The Men's Fifth Major

[diehllane]

This thread is like one of those brainstorming sessions they have over at Apple. Here at golfwrx, we are crafting solutions for tomorrow, today.

 

The real 5th major should be global galactic.

 

 

Then it's settled. The fifth major shall be the Lunar Open. Talk about unique playing conditions.

 

It's a great idea, but the R&A will screw it up. The 612 yard par 3 skirting the Sea of Tranquility will likely have an impossible-to-hit grey. The players starting on the light side of the moon will have a distinct advantage. Only the ultra-wealthy will be able to attend in person, giving rise to conspiracy theories regarding whether the LO ever really happened. I still think it's worth a shot.

My main concern (and Dustin Johnson's), what are going to be considered bunkers up there...

[playa]

[quote name='JamesFoote' timestamp='1405575689' post='9718065']
[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1405575141' post='9718051']
[quote name='JamesFoote' timestamp='1405573618' post='9717973']
Would anyone else like to see some form of matchplay in a major championship? Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't the PGA Championship used to be played as 36 holes with the top 32 or so going into matchplay? I'm not sure if that's how it actually went, so do correct me.

I think matchplay is some of the most fascinating and exciting golf and it creates a huge buzz. Something about the electricity in the air with matchplay, gives me goose bumps
[/quote]

Bad for ratings though when your top seeds get knocked out after Round 1, plus the final day is a bit of a tedious walkathon.
[/quote]
Fair points. If you are lucky enough to have 2 big guns in the final though, it does make it feel like a proper final. Pretty cool.
[/quote]
Matchplay is exciting as hell as a teams format with multiple matches running, but as an individual event it has nothing going for it. Individual events need that buzz of multiple players jockying for the lead on the Sumday back nine, which only stroke play can provide. Matchplay already has the Ryder Cup which is as big as any major and probably the highest drawing event going, there is no need to add a matchplay major.

[playa]

[quote name='kemau' timestamp='1405469565' post='9708365']
[quote name='Exist' timestamp='1405467987' post='9708211']
I honestly think Australia needs a major. It would bring massive interest in from the public as well as sponsors.

It would virtually guarantee the top 50 players in the world would come down to Australia to participate.
[/quote]

i agree oz should get some love and have a major there....a place that has produced so many top notch champions deserves it. but the tournaments already held there now don't attract much interest from the top 50. also, the pga of australia has had several issues that i've heard of but can't speak on specifically. maybe you can fill us in or are things on the rise? i saw nothing but good things when the presidents cup was held down there but the momentum seems to have been lost. when the guys go down there late in the year i watch all of those tournaments though. the courses are spectacular

[url="http://www.scmp.com/sport/golf/article/1298301/australasian-tour-suffers-under-pga-tour-heat"][b]Australia struggles to stay relevant in PGA Tour schedule[/b][/url]

21 August, 2013

As the heavyweight US PGA Tour revamps its schedule and continues to expand internationally, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the world’s other tours to survive, let alone thrive.

Nowhere are the problems more acute than in Australia, a proud golfing nation that has produced some of the game’s greatest players, including this year’s Masters champion Adam Scott and former world number one Greg Norman.

The PGA Tour of Australasia has shrunk considerably since the halcyon days of a couple of decades ago when Japanese sponsorship money and the regular presence of home-grown superstar Norman combined to create a perfect storm that yielded a dozen or more world-class tournaments.

This year, the tour has dwindled to just four tournaments offering prize money of at least US$1 million (HK$7.78 million). That might not be too much of a problem if the country’s top players competed in all four, but this will not be the case.

Among the notable absentees will be Australian veteran Stuart Appleby, a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour who intends to skip his home circuit for the first time.

“I haven’t got any plans to play in Australia this year,” Appleby, 42, told Reuters. “It will be the first time I’ve aborted the whole schedule.

“The new schedule has made it really difficult and unfortunately there is very little making Australia look like a proposition now (for us) to come back and play.

“Many of us have done it for 15 years or so but you may find that this is now a trend and that you’ll see very few guys (going back to Australia to play).”

