Every year, the PGA Tour none-too-subtly reignites the fifth major debate with The Players Championship. But no effort has been as unsubtle as the league’s latest provocative ad that boldly claims, “March is Going to be Major,” a kerfuffle that has again sucked in casual fans. And just like every other time, we again face the question: should The Players be the fifth men’s major in professional golf?

The Players-as-fifth-major debate is no newbie, despite the latest push. The debate has been ongoing longer than a lot of casual golf fans have been around. The PGA Tour launched The Players in 1974 as its flagship, and lately they’ve juiced it up: 600 FedEx Cup points like the majors, 80 Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour. Doesn’t that sound like what a major win affords to its champion?

The efforts have always been intentional.

But no matter how hard the PGA Tour tries, The Players Championship struggles to reach golf’s elite level. At least in the minds of most fans. Sandwiched by the majors on the calendar, it struggles to find a place among the majors: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and The Open. Even so, The Players is the next best thing on a golf calendar.

Which is why even when the PGA Tour bosses try to be subtle, they aren’t. Back in 2020, Jay Monahan claimed that despite several such talks, “I can promise you we aren’t concerned with the label,” before adding, “As you know, looking back over time and at how majors are designated, there is no scientific formula or approach, no set criteria. So we set our own criteria for the Players. We strive to be the best tournament in golf.”

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Meanwhile, an unnamed Tour spokesperson told Golf Digest‘s Shane Ryan, “Fans and players have long discussed THE PLAYERS Championship’s status as a major. We understand that is not for us to decide. Ultimately it is up to our sport and its fans to recognize what the professionals who play the game already know.”

Not very subtle, is it? But here are a few reasons why The Players should be considered for this discussion.

The argument in favor of The Players Championship

The most compelling case for dubbing The Players the “fifth major” can be found in its elite field, an argument that Brandel Chamblee, too, made. The Players is pure merit-based, extending invites solely to the PGA Tour’s highest-ranked pros. It can also be an argument against making The Players a major, given that it has a tendency to ignore the top players from the other circuits, like LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, a point Phil Mickelson raised.

On the other hand, the data shows that The Players frequently tops OWGR field-strength scores outside the majors, occasionally surpassing them. For instance, last season, the Masters had a field rating of approximately 396; meanwhile, The Players had a field rating of 462. Interestingly, both events were won by Rory McIlroy. Last season’s The Players hosted 48 of the top 50 golfers, 98 of the top-100 in the FedEx Cup points list, eight past champions of The Players, and 17 major champs.

However, this season, the 144-man field will be cut down to 120, as part of the Tour’s latest policies.

Regardless, this data serves as a compelling argument in favor of The Players, aside from the pros themselves.

Tiger Woods once said, “It’s the best field we play in, on one of the hardest courses we play all year.” McIlroy stated, “If there’s ever going to be a fifth major, it’s already here.” Even Jack Nicklaus once commented that the event “has everything a major needs.”

Remember, the LPGA pros had a similar stance on introducing a fifth major to the schedule back in 2013, but The Amundi Evian Championship is now an essential part of the tour.

Next up, The Players’ iconic host, TPC Sawgrass. Pete Dye’s brainchild boasts a brutal layout and, of course, the fabled 17th island green. That notorious 17th? Even top pros falter there. TPC Sawgrass serves up back-nine tension that rivals majors over every hole. And, in stiff winds, you can expect plenty of dramatic wipeouts.

Remember Sergio Garcia‘s infamous meltdown on the 17th? During the final round of the 2013 Players Championship, Garcia arrived at the hole tied with rival Tiger Woods at 13-under. The 2008 champ then dumped two balls in the water. With Woods safely making par ahead, Garcia’s hopes for a second title vanished. He carded a quadruple bogey, plummeting to 9-under.

Here’s another reminder: this was the same hole where Garcia beat Paul Goydos in a playoff for the 2008 The Players. Exceedingly dramatic!

In fact, over 43 years, we’ve witnessed TPC Sawgrass transform from wild, shot-devouring thicket to a flawlessly groomed course. Fairways got refined (12th reborn as drivable par 4), reshaped (a massive 500,000-pound tree now casting its branch over the sixth tee), and stretched, but it remains the single-most punishing course that punishes stray shots even more than during the majors.

The Players Championship is tough enough that no player other than Nicklaus has won it three times (1974, 1976, 1978). Scottie Scheffler had the chance to win it thrice in a row last season, but McIlroy usurped him.

