Is anointing more majors the answer to golf’s truncated schedule?
Just 115 days separated the first drive at this year’s Masters Tournament and the final putt dropping at the Women’s Open. It’s a condensed schedule for golf’s biggest events, one dictated partly by daylight, agronomy and geography but also by history and golf’s general disinclination for change.
As is the case every year, there were more than a few grumbles after the R&A shut the gates at Royal Lytham & St Annes after the conclusion of the Women’s Open on August 2. The realisation that eight more months needed to pass before another major championship would be contested feels as imbalanced as the calendar indicates.
Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere might see fewer daylight hours, but it’s a magnificent time of year for golf. Likewise down here as the days grow longer in our spring. That the game’s most significant events are crammed into such a small window of time seems unnecessarily curtailed.
If we consider that the existing majors are held when they are for sound reasons (the soft conditions for the one-off November Masters in 2020 proved that), then perhaps staging more of them is the solution.
Many voices within golf roared with disapproval when the Evian Championship was ordained major-championship status in 2013, the jointly sanctioned LET/LPGA event seemingly buying an elevated standing in the game thanks to a cashed-up sponsor. Perhaps the wrong tournament was upgraded, but the idea had merit.
It was our senior writer Rohan Clarke who first planted this nugget in my mind: women’s golf should have more majors each year, if for no other reason than as a reflection of what have historically been shorter playing careers. The decision around becoming a parent – then how to navigate that parenthood alongside a playing career – is not something you’ll hear discussed on the men’s tours, to say nothing of the once-a-month physical obstacle all female athletes must endure.
Kiwi Lydia Ko earned rapturous support in 2022 when she revealed during an 18th-green television interview that she’d battled her body throughout a round on the LPGA Tour. The impact of period pain and menstrual cycles was finally publicly acknowledged by a high-profile sportsperson. Women cheered, while men (especially those with sisters, wives, daughters and female friends) rightly nodded in quiet approval.
So maybe the two main women’s tours were onto something. Although perhaps five majors isn’t enough – and more majors in the September-to-March window might be the answer. Golf is changing; the majors can, too. And imagine seeing the best players in the world gathering on our side of the equator in February or November for a title of global significance.
Adding majors would break with tradition, however there are several strong candidates ready to accept major-championship status in an instant act of globalisation [see panel].
Logistic and commercial elements aside, it comes down to balance, and whether welcoming more majors dilutes the inherent eminence of being a major champion, but also how in-touch golf wishes to be in 2027 and beyond.
Top 5 candidates to become a major
5. The World Open: If we’re going to grow the total number of majors, why not begin with a brand new one that moves around the world? Oh, and make it a concurrent championship with men and women playing simultaneously for separate titles.
4. South African Open: A major in the Southern Hemisphere is a must, while adding one on a new continent – and a championship with more than 120 years of history – would add instant gravitas. It’d also be a wonderful nod to the global career of 90-year-old Gary Player.
3. Players Championship: It ticks so many boxes, the best of which are field strength and an egalitarian playing test. Its March date would also extend the majors season by a month. The obvious downside is that doing so would place four out of five men’s majors in the United States.
T-1. Women’s Australian Open: As noted above, the combination of available golf courses, catalogue of winners and an ideal spot on the calendar makes perfect sense.
T-1. Australian Open: Those long-ago “fifth major” tags carried a different context in the 1970s than they do today, but history, high-calibre course options and global support make it a logical choice.
Photograph by getty images/Richard Hamilton Smith
