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Golf Monthly

Sport

Paul Higham

What Would The Golfing History Books Look Like If The Players Was A Major?

Major Tiger Woods Players (Event) The Players Jack Nicklaus Greg Norman Rory McIlroy Rickie Fowler Scottie Scheffler Steve Elkington

A yellow flag at The Players Championship.

You can argue whether The Players Championship should be a Major or not, and plenty will, but what would the golfing landscape look like if it was? Who doesn't love a hypothetical, and when there's a question that always does the rounds then why not take a look at what it would look like if TPC Sawgrass played host to a Major each year.Whatever side of the argument you're on, we surely all agree that The Players is a wonderful event played at an iconic venue with some great golfing memories - and a tournament that's as hard to win as the four Majors.

So let's play a game of 'what if' shall we? What would the history books look like if The Players was a Major? Firstly, in the overall standings of Major champions in the men's game, which in truth wouldn't change a whole lot at the top of tree, Jack Nicklaus would actually increase his lead over Tiger Woods from three to four.That's due to Nicklaus winning three of the first five editions of The Players with Tiger 'only' able to win twice at Sawgrass - which would make it his least successful Major in this new goling world.In the list of Major champions the biggest moves come a bit further down, with Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino both getting one extra to move to seven and join some illustrious names from the past on seven Major titles.Rory McIlroy would join that group thanks to his two Players titles, while Scottie Scheffler jumps from four to six Majors and joins Sir Nick Faldo in tied 15th on the new all-time list.

Top Major winners if Players Championship counted
Ranking	Majors	Players	New Total
1. Jack Nicklaus	18	3	21
2. Tiger Woods	15	2	17
3. Walter Hagen	11	0	11
4. Ben Hogan	9	0	9
4. Gary Player	9	0	9
6. Tom Watson	8	0	8
7. Harry Vardon	7	0	7
7. Bobby Jones	7	0	7
7. Gene Sarazen	7	0	7
7. Sam Snead	7	0	7
7. Arnold Palmer	7	0	7
7. Lee Trevino	6	1	7
7. Phil Mickelson	6	1	7
7. Rory McIlroy	5	2	7
15. Nick Faldo	6	0	6
15. Scottie Scheffler	4	2	6

Multiple Players Championship winners

More big movers in terms of Major wins come from the list of multiple Players winners - including Fred Couples who would go from a one-time Major champion from his 1992 Masters success to a three-time Major winner with victory at The Players in 1984 and then 12 years later in 1996.1995 PGA Championship winner Steve Elkington would also become a three-time Major champion after his victories at Sawgrass in 1991 and 1997.Hal Sutton would be another mover thanks to his two Players titles giving him three Majors to go along with his PGA Championship success in 1983.And it's the same story for Davis Love III who like the other four would be seen in a totally new light as multiple Major winners thanks to lifting the title at Sawgrass twice.Multiple Players Championship winners:

3 - Jack Nicklaus 1974, '76, '78
2 - Fred Couples '84, '96
2 - Steve Elkington '91, '97
2 - Hal Sutton '83, 2000
2 - Davis Love III '92, '03
2 - Tiger Woods '01, '13
2 - Scottie Scheffler '23, '24
2 - Rory McIlroy '19, '25

Norman would bag Major record

Greg Norman would also improve from two to three Majors and his 24 under would be a new Major record winning score to par, beating Xander Schauffele's 21 under from the 2024 PGA Championship.Schauffele would cling to the overall Major scoring record though with his 263 at Valhalla one better than Norman's 264 record at Sawgrass, which would tie Henrik Stenson's score from Troon in second.Everyone remember's Norman's big Major meltdowns but that tag would be eased somewhat by him grabbing a Major record and his 1994 Players Championship victory going down in history.Although it's got a drastically shorter history, The Players would have the lowest winning margin of the Majors, showing that nobody can really run away from the field at Sawgrass - with Elkington's seven-stroke win in 1997 the largest margin of victory.Tiger has won by 15 at the US Open and 12 at The Masters, The Open's been won by 13 strokes and the PGA Championship has had eight-shot winners.

Grand Slam & Tiger Slam implications

With there now being five hypothetical Majors there's a new wrinkle in the Grand Slam conversation, with the current six-man group being cut in half.We'd probably keep the 'old' Grand Slam group as Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen won all four Majors available to them, but the new five-leg Grand Slam has been won only by Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.Gary Player is the man to miss out as he played in the new fifth Major but never managed to lift the trophy.And for Woods it would only increase his legacy as along with winning all four traditional Majors in a row in that epic Tiger Slam run, he also picked up the 2001 Players Championship.His victory at Sawgrass would have been the fourth leg of this new five-event Tiger Slam, coming just a few weeks before completing his amazing achievement at Augusta National.

New Major champions crowned

Players like Sergio Garcia, Cameron Smith, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Webb Simpson, David Duval and Justin Leonard would move from one-hit wonders to multiple Major champions if Players Championship glory was included.But perhaps of more significance would be players who could be removed from the 'best not to win a Major' category - and who knows how careers would have turned had victory at Sawgrass been deemed a Major triumph.Rickie Fowler is probably front and center here - producing a stunning birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie finish to make a playoff and then making birdie twice on 17 to win the title was as good a finish as you'll see, and with about as much pressure as you'd face even at a Major.Matt Kuchar is the other big name Players champion that hasn't tasted Major glory, with both him and Fowler suffering plenty of near misses in the big ones, they may have converted a couple more with one already under their belt.We'd also have some surprise Major champions to add to the current list, Tim Clark and Stephen Ames would be more recognisable names but 2002 winner Craig Perks would be a shock Major champion.Koreans KJ Choi and Si Woo Kim would be Major champions, while Calvin Peete would've been the first African-American to win a Major before Tiger Woods was even out of short trousers.So while some things would have stayed relatively similar, there'd have been a few ways the golfing world would have changed if The Players was indeed the fifth Major.Players Championship winners who never won an actual Major: