Men's major golf championships

The men's major golf championships, commonly known as the Major Championships,^[1] and often referred to simply as the majors, are the four most prestigious annual tournaments in professional golf. In order of their playing date, the current majors are:

• April – Masters Tournament (weekend ending 2nd Sunday in April) – hosted as an invitational by and played at Augusta National Golf Club in the U.S. state of Georgia.
• June – U.S. Open Championship (weekend ending with the 3rd Sunday in June) – hosted by the USGA and played at various locations in the U.S.
• July – The Open Championship (weekend containing the 3rd Friday in July) – hosted by The R&A, an offshoot of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and always played on a links course at one of nine various locations in the UK. In the US, this tournament is often called The British Open.
• August – PGA Championship (4th weekend after the Open Championship) – hosted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America and played at various locations in the U.S.

Importance

Alongside the biennial Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup team competitions, the majors are golf's marquee events. Elite players from all over the world participate in them, and the reputations of the greatest players in golf history are largely based on the number of major championship victories they accumulate. The top prizes are not actually the largest in golf, being surpassed by The Players Championship, three of the four World Golf Championships events (the HSBC Champions, promoted to WGC status in 2009, has a top prize comparable to that of the majors), and one or two invitational events. However, winning a major boosts a player's career far more than winning any other tournament. If he is already a leading player, he will probably receive large bonuses from his sponsors and may be able to negotiate better contracts. If he is an unknown, he will immediately be signed up. Perhaps more importantly, he will receive an exemption from the need to annually requalify for a tour card on his home tour, thus giving a tournament golfer some security in an unstable profession. Currently, the PGA Tour gives a five-year exemption to all major winners.

Three of the four majors take place in the United States. The Masters (often known as the "U.S. Masters" outside North America) is played at the same course, Augusta National Golf Club, every year, while the other three rotate courses (the Open Championship, however, is always played on a links course). Each of the majors has a distinct history, and they are run by four different golf organizations, but their special status is recognized worldwide. Major championship winners receive the maximum possible allocation of 100 points from the Official World Golf Ranking, which is endorsed by all of the main tours, and major championship prize money is official on the three richest regular (i.e. under-50) golf tours, the PGA Tour, European Tour and Japan Golf Tour.

In recent years, The Players Championship, which was held two weeks before the Masters, has started to be called "the fifth major" by elements of the American media . This has not been publicly encouraged by golf authorities, but the tournament does attract a similar strength of field. With The Players' move to mid-May in 2007, some people believe that The Players should be considered a de facto major championship , even if it is not considered part of "the grand slam". However, the idea of increasing the number of recognised "majors" from four to five has never attracted any popularity - possibly because tennis, from which the concept of the "Grand Slam" was emulated - has not departed from having the original four "Grand Slam" championships. In addition to The Players, three World Golf Championship events were established in 1999 and a fourth WGC individual event was added in 2009, bringing to nine the total number of events in which all of the world's top 50 players may compete every year. Out of these nine tournaments, only the four established "majors" have been recognised as such, either in prestige or in recognition (i.e. invitations to future events), despite the higher prize money available in The Players and three WGC events.

History

The majors originally consisted of the Open Championship, the British Amateur or The Amateur Championship, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Amateur. With the introduction of the Masters Tournament in 1934, and the rise of professional golf in the late 1940s and 1950s, the term "major championships" eventually came to describe the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, and the (U.S.) PGA Championship. It is difficult to determine when the definition changed to include the current four tournaments, although many trace it to Arnold Palmer's 1960 season, when after winning the Masters and the U.S. Open to start the season he remarked that if he could win the Open Championship and PGA Championship to finish the season, he would complete "a grand slam of his own" to rival Bobby Jones's 1930 feat. Until that time, many U.S. players also considered the Western Open as one of golf's "majors", and the British PGA Matchplay Championship was as important to British and Commonwealth professionals as the PGA Championship was to Americans. During the 1950s, the short-lived World Championship of Golf was certainly viewed as a "major" by its competitors, as its first prize was worth almost ten times any other event in the game, and it was the first event whose finale was televised live on U.S. television.

