Argument Still Is a Major Topic

You would expect that a tournament run by the pro players themselves would be a major, and even if the aptly named Players Championship doesn’t quite belong in that select group, the tournament has a certain cache.

Or cash.

The total prize money is $8 million, the highest on the PGA Tour, which means that beginning today, the richest players in golf are playing in the richest tournament on the regular schedule.

There are changes coming up soon for the Players Championship, the biggest of which is a new date. The tournament will move to May in 2007. Also, the fairways at the TPC Sawgrass will be reseeded, and the 25-year-old, too-small clubhouse will be replaced by an $18-million version. As for whether a new clubhouse, new fairway grass and a new date will elevate the Players Championship into the land of the majors, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem answered it enthusiastically Wednesday:

“Well, we already think it’s No. 1.”

Finchem, who has agreed to a six-year extension, wasn’t being serious, but he also has never been shy about promoting the Players and nudging it onto the table whenever the topic is majors, what is one and what isn’t.

Right now, the Players isn’t -- unless the number of majors is expanded to five instead of the historical four.

Some have said the Players is already a major. Others aren’t so sure.

“The fifth major is what they call it,” said J.B. Holmes, who wasn’t certain. “It’s a big tournament.”

There isn’t any argument about that. The Players is known for having the toughest field, and it’s no different this week, with Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson on hand. It’s the first tournament of the year in which all of the top-10 players are expected.

Holmes is a rookie and playing the TPC at Sawgrass for the first time. Actually, he has played the infamous par-three 17th with the island green before, in a video game.

The 17th won’t change next year, but much of the rest of the place will, what with the new Mediterranean-revival style clubhouse rising out of the reclaimed north Florida coastal swampland.

Finchem said the new digs would be a better place to entertain such corporate pals as

UBS and Price Waterhouse. When it comes to corporate partnerships, the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament is already a major.

But the major debate is far from settled and certainly won’t be done by next May when the Players gets a new date.

There are two ways to argue this question:

1. Its stature as a tough tournament with a world-class field makes the Players Championship a major.

2. Yes, it’s a great tournament but there are only four majors, the Masters, the PGA Championship and the U.S. and British Opens.

The reasoning behind No. 2: There are Seven Dwarfs, 12 Days of Christmas, Three Stooges and four majors.

Finchem points out that it wasn’t always that way, at least the part about the four majors. He likes to say that over time, some events were able to raise themselves in stature and became known as majors while others slipped in the other direction.

“At some point ... stature meant calling the Masters a major. At some place along the way ... the Western, which had been called a major, wasn’t called a major anymore.”

Finchem said Arnold Palmer’s victory in the 1960 British Open at St. Andrews began talk of the modern grand slam. “So these things move around.”

Maybe that’s what is really behind the Players Championship moving to May. It’s a setup. The Masters is in April, the Players in May, the U.S. Open in June, the British Open in July and the PGA in August. That’s the schedule. Or, in other words, major, not major, major, major, major.

Finchem may be right and it may be only a matter of time before the Players Championship acquires enough history and gains enough stature that no one can argue it doesn’t belong with the four majors.

History and stature are not manufactured, they happen, and not simply, even when the prize money is piled as high as $8 million.