of home, strange food and customs and foreign languages to deal with. Until that changes there wont be a big push for more non US based Majors.

Despite what I have said the Masters remains my fave Major because of the very fact its held over the same course every year, you get familiar with the place and look forwards to the same holes every year especially amen corner on sunday afternoon.

D.

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I like the Masters and the British Open the best.

The Masters because of the beauty of that course and the atmosphere it generates - I've never been there personally, but you can just sense the magic of the place.

I have vivid memories as a youngster of staying up late in the UK to watch the action on BBC2 and seeing this immaculate course where it seemed the sun always shone. Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam all winning in consecutive years really sticks in the mind, as celebrated as that was in the UK at the time.

The Masters also coincides with the start of the golf season for most of us, as the weather starts picking up in April. Who hasn't sat there watching the Masters just itching to get out there and play their first round of the season?

I also think that, of the US based Majors, the crowds there are the best behaved - it seems that the US Open and the PGA attract a yobbish element ("get in the hole!" etc.) which is regrettable.

The British Open courses offer a different kind of beauty - the windswept links challenge golfers in a way that they are rarely tested on the immaculate parkland settings of most courses on the PGA tour.

Like the Masters, the British Open also benefits from a much more genteel and knowledgeable crowd and a more international feel.

For me, the US Open has become a one trick pony - narrow the fairways (Pinehurst), lengthen the course (Beth Page), speed up the greens (Shinnecock) and grow the rough thick (any and all of them). Trying to protect par at the sake of any excitement.

My only fear is that they keep heading that way with Augusta.

Well then maybe this is a good enough reason to have more non US comps in itself.
Golf is _not_ an American sport.
If American golfers want to challenger themselves against the best in the world they should be willing to travel the world to do it, just like all the non American pros do.
European golfers face the foreigness issue when they go to Asia or SA, thats life, in fact, thats the point of going somewhere else, because its different!

When Bobby Jones made his Grand Slam the Majors where not the same as today.

You misunderstand. It's not the players that have slaughtered it. It's Hootie and his gang that changed Augusta so much for this years comp that even Tiger think they've gone too far.

Majors will go where the tradition and money are.....It cant be changed. The strongest fields and purses reside in the PGA. This is due to a few things.....stability, top players in the world, Tiger Woods, MArketing and Television Revenue, Tiger Woods, history and tradition, and did I say Tiger Woods.

I bet someday the do create a 5th major but I am afraid it would be called the Players Championship.

I am not discounting other tours or belittling the European Tour. I think it is a great tour. These are just my opinions.

It comes down to money. What are the purses like outside of the US?
Event / winner's share
Accenture: $1,350,000
The Players: $1,440,00
Masters: $1,080,000
Byron Nelson: $1,116,000
Colonial: $1,008,000
Memorial: $1,035,000
US Open: $1,125,000
British Open: $1,215,000
PGA: $1,170,000
Bridgestone: $1,350,000
Am-EX: $1,350,000
Tour Championship: $1,170,000

the purses you mentioned above are for the winners....the actual person run between 3-4 million (for the field).

ed

I understood what u meant peter3 about the architectural changes, I just didnt word that bit of the response very well, my apologies.

The four comps Mr Jones won were not known as Majors at the time. The word Major is a more modern invention, back in the day there werent enough tourneys full stop to merit any of them being called majors, it was simply the antiquity and quality of field that set the national opens and amatuer events of Britain and the US apart from the others.

Of course Tiger thinks they have gone too far with the alterations, his driving is now the weak point of his game, tougher drives makes his aim of eclipsing Nicklaus' Masters haul a little harder.

Dont be diplomatic, Indiana , the European tour is fine but its just nowhere as good as the PGA, people always bang on about the Ryder Cup proving our tour is as good as the PGA but lets face it 8 or 10 of the European Ryder Cup Team members are now world players, playing maybe a quarter to a thrid of the time in the states and another quarter in Asia.

Im afraid golf at Major level is an American Sport Gree, everywhere else its a game. America has this great (though sometimes misplaced) knack of turning sports into big business means that the commercial aspects of an American dominated schedule will always hold sway over other considerations. Asia is probably the only market that will compete with the US in the years to come, it's potential is truly amazing. SA is just too risky, massive poverty, horrific crime these are problems that can be masked for a week at a time maybe 2 or 3 times a year but the spotlight of the golfing world on it maybe 10 times a year would be a lot more difficult. Australia is just too remote from a logistical viewpoint.

My hope is that the Majors remain as they are and that the WGC events become very much the accepted second tier below them above the standard tour events.

D.

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fine i wont be diplomatic...
i hate the euro trash that paint their faces and chant songs at ryder cups, solheim cups, and F1 races.......bastards!
eddie

oh yea, cos the American team and their supporters NEVER go over the score at the Ryder cup. Nicklaus or Trevino or probably any other US Ryder cup captain (with the exception of the next one perhaps) would have conceded Olazabals putt at Brookline and made Leonard play on.....but obviously Crenshaw didnt want to join the list of US captains to get bent over at home.....

Theres a world of difference between singing songs and pouring bile at Monty or any other player for that matter......

AMERICAN FANS CHEAT AS WELL, how many times have we seen an american player get a great "bounce" after carving one into the munch, lo and behold their ball sitting on nicely trampled down grass witha cheeky little gap through to the green. Any non US player finds theirs in a footprint, behind a tree, on fire.......

And another thing, Tigers (and Phils,and the rest of the star spangled college clone hegemony)
distances with the driver is even better documented than the movements of Jennifer Anistons hair, so how come the marshals at US tour events are always standing 50 yards short of where his ball will most probably be landing, I think this is two fold, 1. it makes the viewer think he's even longer than fabled and 2. it gives the crowds time to kick the ball into a nice spot for him.

And as I recall, the European Solheim cup team went for a rather nice reserved blue and yellow hair ribbon motif rather than the american line of painting stars and stripes on every spare inch of their faces.......far more composed.....

D.

__________________
Longniddry Golf Club Champ 2005.

In the Taylor Made Bag:

Callaway FT-3 Tour 9.5 Aldila NV 65S

Callaway Steelhead 3 Wood

Callaway Steelhead 5 Wood

Callaway X-16 3-PW

MacGregor Tourney 52 Degree

Cobra Phil Rodgers 59 Degree Rusty

Odyssey DFX 2-Ball

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