Meanwhile, The Players also boosts the biggest purse in men’s professional golf, aside from the Tour Championship ($40M). Last season, McIlroy won $4.2M for his Masters title, Scheffler earned $3.4M for his PGA Championship, and $3.1M for his The Open win, and J.J. Spaun pocketed $4.3M with his U.S. Open win. This season, The Players Championship winner will earn $4.5M. Not to mention, it has enough influence over the Tour viewers. Just last season, the ratings climbed from 3.5 million viewers to 3.6 million.

Essentially, however, this particular topic is debatable for multiple reasons. And that is why we asked our readers how they feel about it.

Essentially Golf readers weigh in on the big debate

In our flagship newsletter, Essentially Golf, we asked our readers, “Do You Think THE PLAYERS Deserves a Major Championship Status?” The debate is not as closed-out an argument as you might think. While 52% of our readers said there should only be four majors, 43% vehemently argued in favor of making Players the fifth major.

While discussing the reason The Players should be granted the status of the fifth major, one reader commented, “It has the strongest field. It has one of the most difficult courses. It produces a lot of drama, especially on 17. I know a lot of purists will balk. So, make it retroactive to include all past winners with a major.”

Another wrote, “Absolutely, with the best field in golf on 1 of the hardest courses, just give any 1 who won the Tourney in the past a “major win” retroactively!!”

Don’t balk at the idea just yet. It has precedent.

A third person commented, “HISTORICALLY there were 5 Majors when Bobby Jones won his 4! So why not 5 now? (As an Amateur he didn’t qualify for the PGA championship) Either remove Hagen’s 11 PGA Championships as Majors, or elevate The Players!”

Old Tom Morris’s win against 17 golfers earned him the 1861 The Open title, and it’s still considered a major win. In fact, the major wins by Harry Vardon, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, and many others, in the present context, can be considered retroactive.

Now, picture pre-Masters days when the U.S. and British Amateurs winners were considered as major winners. In 1930, four years before Augusta National’s debut invitational (that would go on to become the Masters), Bobby Jones swept those two, plus the U.S. Open and The Open, thus becoming a Grand Slammer.

Murkiness lingered into the ’60s and ’70s, debating whether Jack Nicklaus’s 1959 and 1961 U.S. Amateur wins counted as majors. “Majors” or “grand slams” could have meant anything from the U.S. or British Amateur, Western Open, Pinehurst’s North & South, Canadian Open, British PGA Match Play, or a motley mix of today’s big four.

In the end, everyone agreed on just four events as the men’s major events: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and The Open. Now, you see them mentioned as majors everywhere: in the guidebooks, in the Hall of Fame criteria, etc. They are majors because we agree they are.

Of course, not everyone is on board with adding a new major.

One reader commented, “Four majors are tradition, no need to change it,” and another wrote, “It’s a closed field! The Open, et al should be furious!”

The Players hosts the best PGA Tour players in what was once a 144-man field. This season onwards, however, it will decrease to 120, as part of the Tour’s new policy. Not to mention, it still effectively locks out all the best LIV and DP World Tour players, simply for playing a rival league (in LIV’s case), as we mentioned above.

On the other hand, the modern Grand Slam sprouted roots in the 1930s but didn’t truly ignite until 1960, when Arnold Palmer and his trusty sportswriter pal Bob Drum hatched the four-event blueprint mid-flight to St. Andrews. Before that? Pure bedlam. But we agreed on these four, and they should remain the only four.

You can pose the question, “Why?” again here.

If we declare The Players a fifth major, we don’t necessarily have to count every winner a major winner. But the virtue, we can and have to, and if you do that, then you have to go back all the way to 1974, essentially awarding players the big status as we did with Sam Snead or even Old Tom Morris. That, in turn, will mess up the history books.

For instance, Nicklaus has won 18 majors and three The Players. If we give it fifth major status, he’d have 21 majors overall. Tiger Woods won two of them, so his total major wins would become 17, and he’d be even further from Nicklaus. At the same time, it may take away the importance of the legends such as Seve Ballesteros, who’d slide down from the all-time major winners list.

Still, here’s the middle-ground: we are fine with The Players being a major, and even many of our readers are. And if the push comes to shove, The Players can, at best, adjust themselves a little to accommodate the best players in the world.