I think pro golf would benefit from an international major, do you?

[Roadking2003]

Except it's only held in the UK. That's not exactly international.

[Roadking2003]

"The Open Championship is the original international major and is hosted by the R&A. They're British, Scottish to be precise. "

 

Scottish is British. All British Opens are held in the UK. That's not international. That's British.

[Roadking2003]

Just like all other opens.

[James the Hogan Fan]

He didn't devalue them, he said they are all on an island (true, though Portrush is on a different, nearby island) and he said 'limited course variation' which, although perhaps oversimplifying, is true; I can't tell the difference between a random hole at Lytham and a random hole at Birkdale, and the links course tradition means a course like Wentworth isn't even up for discussion as host.

You say the ship 'mercifully' sailed, why would you not want to see the PGA or a major go international? Other than the practicalities that keep it from happening, I think it would be fun

[Londoner]

The open. Its called 'The Open'.

[DavePelz4]

I vote we make the COVID-19 China Open Championship.

[DFS PFD]

I think moving the Scottish Master's to Japan every other year would help diversify the game.

[cdnglf]

With the PGL and it’s 18 major schedule, there will be international majors galore.

[c7015]

Has the PGA gone to Hawaii ever, it's about as "international" as I think the PGA would get and I understand the reasoning.

 

We have The Open , The Olympics and to a lesser extent the WGC that are all major tournaments

 

I as a viewer welcome great courses wherever they are.

[Singapore Joe]

I don't think having a major tournament in Australia would be such a bad thing. It would fit nicely into the schedule if played, say, in January far away from actual Majors and there are enough courses that could be a challenge to the professionals and handle all the traffic.

However, Australia is far away and you can't just start calling a thing a Major and expect it to be one. If there was an annual big event here, assuming that the $$ could be forked for it, it would have to fit into the overall schedule so that the players don't need to just fly in for that one event and then back to North America. If there were a few events in the neighbourhood that found a way to attract the top players, then it could over time evolve into something that resembles a Major, whether called that or not. Just a single event far away from North America wouldn't work. But scheduling more than one event would be a challenge in itself.

[farmer]

I enjoy the Australian events, but the PG of A is referring to America. Their largest media/consumer market by orders of magnitude is North America, and they will not surrender that. The Players has been trying to be the fifth major for years without success.

[bscinstnct]

PGL is

 

All Majors!

 

Thats right, cmon down, 18 rockin rollin, heart stopin, monster majors. All in one season!

 

You can tie Jack

 

In one year!

 

 

https://youtu.be/RQrIVZ9EXyc

[Hawkeye77]

And the China Open should be able to use Augusta National right after an LPGA event and before the Irish Open uses the course every year - it's their right! And play The Masters in Crete.

[sethdavidsdad]

No

[NoFancyUsername.]

You could offer a $10 million purse in Australia and you still wouldn't have a "international" field.

A couple of Europeans and an extra 2 or 3 Americans above the 3 that go to Oz and that's it.

They don't like to travel beyond their borders unless they have to.

 

[Hawkeye77]

Australian Open was catching flak a few years ago for the money it was spending on appearance fees, really didn't make much difference in the overall field and some players were still turning down the $.

[DavePelz4]

Maybe the entire PGA Tour season should be played in Iowa and we make Hawkeye the Commissioner! Would save a ton of money on travel and logistics.

[Hawkeye77]

Haha - nobody wants that! But I'd take the salary, lol.

Puts me in mind of Tom Petty - "It's Good To Be King"! Of course, we'd have to limit fields and numbers of spectators and probably only be able to rotate around 2 or 3 courses that could handle the Tour, if even that, so everybody would be thinking that new world tour is looking pretty good. Tour players are fat anyway, taking the Tour to the edge of bankruptcy would toughen them up a little. And change the rules so I can assign caddies from here or elsewhere in the golf world to certain players - that would be fun. Hmmmmm, who to get for Phil? Have to have some key LPGA invites - you are liaison. ;-)

Actually who from anywhere to assign as caddies for a week to certain players sounds like a fun thread, haha.

Based on the above I think I'd have Norman's vote if only the poor, self-absorbed fella had one!

[cdnglf]

 

[billyspan]

Maybe I'm reading the post incorrectly, but the "A" in PGA stands for Association. The original PGA is the British flavor that goes back to 1901. The US version (1916) is officially called the "PGA of America". Curiously, the "US" PGA Championship is much older (1916) than the British version, now called the BMW PGA Championship (1955). The US PGA Championship definitely pulled far away from the other worldwide PGA Championships however, many have a long list of familiar champions. Looks like some had a much more prestigious standing in the past.

Australian PGA Championship (1905)

Irish PGA Championship (1907)

Canadian PGA Championship (1912)

New Zealand PGA Championship (1920)

Japan PGA Championship (1926)

South African PGA Championship (1965)

I have not been "around" long enough to post the wiki links for the past champions list. :(

 

[MidwestGolfBum]

it is association, so you're not the only one reading that post that way. The main reason that the US PGA Championship was able to pull away that it did was money which came from media attention. It was also at a time when the PGA of America was the same as the PGA Tour prior to splitting into separately run organizations and the influx of TV money was quite helpful to both.

[JimmyC59]

I find the whole premise of this thread ridiculous.

[Zen_Golfer]

I dont see how you could have the PGA Championship anywhere outside of the US. Afterall, the, "A" in PGA does stand for, "America".

[Roadking2003]

That's not the official name. It's "The Open Championship".

 

But to millions of us it's the "British Open" or the "British".

[pdl16]

There is one.

The Canadian Open.

Just have to make it the official 5th major????⛳

[rblmp32]

You are kidding I hope. It stands for Association.

[SkiSchoolPro]

Yes, overall, players (football, baseball, basketball, hockey and GOLF) tend to perform slightly better at home than they do on the road. Unlike many sports, top golfers get to set their own schedules (with the caveat that most play in the majors wherever they are located, at least in recent years). Its a definite advantage for US players to have 3 home soil majors. There would likely be more Asian major winners if there was a major in Asia.

[SkiSchoolPro]

He probably meant the invisible "A" (Professional Golfers' Association of America)...they really should call it the GPAA Championship (lol) to avoid confusing it with the PGA Tour (and the fact that most memers are golf pros, not pro golfers).

[rblmp32]

Maaaaaaaaybe. Lol

[Dave230]

Americans have never really realised the advantage they have had by having 3 of the 4 biggest tournaments in their own country every year. Especially at the more boisterous venues when you get USA, USA chants or players like Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia have been harshly treated by crowds. For some players it has been like playing 3 away games out of 4. It's also why the history of the game, especially from an American perspective, sometimes unfairly favours old PGA Tour players over their international counterparts. Looking at the likes of Bobby Locke and Peter Thomson if they were born in a different era. If you look at someone like Christy O'Connor Snr, 10 straight Ryder Cups and 22 European Tour wins, but never played in a single American major. Before the top 50 in the world rankings became a criteria, which wasn't that long ago, many good European players didn't even qualify for American majors and were reduced to a 1/4 of the chance of others to become a major champion, it was the Open or nothing.

At least now all the best players in the world qualify for majors, but if you asked a lot of people outside of the US, they'd would be happy to see the PGA Champ become the world's major.