The oldest of the majors is The Open Championship, which is usually referred to as the "British Open" outside the United Kingdom. Dominated by American champions in the 1920s and 1930s, the comparative explosion in the riches available on the U.S. Tour from the 1940s onwards meant that the lengthy overseas trip needed to compete in the event became increasingly prohibitive for the leading American professionals and their regular participation dwindled after the war years (Ben Hogan, for example, entered just once after the war, winning in 1953). However, in 1960, Arnold Palmer entered in an attempt to emulate Hogan's 1953 feat of winning on his first visit, and although unsuccessful, began competing regularly thereafter, restoring the event's prestige (and with it the prize money that once again made it an attractive prospect to other American pros). The advent of transatlantic jet travel in that period also helped to boost American participation in The Open. A discussion between Palmer and Pittsburgh golf writer Bob Drum led to the concept of the modern Grand Slam of Golf.^[2]

Television coverage

Because none of the majors falls under the direct jurisdiction of any professional golf tour, television rights are negotiated separately from those of the tours, and were not affected by the new deals involving the PGA Tour that took effect in 2007.

The U.S. Open is shown on NBC and ESPN under a contract that ends in 2010. Since 2010, ESPN has held the exclusive U.S. rights to The Open Championship, making it the first major championship in the television era not to be aired on one of the country's major over-the-air broadcast networks. CBS and TNT have long-term deals for the PGA Championship. The Masters operates under one-year contracts; CBS has been the main TV partner every year since 1956, with ESPN televising the first and second rounds effective with the 2008 tourney, replacing USA Network, which had shown the event since the early 1980s. ABC and USA no longer carry any men's pro golf tournaments, and TNT shows no other events.

In the United Kingdom, the BBC used to be the exclusive TV home of the Masters Tournament and the Open Championship, however from 2011 onwards Sky Sports has exclusive coverage of the first two days, with the weekend rounds shared with the BBC. The U.S. Open and PGA Championship are shown exclusively on Sky Sports.

Distinct characteristics of majors

Because each major is developed and is run by a different organization, they each have different characteristics that set them apart. These involve the character of the courses used, the composition of the field, and other idiosyncrasies.

• The Masters Tournament is the only major that is played at the same course every year (Augusta National Golf Club), being the invitational tournament of that club. The Masters invites the smallest field of the majors, generally under 100 players (although, like all the majors, it now ensures entry for all golfers among the World's top 50 prior to the event), and is the only one of the four majors that does not use "alternates" to replace qualified players who do not enter the event (usually due to injury). Former champions have a lifetime invitation to compete, and also included in the field are the current champions of the major amateur championships, and most of the previous year's PGA Tour winners (winners of Fall Series events or "alternate" events held opposite a high-profile tournament do not receive automatic invitations). The traditions of Augusta, such as the awarding of a green jacket to the champion, create a distinctive character for the tournament, as does the course itself, with its lack of rough but severely undulating fairways and greens, and punitive use of lakes and creeks on several key holes on the back nine.
• The U.S. Open Championship is notorious for being played on difficult courses that have tight fairways, challenging greens, demanding pin positions and thick and high rough, placing a great premium on accuracy, especially with driving and approach play. The U.S. Open is rarely won with a score much under par. The event is the championship of the United States Golf Association, and in having a very strict exempt qualifiers list - made up of recent major champions, professionals currently ranked high in the world rankings or on the previous year's money lists around the world, and leading amateurs from recent USGA events - about half of the 156-person field still enters the tournament through two rounds of open qualification events, mostly held in the U.S. but also in Europe and Japan. The U.S. Open has no barrier to entry for either women or junior players, as long as they are a professional or meet amateur handicap requirements. As of 2011, however, no female golfer has yet qualified for the U.S. Open, although recently Michelle Wie made it to the second qualifying stage. The U.S. Open continues to have a 18-hole playoff if players are tied after four rounds. (The Open and PGA Championships use four- and three-hole aggregate playoffs respectively, followed by sudden death if necessary, and most regular events as well as the Masters only have simple sudden death playoffs.)
• The Open Championship (also referred to as the British Open outside of the United Kingdom) is organized by The R&A, an offshoot of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and is typically played on a links-style course in Scotland or England. It carries the prestige of being the original "Open" championship (although the very first event was held only for British professionals) and is respected for maintaining the tradition of links play that dates back to the very invention of the game in Scotland. This is typified by courses that are coastal, flat and often very windswept, with the fairways cut through dune grass and gorse bushes that make up the "rough", and have deep bunkers. The course is generally not "doctored" to make it more difficult, effectively making the variable weather the main external influence on the field's score. As well as exempting from qualifying recent professional major and amateur champions and leading players from the world rankings, the R&A ensures that leading golfers from around the globe are given the chance to enter by holding qualifying events on all continents, as well as holding final qualifying events around the UK in the weeks prior to the main tournament. Several recent champions have been relatively unknown players who came through one of these qualifying routes. The champion receives (and has his name inscribed on the base of) the famous Claret Jug, a trophy that dates back to 1872 (champions from 1860 until 1871 received instead a championship belt, much like a champion professional boxer's belt nowadays) and the engraving of the champions' name on the trophy prior to them receiving it is, in itself, one of the traditions of the closing ceremony of the championship, as is the award of the silver medal to the leading amateur player to have made the cut to play the last 36 holes.
• The PGA Championship is traditionally played at a parkland club in the United States, and the courses chosen tend to be as difficult as those chosen for the U.S. Open, with several, such as Baltusrol Golf Club, Oakland Hills Country Club, and Winged Foot Golf Club, having hosted both. The PGA generally does not set up the course as difficult as the USGA does. The PGA of America enters into a profit-sharing agreement with the host club. As well as inviting recent professional major champions and leading professionals from the world rankings, the PGA Championship field is completed by qualifiers held among members of the PGA of America, the organization of club and teaching professionals that are separate from the members of the PGA Tour. The PGA Championship is also the only one of the four majors to invite all winners of PGA Tour events in the year preceding the tournament. Amateur golfers do not play in PGA, and could only qualify by winning one of the other three majors or having a high world ranking. The PGA tends to be played in high heat and humidity that characterize the American climate in August.

