The Masters - A Major - Why?

[USER1999]

I think if you question weither The Masters should or should not be a major you don't know the history of the sport and what huge reverence The Masters is when it comes to the world of golf.I suggest you need a golfing history lesson.....

Ok, the tournament was invented to promote bobby jones new golf course from going bust, so he invited some of his pro mates to come and play an invitational comp there to drum up some publicity.

Major material?

 

[BTatHome]

I think removing the "major" part would achieve nothing, apart from possibly to dilute what a major is. All that would happen is that everyone would still play it, with the same reverence as currently and everyone would still quote the number of masters wins with the kudos it currently deserves.

 

[Imurg]

Purely going on History, the Western Open - now the BMW championship - that began in 1899 has more creedence as a Major than The Masters (1934)......
Most of the Traditions of the Masters is Post-War - the Green Jacket didn't arrive until 1949.......

 

[cookelad]

My understanding is that although Arnie came out and said it, the 4 'majors' as they are evolved to be considered as such, obviously the 2 opens are and always will be and the other 2 for whatever reasons just gained enough reputation to make up the big 4 tournaments!

I don't like the fact that the ladies majors appear to be decided on by committee every few years - I heard a commentator say at the Womens British Open about a player "She won this tournament before it became a major" just doesn't sound right to me!

 

[USER1999]

My understanding is that although Arnie came out and said it, the 4 'majors' as they are evolved to be considered as such, obviously the 2 opens are and always will be and the other 2 for whatever reasons just gained enough reputation to make up the big 4 tournaments!

I don't like the fact that the ladies majors appear to be decided on by committee every few years - I heard a commentator say at the Womens British Open about a player "She won this tournament before it became a major" just doesn't sound right to me!

Back in the day, the open wasn't a major either, but people still won it?

 

[cookelad]

Back in the day, the open wasn't a major either, but people still won it?

My point was more about it being a committee decision to rubber stamp the upgrade for the WBO rather than time and reputation. Maybe it just seems wrong because it was a "pre-major" winner is playing whereas anyone who won The Open before it was recognised as a major has probably been in the ground longer than they were on it!

 

[Sweep]

I hear what you're saying but if you take it to the extremes - if the last 10-20 Majors have been won by players in the Top 50, why have anyone other than the Top 50 taking part, or the Top 30 or.....in any Major.

What if the big Argie had won it? On an invitation as a past Champion? Hamilton? Curtis? Tom Watson at the Open at 59. All great stories we would have missed if we only had the top 50 and no past Champions.

 

[Fader]

So they'd start with a 'funky putting' contest and end with a 'putting on glass in the wind'! All they'd need tho to then is trick up the greens to make anything under Par a 'winning' score for the one in the middle - oh heck, they do!

In truth, I think SLH may have been getting hit by balls while practicing his bunker play to consider posing the question. The thought that The Masters isn't a Major is really too ridiculous to consider. That doesn't mean that the attitudes of the 'good folk' who run it matches popular opinion, but that's a completely different question and the same question could apply at tournaments, clubs around the world - and not just in Golf either!

Take it you went for the Open in the vote then.

The current majors are what they are and are more special for it, it's that which makes them harder to win thus making them bigger than all other events.

Plus at the end of the day aren't all golf tournaments just putting competitions at the end of the day. When was the last time you saw the stats at an event that showed the player with the most putts in the field won! It doesn't happen.

Still think there's room for one on the sub continent though especially with the rate of growth in the game there and the number of quality players they are starting to produce.

 

[Foxholer]

Great Tournament and one that always draws people to watch and creates amazing excitment but for me unless it becomes more of an open with a qualifying criteria rather than an invitational it shouldnt really be a major.

People talk about the R&A being steeped and tradition and unwilling to change, I reckon Augusta National take it to a new level.

It certainly has a qualifying criteria! http://golf.about.com/od/majorchampionships/f/masters-qualifications.htm

I agree re the conservativism of Augusta National, but it's their club so they are allowed to be imo.

The qualification criteria certainly look designed to select/invite the elite (or Masters) of the golfing world.

I actually like the fact that there are different qualification criteria for each of the Majors, though the 2 Opens are pretty similar. Likewise, the fact that 1 is constant course, another has a rota and the others are chosen makes each Major and each year interesting too.

 

[Ethan]

Nowadays The Masters is not bad in terms of the field - at least the OWGR Top 50 get in. Even in the 80s and 90s, that was not the case. Only the top 2 or 3 Europeans got in. Look at some of the better (but not quite top) European players of the 50s and 60s - many of them didn't play a single US based major. Christy O'Conor, for example, 10 Ryder Cups, the most until Faldo beat it, not one US major. Likewise players like Bernard Gallacher, never played in the US PGA or US Open and played in one Masters.

The US Tour was well known to be very parochial, and a lot of the players, especially second or third tier players, resented foreigners coming in to spoil their party. Bobby Locke went over in the late 40s and immediately won a load of events, so the Tour fabricated a reason to ban him. Peter Thomson played only a little and did not consider himself welcome, and loads of others did not play at all.

