Why The Players Championship Doesn’t Need ‘Major’ Status

It’s an important tournament and the champion will have a notable result when The Players Championship wraps up on the weekend.

But it’s not a major championship, as CEO Brian Rolapp confirmed at his press conference on Wednesday morning.

Frankly, it doesn’t need to be. That's because golfers heading out looking to conquer TPC Sawgrass this week find plenty of value in the event without a certain prestigious designation, and fans agree.

“I know there's a lot of talks about it being a ‘fifth major’ and I don't know necessarily if it should be another major, but it sure feels like it to me,” Sahith Theegala said.

Theegala acknowledges the debate that tends to pop up each year when the tournament is about to begin. It starts Thursday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Yet what makes the majors special is that there’s so few of them. Granted, with the addition of the signature events, that does tend to push the TPC into its own category – above those signature tournaments, yet below the majors.

And that’s OK. But let’s not call it a major.

That’s reserved to begin in April with the Masters, when the sports calendar is pretty much cleared to place emphasis on that tournament.

Still, there’s going to be plenty of clamor about this week’s tournament, as well there should be.

World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler will take his turn, looking to win the tournament for the third time in a four-year stretch.

“You got to strike it well,” Scheffler said. “Around that golf course when you’re hitting the ball in the right spots, you can shoot some low scores.”

Scheffler said the course demands certain attention. How golfers lofted shots onto greens last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational will be different at TPC Sawgrass. It’s something he said golfers “get used to that as the week goes on.”

The TPC demands attention because of the quality of its champions – and the rankings of its competitors. This year, 46 of the top 50 players in the world rankings have entered.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is the defending champion and he has won twice in the last six editions of the tournament (there was no event in 2020 because of the pandemic).

Since Tiger Woods won for the second time in 2013, the list of champions has included, in part, Rickie Fowler, Australia’s Jason Day, Webb Simpson and Justin Thomas.

McIlroy withdrew from weekend rounds in the Arnold Palmer Invitational because of an ailing back, so it’s possible that his status won’t be totally clear until the first round begins Thursday afternoon.

Given the TPC’s status, it figures that McIlroy will make every effort to be a participant. He and Scheffler are each bidding to become the event’s first three-time champion since Jack Nicklaus (1974, 1976, 1978), though only the last of those was contested at TPC Sawgrass.

Whoever wins this week will have secured a special achievement in a tournament that doesn’t need to be lumped in with the majors.