Golf's big schism hurts Players' fifth major claim

The ongoing rift in the men’s professional game hurts the PGA Tour’s long-held desire to have its flagship event be considered a major.

ONGOING DIVIDE: Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, hits from the third tee during a practice round of The Players Championship. Pic: Lynne Sladky, AP

For much of its 50 years, the Players Championship has yearned to be considered a peer to the major championships. ‘The fifth major’ has long been its unofficial moniker, with its merits for grand slam inclusion debated ad nauseam year after year.

At age 50 — with an established legacy of delivering high drama and quality champions on a memorable course with a bloated purse — it seemed like a natural landmark moment to potentially codify the Players as truly major instead of major-ish.

Then came LIV Golf, and the Players’ major campaign went… poof.

Of the damage caused by the ongoing rift in the men’s professional game, the biggest victim might be the Players fulfilling the PGA Tour’s long-held desire to have its flagship event be considered a major.

The PGA Tour’s banishment and exclusion of golfers who defected to join the LIV Golf league diminishes what was once the Players’ strongest argument — that it had the deepest top-to-bottom field in professional golf.

Only the four established majors — the Masters, PGA Championship, US Open, and Open Championship — come closest in today’s divided golf world to bringing together the game’s elite.

“I know what you mean in terms of world ranking and guys that are or aren’t on the tour anymore, but that’s just kind of the reality,” said Justin Thomas, the 2021 Players champion. “I mean, I’m not going to have an asterisk next to my name for winning this because the field wasn’t too good, right?”

Last year was the first Players to exclude LIV golfers, leaving reigning champion Cam Smith to play with friends elsewhere in Ponte Vedra Beach where he resides while the Players went on across town without him.

This year’s Players does not include recent major winners Smith, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and Phil Mickelson or past Players champs Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, and Martin Kaymer.

Nor does it include top players such as Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk, Taylor Gooch, Louis Oosthuizen, and a handful of other players who most certainly would have qualified had they not left for LIV.

“I don’t think it helps the tournament,” said Xander Schauffele. “I mean, I think you would like to have those players playing, in an ideal world.”

It’s a shame that it’s come to this. What former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman started in 1974 at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia, and shuffled to Texas (Colonial CC) and Florida (Inverrary and Sawgrass CC) has become a spring fixture at its permanent home since 1982 at Pete Dye’s Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Beman envisioned the Players as a major-calibre showcase event.

With a stable of winners that includes Hall of Famers such as Jack Nicklaus (three times), Lee Trevino, Ray Floyd, Fred Couples (2), Davis Love III (2), Nick Price, Greg Norman, Tiger Woods (twice), and Mickelson — as well as modern major winners Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Thomas, and defending champion Scottie Scheffler — the Players does not lack for star quality.

Only 11 of the previous 49 Players have not been won by players with major championship wins on their résumés. The other 38 have been won by 30 players with at least one major victory, two with career slams and three more players one shy of career slams.

While the Players’ major hopes might be dead in the water as long as LIV golfers are excluded, its stature as one of golf’s most important championships hasn’t changed.

“I still think it’s the fifth- biggest tournament in the world,” said Shane Lowry, who would dearly like to add the Players to his collection of victories that includes the Open, BMW PGA Championship, and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

“We’ve still got a lot of great players here. Obviously, there’s a few missing but there’s not that many missing. There’s a few, not a lot, you know. So it is what it is.

“Like, those boys made a decision and I’m sure you know some of them might like to be here, some of them don’t care about being here or not.

“You can only kind-of play the cards you’re given and the cards were all given this week and this is the biggest tournament in the world right now.

“I still do think this is the fifth-biggest tournament in the world. I fully believe that. And the winner on Sunday will have played the best golf out of anyone and that’s what’s great about this.”