In my opinion, The Masters, therefore should not really be considered a major until the 1980s. Before that it was just a regional Tour event and many of the winners in the early years did not play against anything like the best fields. Even now, the inclusion of past champions with no chance of making the cut, and quite a lot of amateurs, weakens the field. All full field PGA Tour winners are eligible, but no specific non-US Tour events outside The Open count. So Guan gets in for winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur event (which is fine) but the winner of the BMA PGA Championship does not qualify as of right (which is not).

 

[Bucket92]

Does anyone else think the PGA, as well as leaving America, also go back to its match play roots?

 

[Ethan]

Does anyone else think the PGA, as well as leaving America, also go back to its match play roots?

No chance of leaving America. It is run by the PGA of America, not the PGA Tour.

As for the matchplay, the thunder has partly been stolen by the WGC Matchplay. I think the PGA could carve a distinct identity by going to some of the new great American courses, such as Bandon, Chambers Bay, Streamsong etc but instead it is going to a series of former US Open and PGA Tour sites. Pity.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I think if you question weither The Masters should or should not be a major you don't know the history of the sport and what huge reverence The Masters is when it comes to the world of golf.I suggest you need a golfing history lesson and as for the greens well ths is what makes Augusta so different and special.

As it happens I know and have read a lot about the history of golf over the >40yrs I have been playing, and if you were to know me you'd know that I am one serious traditionalists and one who cares for golf, it's traditions and what it means - and that extends beyond it being a damn good game to play.

I am not questioning whether or not The Masters should ever have been a Major. My question is whether TODAY it deserves to maintain that position other than on the basis of it's historical significance. And btw I'm not saying it shouldn't - I'm just asking the question as things popped into my head that suggested there was a question to be asked and answered. It will remain The Masters and will always be The Masters - in the same way as we Brits will maintain that our Open is THE Open and in our eyes it will always be that.

If something relies solely on it's traditions to justify it's existence I think it has a bit of a problem. That is a fact of life.

 

[mab]

Most would rank the majors as... Masters, Open, US Open, PGA.

With the option to play any course in the world... most would choose Augusta.

It would make no sense to ditch the Masters.

 

[Ethan]

Most would rank the majors as... Masters, Open, US Open, PGA.

With the option to play any course in the world... most would choose Augusta.

It would make no sense to ditch the Masters.

Most of who?

In my opinion, more would put the Opens ahead, depending on where you live.

 

[mab]

Most of who?

In my opinion, more would put the Opens ahead, depending on where you live.

I do believe it's a tough call between The Masters and The Open - I put The Masters first as it made a stronger point in this thread.

However, I believe most would prefer to win The Masters over the US Open regardless of home country.

None of the above is important though. The PGA Championship is dead last and, as mentioned, playing Augusta is unachievable and would be the first choice of course to play for the majority of people imo.

 

[stevie_r]

I do believe it's a tough call between The Masters and The Open - I put The Masters first as it made a stronger point in this thread.

However, I believe most would prefer to win The Masters over the US Open regardless of home country.

None of the above is important though. The PGA Championship is dead last and, as mentioned, playing Augusta is unachievable and would be the first choice of course to play for the majority of people imo.

I must be in the minority then, Augusta would not be top of my list.

 

[mab]

I must be in the minority then, Augusta would not be top of my list.

I am, perhaps, being taken too literally.

At your golf club, if you were to pin up a list of all courses ever played in the Masters / Open / US Open / PGA and asked every member of your club to tick the course they would most like to be taken to this weekend to play for free... I believe Augusta would be the most ticked course.

If, the following week, you asked every member... assuming they weren't annoyed that you didn't deliver on your promise the week previous... which course they would most like to be taken to the following weekend to play for free, then the ticks for all previous Masters / Open / US Open / PGA courses would be reduced as the total number of course options has increased. However, I still believe Augusta would be the most ticked individual course.

I may be wrong. It's just an opinion.

 

[Snelly]

The Open championship is the best. Always has been and always will be.

I don't care one iota about the US Open or PGA and have no idea who the current champions are. I just don't give a toss about them.

As for the Masters, I have always thought it was great and love watching it. And I like the fact that the greens are as they are as it makes for a great spectacle in my view. The mess they made of keeping Woods in this year though has left a massive stain though. It has lost some of it's sheen as a result.

 

[Ethan]

I am, perhaps, being taken too literally.

At your golf club, if you were to pin up a list of all courses ever played in the Masters / Open / US Open / PGA and asked every member of your club to tick the course they would most like to be taken to this weekend to play for free... I believe Augusta would be the most ticked course.

If, the following week, you asked every member... assuming they weren't annoyed that you didn't deliver on your promise the week previous... which course they would most like to be taken to the following weekend to play for free, then the ticks for all previous Masters / Open / US Open / PGA courses would be reduced as the total number of course options has increased. However, I still believe Augusta would be the most ticked individual course.

I may be wrong. It's just an opinion.

Well, I think you are not asking the question correctly. You seem to be saying that Augusta National would be the course people would want to play in preference to courses used for The Open, US Open or PGA. That might be true, although it would also have something to do with the facts that ANGC is utterly private whereas all The Open and many of the US Open and PGA venues are not, but also because people have a greater familiarity with ANGC than they do with courses used once every 5 or 10 years.

But in terms of the prestige of the events, I would still place The Open above it, and Americans would probably favour the US Open.