Next Monday, the major-championship season will be complete for 2026 despite almost five months remaining in the year.
Additionally, it will be an eight-month wait for the next major in what feels like an unnecessary gulf in the golf calendar.
FROM THE VAULT: Why the golf calendar is more divided than ever
Only 115 days will separate the first shot of the Masters on April 9 and the final putt at the AIG Women’s Open on August 2, a window in which all nine major championships (not including senior majors) were held.
Part of the reason for such a truncated timeframe during which the game’s most cherished championships are played is the short nature of the better weather in the northern hemisphere. But that geographic lopsidedness is part of golf’s timing problem on a world scale.
However, not everything can or should change. The COVID Masters of 2020 proved why April is the ideal month for golf’s most revered tournament (as opposed to championship). The soft conditions and record scoring that November served as a perfect reminder that even the lords of Augusta National can’t thwart Mother Nature. Not entirely, at least.
So in any revision of the calendar, you wouldn’t mess with early April and the Masters.
Likewise, to accommodate the large fields of the national championship of the United States of America and the Open Championship, you need the maximum daylight hours afforded either side of the solstice. That the Los Angeles Olympic Games is forcing the 2028 Open Championship into August will illustrate the difference even just a minor shift in dates can make on that front.
So, once again, those events can’t really budge from June and July.
Two majors have tinkered with their timing in recent years – the PGA Championship and Evian Championship. The former switched from August to May in 2019 and the latter from September to July that same year, primarily for more favourable weather.
Meanwhile, the playing order of the other women’s majors hops around based on venues and the rest of the schedule. Sometimes the US Women’s Open is held in July, other times in June – or even late May.
Yet all along that April-to-August cadence remains.
MORE IDEAS: The Zaharias Cup is an idea whose time has come
If golf were ever to venture outside that timeline, the key would be to head south of the equator.
There’s a rising groundswell in golf circles for the men’s PGA Championship to move outside the USA. The PGA of America wants no such dilution of its annual funding source, of course, but for the good of the game, it should happen on occasion.
Think about it. There are PGAs around the world – including in Australia – that could co-host the championship with the American set. That opens opportunities for major-championship golf in places like South Africa, South America and here, as well as Japan and Canada if the broader game is hellbent on staying in the northern hemisphere. As the men’s major with the least prestige, it would catapult the championship to new heights.
Taking that idea a step further, why not usher the AIG Women’s Open outside the United Kingdom? Or, if that’s too geographically egregious, inaugurate a sixth women’s major. Imagine the best golfers in the game tackling Royal Melbourne or the fabulous Jockey Club in Argentina in October or November (or even February) with a major championship on the line.
Some traditions are worth breaking. And it’s about time – in more ways than one.