The PGA Tour of Australasia faces several problems, but perhaps none is greater than the fact that three of its four big tournaments (in October and November) will clash with the start of the this year-14 PGA Tour season.

For the first time, the US circuit will officially launch its season in October, rather than in January, and six events will be played in late this year, with two of them in Asia.

It is no coincidence that the Australian Open, the only event on the PGA Tour of Australasia that does not clash with the this year-14 PGA Tour, will have the strongest field.

Masters champion Scott will help soften the blow this year by playing in three events - the Australian PGA Championship in Queensland (Nov 7-10), the Australian Masters in Melbourne (Nov 14-17) and the Australian Open in Sydney [November 28-December 1).

But, as Appleby observes, Scott cannot be expected to prop up the tour indefinitely.

“Adam is going to put in a fair effort this year and that’s awesome of him but he can’t be held accountable for holding the torch the next five years,” Appleby said.

“I love playing in Australia and truly wish I could but the Australian tour is a small tour and insignificant on the world stage compared to the other tours.

“Asia [where the PGA Tour has mainly expanded] has made a big difference. The whole landscape has changed, and I don’t know how Australia is going to deal with that change in scheduling.

“Corporately we’re a strong economy and yet we’ve had our prize money drop in golf. It’s going to take a miraculous amount of ingenuity to get our prize money back to where it was.”

The irony is that Florida-based Appleby will still visit Australia toward the end of the year - on a holiday with his family.

“Older guys like me have kids locked into school [in the US],” he said.

“It’s unfortunate but I feel like all the Australian guys, we’ve put our time in. I’ve done as much as I can and I hope there’s a way we can move forward in five years, but I’m not sure how that’s going to be possible.”
[/quote]
It's a shame we don't get the respect of the PGA down here. Oz has some of the greatest championship courses on the planet. Els used to comment that he would go out of his way to play events at Royal Melbourne cause the greens were the best in the world and he just loved playing the course. Lots of top Americans refined their games playing the hard fast Aussie courses of the Aussie tour. Curtis Strange and Payne Stewart played the Oz tour in the days before they could comand appearance fees. They played for the betterment of their games. Sneds was here a few years ago and said more Americans should come out as it would benefit their games playing our courses. When we hadthe Presidents Cup here 3 years ago Freddy encouraged his team to play the Oz Open the week before and it was a great tournament which the players loved. There would also be no worries about crowds either as seen when Tiger came to Melbourne in 2009. Sold out every day. It might never happen, but a major in Oz would be a true major championship.

[KrazyTrain18]

There is no 5th major and none of the current events have the even a sniff of the same atmosphere around it aside from the Ryder Cup which obviously can't become a major or we would see posts declaring Westwood & Garcia in contention for GOAT.

[playa]

[quote name='KrazyTrain18' timestamp='1405582355' post='9718259']
There is no 5th major and none of the current events have the even a sniff of the same atmosphere around it aside from the Ryder Cup which obviously can't become a major or we would see posts declaring Westwood & Garcia in contention for GOAT.
[/quote]
But what comes first, the chickenuor the egg? If the Players or the Oz Open were made a major, you would see more than a sniff of major atmosphere about them. How much atmosphere you think the Masters would retain if they took the major status away or if it never had it to begin with?

Get a clue before making such ridculous comments.

[kellygreen]

[quote name='Ashley Schaeffer' timestamp='1405542090' post='9715067']
[quote name='kellygreen' timestamp='1405536165' post='9714333']

You are entitled to your opinions....

But everyone ELSE is entitled to THEIR opinions about YOURS.

...and frankly, calling you a troll is rather charitable.

The only other option is to believe you truly are that profoundly ignorant about links golf, and history of golf as a whole.
[/quote]

Sounds like you have your opinion about me. I respect it.
[/quote]

I have no opinions about you as a person. You could be the nicest guy I'd ever want to meet, and are probably a reasonable guy.

I DO, however, have opinions about your level of golf knowledge.

