PGA Tour Blew Its Best Opportunity to Make The PLAYERS Golf’s Fifth Major

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Cameron Smith wins THE PLAYERS Championship 2022
Cameron Smith hoists the trophy after winning THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Mar 14, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Photo by David Cannon via Getty Images)

There are four majors in professional golf: the Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open and the British Open. Each is owned by a unique entity outside of the PGA Tour: Augusta National (Masters), PGA of America (PGA), USGA (U.S. Open) and R&A (British Open).

This annoys the Tour to no end. Here they are, the professional golf tour that primarily fills out the fields of the major championships, yet they don’t own the rights to any of the four biggest events on their schedule.

So, for decades, the PGA Tour has been promoting the PLAYERS Championship as golf’s “fifth major,” hoping one day it would become official.

“I’ve always thought that the Players Championship should be a major, and considered a major,” said former PGA Tour Commissioner Dean Beman in 2021, when asked if the Players should be designated as such.

“You have to earn your stripes in this game, so early on it was a hope that we could reach that pinnacle.

“But I believe the statue of the tournament, the interest that the players have in it, should make it eligible for that kind of a category [a major].”

And yet in 2023, they had the opportunity right in front of them – a slam dunk case to make it a major – and they blew it.

How so?

Cameron Smith wins THE PLAYERS Championship 2022
Cameron Smith hits a shot on the 18th tee during the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Mar 14, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Photo by Logan Bowles / PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

With the launch of the LIV Golf league, the PGA Tour banned any player who teed it up on the competing tour. Those banned by the tour included some of the game’s most prominent and familiar names: Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, Joaquin Niemann, and Abraham Ancer, among many others.

However, the four majors are permitting these same LIV golfers entry, essentially saying: as major championships, they are separate from the PGA Tour and want the best world class players in their respective fields.

It was teed up so perfectly for Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan to finally add a fifth major to the pro golf circuit. And yet, he didn’t even whiff. He simply never swung.

Monahan and company could have kept their ban in place, while making an exception for the PLAYERS, allowing LIV golfers, who qualify, to tee it up at TPC Sawgrass. Thus, effectively cementing the PLAYERS Championship as golf’s fifth major, forever.

Instead, the PLAYERS will never be golf’s fifth major, and there will now be an asterisk next to the 2023 winner due to the banning of the tournament’s 2022 champion along with many of the world’s best players, including the final top-three finishers in 2022 (1. Cam Smith, 2. Anirban Lahiri and 3. Paul Casey).

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