The PGA Championship used to bat cleanup in the major championship batting order. Now it’s in the two hole.
The PGA, which several years ago marketed itself as “Glory’s Last Shot” to accentuate its place as the final major championship in the calendar year, is now “Glory’s Second Shot” as the second major of the year after the Masters.
The move from its usual place in August to May — the first time the PGA Championship has not been played in August since 1948 — has had a ripple effect across the PGA Tour schedule and drawn the attention of everyone around the game.
Some PGA Tour events, because of the condensed schedule, have suffered with weaker fields as players scrambled to alter their schedules to accommodate the new order of majors.
“We were very excited about the May change before Tiger [Woods] made his fireworks in Georgia [winning the Masters] in the sense that we think it’s just a better cadence for the whole season, as well as for ourselves,” PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said. “It obviously helps out [the PGA] Tour to finish [its season] a bit early, and we think there’s always been sort of too big a gap between the Masters and The Open, and we’ve filled that really nicely.”
The grand idea to switch the PGA Championship was two-fold: for the PGA Tour to get out of the way of the NFL in the fall and to have a more condensed major championship run of events. Now there is the Players Championship, which is called by some the “fifth major,” in March, the Masters in April, the PGA in May, the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July.
That allows for the PGA Tour to finish its FedEx Cup Playoff season, including the Tour Championship, before the NFL regular season begins.
Waugh, a Long Island resident and in his first year with the PGA, feels like he stepped into heaven with the buzz that Woods created with his Masters victory last month.
“The momentum from the Masters into the PGA is extraordinary,” Waugh said. “We always felt there was this excitement that happened in April and then a bit of a letdown from the golf calendar. As you get people excited to play, and from a fan’s perspective, there was this big gap, so we’re excited obviously about that.
“Obviously Tiger … his impact [is] sort of the moon landing. It’s ‘Where were you when?’ kind of stuff. The impact immediately afterwards was extraordinary in terms of ticket sales. Bethpage is one of those kind of amazing miracles — that it was built in the first place, and secondly that it’s been preserved by the state as well as it has. Really, it’s a national treasure from a golf perspective. We absolutely now know that the fan base will be cranked up.”
PGA chief championships officer Kerry Haigh said he’s “excited about the date change from a conditioning standpoint in that the grasses will be” in better shape in May than August.
“With that said, I can’t say more how excited we are to come to New York and see the best players in the world, the strongest field in golf, play on what is truly a great golf course,” Haigh said.
CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz called the PGA’s move to May this spring “one of the great cases of serendipity” based on Woods’ Masters win.
“Who could have ever forecast the PGA coming to May on the heels of one of the great moments in sports?” Nantz said. “The PGA Championship hit the lottery with the move to May in 2019.”
Jordan Spieth, who’s seeking a PGA Championship win to complete the career Grand Slam, is one major player who’s in favor of the move.
“I love the move to May,” Spieth said last week. “I think it’s great. It opens up a lot more opportunities to move to different parts of the country that we weren’t able to do in August, and Bethpage is a place that I’m now familiar enough with, playing the Barclays there in 2016 and playing it pretty well.”