Major championship winners

For each golfer with more than one major championship victory, his total number of wins and the place of each win in his sequence are shown in parentheses. For example, Tiger Woods' win in the 2005 Masters was the ninth of his 14 major titles to date. There is a more detailed table for each tournament in its own article.

Major champions by nationality

The table below shows the number of major championships won by golfers from various countries. Tallies are also shown for major wins by golfers from Europe and from the "Rest of the World" (RoW), i.e. the world excluding Europe and the United States. The United States plays Europe in the Ryder Cup and an International Team representing the Rest of the World in the Presidents Cup. The table is complete through the 2011 season.

Scoring records

Scoring records - aggregate

The aggregate scoring records for each major are tabulated below. Green indicates an outright record and yellow indicates a shared record.

Scoring records - to par

The scoring records to par for each major are tabulated below. Green indicates an outright record and yellow indicates a shared record.

Single round records

The single round scoring record for all four majors is 63.^[3] This has occurred 25 times by 23 golfers between 1973 and 2011. Greg Norman and Vijay Singh are the only golfers to record two rounds of 63 in the majors. Johnny Miller was the first golfer to shoot 63 in a major and remains the only golfer to shoot 63 in the final round to win a major.

'Player of the Year' in major championships

There is no official award presented to the player with the best overall record in the four majors, although the PGA Tour's Player of the Year system favours performances in the major championships. Since 1984, world ranking points have been assigned to finishes in the majors, which has allowed a calculation of which player has earnt the most ranking points in majors in a season - in almost every year since, one of the year's major winners has either won two of them, or has been the only player to win one and record a high finish in another (like Lucas Glover in 2009, David Duval in 2001 or Justin Leonard in 1997), enough to finish top of such a merit table in those years. The single exception was Nick Faldo in 1988, whose finishes of 2nd, 3rd and 4th earned him more world ranking points than any of that year's champions achieved during the season.

Tables are occasionally constructed for interest showing the overall scoring records for those players who have completed all 288 holes in the majors during a season, sometimes with interesting results. One notable example was in 1987, when Ben Crenshaw was shown to be top of just such a compilation, after finishing 4th, 4th, 4th and 7th in the four majors. In total Crenshaw took 1,140 strokes, only 12 more than the sum total of the four respective champions' scores of 1,128. Recent winners of this are Pádraig Harrington in 2008, Ross Fisher in 2009, Phil Mickelson in 2010, and Charl Schwartzel in 2011.

Consecutive victories at a major championship

^a These are consecutive because no tournaments were played in between at The Open Championship in 1871 or at the PGA Championship in 1917 and 1918.