Referring to the great links courses of England and Scotland "parking lots" not only shows a breath-taking level of ignorance about links golf, it shows a similar level of ignorance about the history of the game. So believing that you are doing this deliberately, is somewhat more charitable assumption about you, than actually believing that you are this poorly-informed.

Links golf IS golf. The Open plays its championships on these courses, not just becaue they are some of the oldest, and most storied courses in the history of the game....they also represent the game in its oldest and purest form.

Parkland golf---what we typically play here in the US and other parts of the world---is the diluted form of the game. The WIND and weather for the first historical defense of a golf course, and is the primary defense of any links course. Parkland courses have to add trees, deep rough, water hazards and other artificial obstacles as a means of defending courses where the weather is benign.

If you tried to add those kinds of artificial obstacles to a links course, it would quickly become unplayable the first time a 40 mph wind and blinding rain blew in off the firth.

The beauty of links golf is that the courses are such that they give themselves up to a wide variety of approaches when the weather is mild, and there is little wind. But as soon as you start to get winds up to 20mph...the courses get tough. Fourty miles per hour..and you are staring int the gaping maw of a beast.

[Marrrk]

[quote name='playa' timestamp='1405579904' post='9718195']
[quote name='JamesFoote' timestamp='1405575689' post='9718065']
[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1405575141' post='9718051']
[quote name='JamesFoote' timestamp='1405573618' post='9717973']
Would anyone else like to see some form of matchplay in a major championship? Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't the PGA Championship used to be played as 36 holes with the top 32 or so going into matchplay? I'm not sure if that's how it actually went, so do correct me.

I think matchplay is some of the most fascinating and exciting golf and it creates a huge buzz. Something about the electricity in the air with matchplay, gives me goose bumps
[/quote]

Bad for ratings though when your top seeds get knocked out after Round 1, plus the final day is a bit of a tedious walkathon.
[/quote]
Fair points. If you are lucky enough to have 2 big guns in the final though, it does make it feel like a proper final. Pretty cool.
[/quote]
[b]Matchplay is exciting as hell as a teams format with multiple matches running[/b], but as an individual event it has nothing going for it. Individual events need that buzz of multiple players jockying for the lead on the Sumday back nine, which only stroke play can provide. Matchplay already has the Ryder Cup which is as big as any major and probably the highest drawing event going, there is no need to add a matchplay major.
[/quote]

Which, unfortunately, just further underlines why the upcoming Olympic format is such a huge missed opportunity.

[playa]

[quote name='kellygreen' timestamp='1405596905' post='9718953']
[quote name='Ashley Schaeffer' timestamp='1405542090' post='9715067']
[quote name='kellygreen' timestamp='1405536165' post='9714333']

You are entitled to your opinions....

But everyone ELSE is entitled to THEIR opinions about YOURS.

...and frankly, calling you a troll is rather charitable.

The only other option is to believe you truly are that profoundly ignorant about links golf, and history of golf as a whole.
[/quote]

Sounds like you have your opinion about me. I respect it.
[/quote]

I have no opinions about you as a person. You could be the nicest guy I'd ever want to meet, and are probably a reasonable guy.

I DO, however, have opinions about your level of golf knowledge.

Referring to the great links courses of England and Scotland "parking lots" not only shows a breath-taking level of ignorance about links golf, it shows a similar level of ignorance about the history of the game. So believing that you are doing this deliberately, is somewhat more charitable assumption about you, than actually believing that you are this poorly-informed.

Links golf IS golf. The Open plays its championships on these courses, not just becaue they are some of the oldest, and most storied courses in the history of the game....they also represent the game in its oldest and purest form.

Parkland golf---what we typically play here in the US and other parts of the world---is the diluted form of the game. The WIND and weather for the first historical defense of a golf course, and is the primary defense of any links course. Parkland courses have to add trees, deep rough, water hazards and other artificial obstacles as a means of defending courses where the weather is benign.

If you tried to add those kinds of artificial obstacles to a links course, it would quickly become unplayable the first time a 40 mph wind and blinding rain blew in off the firth.

