Arnold Palmer champ sides with Chamblee in | Sports News

Russell Henley has sided with Brandel Chamblee in the talk about The Players’ standing as golf’s fifth main championship.

The Players — the PGA Tour’s flagship occasion that can be held at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, subsequent week — prompted controversy final month when it launched a social media marketing campaign with the tagline “March is going to be major.”

The video reignited the talk over The Players’ standing in the sport. It has been informally known as “the fifth major” in some circles, because it has boasted a discipline stronger than the normal majors through the years. Chamblee led requires The Players to be acknowledged as a main championship, though the Golf Channel pundit’s view was mocked by a earlier winner of the match in Phil Mickelson.

The 4 majors invite previous champions, which means gamers effectively previous their primes are concerned, and their particular person quirks imply lesser gamers can participate. The PGA Championship’s discipline contains 20 membership professionals, connecting the sport with the grassroots, nevertheless it weakens the sector.

The U.S. Open and The Open Championship have open qualifying, which means low-ranked gamers can earn spots in the event that they get sizzling on the suitable day. And the Masters discipline is proscribed to solely round 90 gamers, a good portion of which is stuffed by previous champions

The Players, nonetheless, has a discipline of 144 gamers, comprising the highest performers on the PGA Tour over the previous 12 months. Remaining spots are stuffed by gamers in the highest 50 of the world rankings who will not be PGA Tour members, excluding LIV Golf gamers.

World No. 7 Henley, who defends his Arnold Palmer Invitational title at Bay Hill this week, made clear he’s on Chamblee’s facet in the talk.

“I mean, I think it’s a major. It’s our home tournament,” Henley mentioned. “I don’t know the statistics on like what they say, like best field in golf or whatever, but, I mean, it is. And the history with that tournament? I mean, I’ve always considered that a major in my mind. It’s just such a tricky golf course and it rewards great shots, typically. It visually is very intimidating. I feel like if you have a good week there you’ve done a lot of really good things.

“You look at the past champions and nobody is really, it hasn’t really favored any one player. People typically don’t win it back-to-back, unless you’re Scottie. But it’s a tournament I always look forward to, I love the challenge of it, and it’s one of, yeah, I consider it a major.”

Chamblee was extensively mocked when he argued that The Players is not only worthy of the main label, however it’s the best of all the massive occasions in golf.

“In every single way that a metric could be used to measure whether something is a major, the Players, to me, stands alone and above the other four major championships as not just a major. It is, in my estimation, the best major,” he mentioned.

LIV Golf star Mickelson, no stranger to talking his thoughts on social media lately, sought to put Chamblee in his place and finish the talk about a match he gained in 2007. “I’ve won it. It’s not,” he wrote in response to the case Chamblee made on Golf Channel.