Wanna Spice Up the PGA Championship? More Club Pros!

Whistling Straits looks primed to host a full field at the PGA Championship, but too few of the players are club pros. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

When it comes to golf’s major championships, the PGA Championship is fourth among equals. Sure, it’s given us some moments of major glory, but the best parts of the PGA Tour season come earlier in the year.

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How so? Look at the other majors. The level of tradition that surrounds the Masters is unequaled in professional golf–just hearing the tournament’s name gets a golf fan thinking about warm spring days and Augusta National in full bloom.

The U.S. Open is known as a brutally tough test, one that taxes the world’s elite and sectional qualifiers alike. Often, the course itself is in the spotlight as much as the players — it seemed that Chambers Bay made more headlines this year than the other three venues combined.

The Open Championship is the oldest major. It’s staged in Great Britain, the origin of the sport, and connects us to our golf forebears like no other event. (My colleague Sam Adams agrees with me on these assessments).

But the PGA? To most fans, there’s nothing particularly notable about it outside of its major status–and that’s despite the PGA of America’s frequent attempts to rebrand it as something more than it is. Referring to it as “Glory’s Last Shot” is a nice thought, but it doesn’t do much beyond reminding all of us that the PGA comes last chronologically.

READ MORE: Take a closer look at Whistling Straits

Perhaps most maddeningly, the organizers go on and on about how their event boasts the deepest field in golf. Yes, the PGA is the only major to habitually invite the top 100 players in the world–as opposed to just the top 50–but if having the deepest field just means that world Nos. 51 through 100 tee it up, don’t count me as someone who’s particularly impressed.

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So what can be done? The answer is clear: the PGA of America should increase the number of exemptions they give to their club professionals.

Up until twenty years ago, the top 40 finishers from the PGA Professional National Championship earned spots in the year’s fourth major, but that number has since been cut in half. That’s a mistake. The PGA of America claims to prioritize “growing the game,” but it has become so obsessed with hosting the world’s deepest field that it’s turning a blind eye to the club pros who help make it happen. The PGA Championship is the only major that still awards exemptions to these men; it should be embracing that morsel of uniqueness, not phasing it out.

The naysayers will argue that no club pro has made the cut at a PGA Championship since 2011. That’s true, but does it matter? When certain players are given exemptions into tournaments, it’s not because the organizers believe that they’re dark horse candidates to win–they’re almost always rewards for a job well done in a different event. These club professionals bust their humps to teach us the game of golf, and then they finish in the top 40 of an event that features a field of over 300 of their peers. The PGA of America could easily invite fewer touring pros and allow these pros a day in the sun at their organization’s major.

Doubling down on exemptions for club pros would weaken the depth of field at the PGA Championship, but when it comes to preserving the tournament’s identity, does it really matter? The PGA of America should get back to basics and reward some of today’s great teachers of the game.

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