Dan Rapaport has explained why he deems The Players Championship to be a better golf tournament than the PGA Championship ahead of this week’s event at TPC Sawgrass.
The PGA Tour sparked a fresh debate over where The Players Championship ranks among the biggest events of the year after unveiling their trailer for this week’s tournament.
Advertisement
The trailer included the tagline: ‘March is going to be major’. It appears to be an attempt from those at Ponte Vedra to maximise the potential of the flagship event on the PGA Tour.
Dan Rapaport explains why he would put The Players Championship ahead of the PGA Championship
Some have dismissed the idea of The Players being worthy of major status. It is going to be hugely contentious whenever a significant change is made to the majors, particularly given how it could impact the history of the game.
But that is not to say that the four biggest tournaments of the year are not without fault.
And speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport explained why he would put The Players Championship ahead of one of the four majors.
Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America via Getty Images
“It’s Players Championship week, and I’ve got to tell you something, I don’t know if it’s a major, it’s technically not a major right now, but that’s sort of secondary. It’s a better golf tournament for me than the PGA Championship. In my personal ranking of golf tournaments, it’s fourth,” he said.
Advertisement
“It doesn’t mean that it’s a major, but it’s fourth. I think part of this is because the course is iconic, they return to it every year. We know it. It’s got, according to Ludvig Aberg and according to me as well, the best three-hole finishing stretch of any golf course. And it has an identity. I agree with what Rory McIlroy said a couple of weeks ago [when he said it had more of an identity than the PGA].
“It’s the course, it’s the coverage, it’s 17, having an iconic hole like that, it’s an incredible tournament on site. If you’ve been there, it’s a party. The stadium design of the holes, you can see everything because the right and left sides are risen. It being the first huge tournament of the year, whether it’s a major or not, that whole conversation detracts from what an incredible golf tournament it is.”
The debate over The Players should act as a warning to the PGA Championship
Rapaport’s comments should be viewed as less of a push for The Players to be upgraded, and more of a warning that something needs to change to make the PGA Championship feel more significant.
Advertisement
Each of the other three majors have their identity. The Masters marks the start of the golf season at one of the most pristine pieces of land that you will find on the planet. The US Open should provide one of the toughest tests of the year. And no event has a greater connection to the history of the game than The Open Championship.
The PGA Championship does acknowledge many of the unsung heroes within the game. However, you would arguably struggle to find anyone who puts it at the top of their list of the majors they would ideally want to win.
The debate over The Players should now tempt those in charge of the PGA Championship to look at taking the event around the world.
The Australian Open and LIV Golf Adelaide showed the potential of hosting an event Down Under. Meanwhile, South Africa will almost certainly put on a good show when they host a LIV tournament this month.
With that, you can only imagine how big it would be if the PGA Championship ended up being staged in some of those countries that have been starved of elite golf.
Read the full article here
