Tennis has four major championships in four countries. The World Cups of football, rugby and shuttlecock are played in different places. They don’t always have the Olympics in Greece.
Yet golf’s four showpiece events are played in two countries only? And three of the four tournaments are in America? There’s an unofficial ‘fifth major’, it’s played in Florida.
To have three of the four major professional championships in one country is out of whack given all the countries that play golf, of which there are 206.
If golf is looking to spread its wings and develop these ‘markets’, the fourth major championship should be rotated around the continents: Africa, Europe, South America, Asia-Pacific.
Have a 10-year rota. Take the major to Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, Switzerland, Qatar.
The Middle East should have a major. New Zealand should have a major. Put them on Jack’s Point, or Tara Iti, or Kidnappers in the wind.
Xander Schauffele was a worthy victor at Valhalla. Was 21-under a score befitting a major? PHOTO: Getty Images
The world of golf is having a crack. Augusta National and the R&A throw millions at amateur events in the Asia-Pacific and South America. The DP World Tour has ‘swings’ through Asia, Africa, the Middle East. In 2024 LIV Golf will play 12 tournaments in eight countries.
Of course, the Open Championship should always be played in the UK. The Masters has made a home at Augusta National. And the storied US Open in the great powerhouse of the game befits ‘major’ status. Long may the USGA pour blood-and-bone on rough and brutalise the world’s best players.
And the PGA Championship should travel the world and be the world’s major. Showcase the great courses of the world.
You could still call it the PGA Championship. There are PGAs in other countries that can host it and run it, and make it their own.
Bryson deChambeau provided compelling theatre at Valhalla. PHOTO: Getty Images
And yet, of course, there it was on our screens, as Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland chased Xander Schauffele home at Valhalla, the next four venues for the PGA – Quail Hollow, Aronimink, PGA Frisco, Olympic Club.
Four American courses, four facsimiles of one another, four generic, PGA Tour stops, overly long, beefed up with thick rough, imitations of their big brother, the US Open.
They’ve got the four after that scheduled, also.
Doesn’t mean the USPGA can’t be prevailed upon to unschedule them, to do the right thing for the greater good of the world game of golf.
Yes, convincing the good burghers of the USPGA to give up their baby would take the diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, the salesmanship of Joe Girard, author of How To Sell Anything To Anybody, and the financial clout of, oh, say, a Saudi Arabian investment fund.
Should still be a thing.
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Valhalla? Compelling. It flushed out a finish with the world’s best players going neck and neck down the straight.
There were six, maybe eight, chances with nine holes to play, and twice that many stories as players stood up, fell down, tightened up, brought their best stuff.
And the monkey on Rory McIlroy’s back grew ever heftier. Hovland’s, maybe, too.
Great stories, drama, theatre.
That par-5 18th, many things can happen there, and many did. Hovland fluffed a five-wood. DeChambeau chipped in Saturday, birdied to tie lead on Sunday, and did eccentric, deChambeau things.
A fitting shot for championship Sunday by Xander Schauffele on 18 at Valhalla. PHOTO: Getty Images
And Schaufelle’s 4-iron, standing in the fairway bunker, ball above his feet, the purity of that strike, the draw to the fairway front of green, it won him the championship – though the nerveless chip and six-foot putt helped. And the amphitheatre crowd roared. Top stuff.
Yet even a course beefed up by thick rough and seven kilometres long couldn’t really hold golfers with the strength and driving ability of these, the world’s greatest players.
Schauffele’s 21-under was the lowest mark in major championship golf. He beat deChambeau by one.
You want to test a player’s ball-striking, hands around slick greens, entire central nervous system? Bring the PGA to Royal Melbourne in some weather.
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The Official World Golf Ranking listed deChambeau as world no.124 before the tournament and, as his play showed, if it needed showing, the OWGR, while useful in deciding the best players on the PGA and DP World tours, is no longer relevant.
Bryson deChambeau’s chip-in on 18 on the Saturday was among the best of the PGA Championship’s moments. PHOTO: Getty Images
Simply, the OWGR doesn’t rank the world’s best players. It shouldn’t be used to decide who plays in the world’s best tournaments.
LIV Golf has disrupted the rankings as its disrupted so much else. Like it or lump it, LIV has a dozen world-class players.
And if the OWGR isn’t going to count LIV tournaments, then those people who run the majors – ironically the same people who run the OWGR; Augusta National, the R&A, USGA, PGA (not the tour) – need to just invite whom they like, as they sort of do.
The PGA brings in 20 club professionals. Augusta invites all the former champions. It’s in their own interest to hold a tournament with none of Talor Gooch’s asterisks.
Lucas Herbert shot 74 in the final round to finish 6-under. Jason Day also finished 6-under, while Min Woo Lee’s 67 took him to 9-under. PHOTO: Getty Images
Lucas Herbert was at Valhalla, so was Dean Burmester. Joaquin Niemann was invited to Augusta.
The OWGR needs a re-jig. Or scrapping altogether.
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Final questions:
What to make of Jason Day’s baggy green kit, best described as jungle camouflage meets Colin Cowdrey at a boat race in 1952?
And: what idiot said Scottie Scheffler “will win” and Schauffele was dreaming if he thought he would win the 2024 Wanamaker Trophy? As my uncle Bernard from Ireland would say, “no ordinary eedgit”.