Wire-to-wire major victories

The following list includes ties

Top ten finishes in all four modern majors in one season

It was rare, before the early 1960s, for the leading players from around the world to have the opportunity to compete in all four of the 'modern' majors in one season, because of the different qualifying criteria used in each at the time, the costs of traveling to compete (in an era when tournament prize money was very low, and only the champion himself would earn the chance of ongoing endorsements), and on occasion even the conflicting scheduling of the Open and PGA Championships. In 1937, the U.S. Ryder Cup side all competed in The Open Championship, but of those who finished in the top ten of that event, only Ed Dudley could claim a "top ten" finish in all four of the majors in 1937, if his defeat in the last-16 round of that year's PGA Championship (then at matchplay) was considered a "joint 9th" position.

However, following 1960, when Arnold Palmer's narrowly failed bid for the Open Championship helped to establish the concept of the modern professional "Grand Slam", it has become normal for the leading players to compete in all four majors each year. Even so, those who have recorded top-ten finishes in all four in a single year remains a select group.

On 12 of the 23 occasions the feat has been achieved, the player in question did not win a major that year - indeed, three of the players (Dudley, Sanders and Barber) failed to win a major championship in their careers (although Barber would go on to win five senior majors), and García has also yet to win one (as of the 2011 PGA Championship).

Multiple majors victories in a calendar year

Four

• 1930: Bobby Jones; The Open Championship, U.S. Open Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship, The Amateur Championship

Three

• 1953: Ben Hogan; Masters Tournament, U.S. Open Championship, and The Open Championship
• 2000: Tiger Woods; U.S. Open Championship, The Open Championship, and The PGA Championship

Two

Masters and U.S. Open

• 1951: Ben Hogan
• 1960: Arnold Palmer
• 1972: Jack Nicklaus
• 2002: Tiger Woods

Masters and Open Championship

• 1962: Arnold Palmer
• 1966: Jack Nicklaus
• 1974: Gary Player
• 1977: Tom Watson
• 1990: Nick Faldo
• 1998: Mark O'Meara
• 2005: Tiger Woods

Masters and PGA Championship

• 1949: Sam Snead
• 1956: Jack Burke, Jr
• 1963: Jack Nicklaus
• 1975: Jack Nicklaus

U.S. Open and Open Championship

• 1926: Bobby Jones
• 1932: Gene Sarazen
• 1971: Lee Trevino
• 1982: Tom Watson

U.S. Open and PGA Championship

• 1922: Gene Sarazen
• 1948: Ben Hogan
• 1980: Jack Nicklaus

Open Championship and PGA Championship

• 1924: Walter Hagen
• 1994: Nick Price
• 2006: Tiger Woods
• 2008: Pádraig Harrington

Consecutive major victories (including over multiple years)

Four

• 1868-72: Young Tom Morris '68 Open, '69 Open, '70 Open, '72 Open
• 1930: Bobby Jones; '30 Open, '30 U.S. Open, '30 U.S. Amateur, '30 Amateur
• 2000-01: Tiger Woods; '00 U.S. Open, '00 Open, '00 PGA, '01 Masters

Three

• 1877-79: Jamie Anderson '77 Open, '78 Open, '79 Open
• 1880-81: Bob Ferguson '80 Open, '81 Open, '82 Open
• 1953: Ben Hogan; '53 Masters, '53 U.S. Open, and '53 Open
• 1971-72: Jack Nicklaus '71 PGA, '72 Masters, '72 U.S. Open

Two

• 1861-62: Old Tom Morris '61 Open, '62 Open
• 1899-00: Harry Vardon; '99 Open, '00 U.S. Open
• 1924: Walter Hagen '24 Open, '24 PGA
• 1932: Gene Sarazen '32 U.S. Open, '32 Open
• 1951: Ben Hogan '51 Masters, '51 U.S. Open
• 1951-52: Sam Snead '51 PGA, '52 Masters
• 1960: Arnold Palmer '60 Masters, '60 U.S. Open
• 1971: Lee Trevino '71 U.S. Open, '71 Open
• 1982: Tom Watson '82 U.S. Open, '82 Open
• 1994: Nick Price '94 Open, '94 PGA
• 2002: Tiger Woods '02 Masters, '02 U.S. Open
• 2005-06: Phil Mickelson '05 PGA, '06 Masters
• 2006: Tiger Woods '06 Open, '06 PGA
• 2008: Pádraig Harrington '08 Open, '08 PGA

See also

• List of men's major championships winning golfers
• Chronological list of men's major golf champions
• Senior major golf championships
• Women's major golf championships
• Triple Crown of Golf

References

External links

• Listing of golf major championship courses, winners and countries
• The aggregate scores for the Majors since 1960