The beauty of links golf is that the courses are such that they give themselves up to a wide variety of approaches when the weather is mild, and there is little wind. But as soon as you start to get winds up to 20mph...the courses get tough. Fourty miles per hour..and you are staring int the gaping maw of a beast.
[/quote]
The thing I like most about links golf is the removal of luck from the equation. In parkland courses identical shots into trouble can have drastically different results. Some really bad shots way into the trees can bounce back onto the fairway, or nearly perfect shots can just brush the only outlying branch and bounce at right angles into the trees and be dead. IMO links golf is much fairer and more likely to produce the true champion for the week, not withstanding the differences in conditions between morning and afternoon tee offs.

[Bingo1976]

Playa, hate to break it to you but links golf is far from fair. Much more changeable weather conditions and its very possible on some courses to split the fairway and end up in a gorse bush, especially if the course is playing firm. Bunkers are often automatic one shot penalties as opposed to a lot of inland courses where the pros can still shoot at the pins/have easy up and downs.

[Marrrk]

[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1405610722' post='9720497']
Playa, hate to break it to you but links golf is far from fair. Much more changeable weather conditions and its very possible on some courses to split the fairway and end up in a gorse bush, especially if the course is playing firm. Bunkers are often automatic one shot penalties as opposed to a lot of inland courses where the pros can still shoot at the pins/have easy up and downs.
[/quote]

Very true, luck and unpredictability have always been accepted as being a big factor in links golf and part of its overall charm. Blind shots, bad bounces, hidden hazards, wind, temperamental weather, etc, etc. And like you mention, when the turf is playing fast and firm, you absolutely need a little luck on your side to have the ball stop close to your target.

I don't think this necessarily makes what playa said untrue, but his examples seem to be more about bad or offline shots (or just courses with a lot of trees). Whereas our examples showcase just how much luck is factor in links golf for even perfectly struck shots.

[PooN]

[b]
Abu Dhabi[/b]

[Northerner]

I think this discussion misses the point - the majors were never anointed. There is no committee that sits down and decides what is and isn't a major - they are simply acclaimed to be so after many years by being well run, well patronised and accepted by the players as being of importance. four is enough

To make the Aussie a major so that players will then come, is very much the tail wagging the dog.
To move the PGA however, would be a good idea and do wonders for what is the distant 4th major. Would it happen? hm, dunno

[hogans71]

[quote name='Northerner' timestamp='1405686898' post='9726985']
I think this discussion misses the point - the majors were never anointed. There is no committee that sits down and decides what is and isn't a major - they are simply acclaimed to be so after many years by being well run, well patronised and accepted by the players as being of importance. four is enough

To make the Aussie a major so that players will then come, is very much the tail wagging the dog.
To move the PGA however, would be a good idea and do wonders for what is the distant 4th major. Would it happen? hm, dunno
[/quote]

Perfectly stated. Agree 100%...

[playa]

[quote name='Marrrk' timestamp='1405614934' post='9721049']
[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1405610722' post='9720497']
Playa, hate to break it to you but links golf is far from fair. Much more changeable weather conditions and its very possible on some courses to split the fairway and end up in a gorse bush, especially if the course is playing firm. Bunkers are often automatic one shot penalties as opposed to a lot of inland courses where the pros can still shoot at the pins/have easy up and downs.
[/quote]

Very true, luck and unpredictability have always been accepted as being a big factor in links golf and part of its overall charm. Blind shots, bad bounces, hidden hazards, wind, temperamental weather, etc, etc. And like you mention, when the turf is playing fast and firm, you absolutely need a little luck on your side to have the ball stop close to your target.

I don't think this necessarily makes what playa said untrue, but his examples seem to be more about bad or offline shots (or just courses with a lot of trees). Whereas our examples showcase just how much luck is factor in links golf for even perfectly struck shots.
[/quote]
I agree but the luck in links is more subtle and imo not as unfair as bounces off trees and the like. I guess I'm speaking from my own experiences in Australia where most of our courses have towering gum trees which can't be hit over or around. The number of times I've seen a near perfect shot hit one tiny overhanging branch and go sideways ob or dead in the trees. It's so frustrating.