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Are the WGC Events Losing Luster?

ddec said:
The Match Play still grabs my attention, but not as much because every match isn't do or die.

I thought the schedule ruined the FedEx St. Jude tournament last year being the week after The Open. When it sat the week before the PGA it carried a bunch of weight in my eye because you wanted to see who was playing well heading in to the final major. Now that it's the week before The Open, I still don't know if it will work out the same way as it did when it was at Firestone.

Mexico is a fun course to see the action on. But I still think it held more clout when it was at Doral. Could change over time though.

HSBC is kind of hard to watch at times. It's on the opposite side of the world, and during a funny time of year. I bet it is a huge draw over there though.
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Any event the week before or after a major (and the Players) will have trouble getting all the top players.
 
swark said:
This wasn't aimed at me, but honestly, the PGA Championship is a Major, and the Players is not. Perhaps it is different in the US, but the Players is not universally regarded that highly. Prestigious - yes. Similar status to a major - not even close.
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So you answered with "because it is a major." But that just means that the media tells you which tournaments to think are prestigious and important. Just looking at the tournaments for what they are, there is no good reason the PGA is a major while the Players is not. They are equal in stature.
 
ddec said:
I'm a believer that the change in schedule has really hurt more events than it has helped. WGC events included.
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The new schedule is over the same period of time as the old one, it just begins earlier and ends earlier. Some events are negatively affected but some are positively affected.
 
WGC's are still relevant because it brings in some of the lesser seen world players and the match play event is a nice change
 
They never had much luster to me. They really lost me when they pulled out of Doral as it seemed politically motivated.
 
LICC said:
So you answered with "because it is a major." But that just means that the media tells you which tournaments to think are prestigious and important. Just looking at the tournaments for what they are, there is no good reason the PGA is a major while the Players is not. They are equal in stature.
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Absolutely I answered that it is a major, and no more reason is needed. Majors have developed that reputation over time - that is why the PGA is universally seen as a major (admittedly the weakest of the four) while the Players is seen as a "made-for" event.

Time will tell if this changes or not. The Australian Open was seen as "the Fifth Major" by Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, but no-one would argue that anymore. Similarly, the North & South (which ran from 1902 to 1951) was seen as a major at the time by all US players, but has completely disappeared.

If you ask the average golf fan (i.e. more than just a casual viewer) what Steve Elkington's biggest victory was, I doubt many are going to even know he won two Players, but they will all recognise he won the PGA.
 
Outside of the match play, because of it's format, I'm not feeling a pull to watch either of the other 3, maybe the Fed Ex based on THP's connection to St Jude, but that's it.
 
swark said:
Absolutely I answered that it is a major, and no more reason is needed. Majors have developed that reputation over time - that is why the PGA is universally seen as a major (admittedly the weakest of the four) while the Players is seen as a "made-for" event.

Time will tell if this changes or not. The Australian Open was seen as "the Fifth Major" by Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, but no-one would argue that anymore. Similarly, the North & South (which ran from 1902 to 1951) was seen as a major at the time by all US players, but has completely disappeared.

If you ask the average golf fan (i.e. more than just a casual viewer) what Steve Elkington's biggest victory was, I doubt many are going to even know he won two Players, but they will all recognise he won the PGA.
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The average golf fan will not be able to tell you what tournament Steve Elkington won. So you have no rationale for why you think the PGA is more important than the Players other than you are told by the media that it is called a major. That's it.
What reputation does the PGA Championship have? It is a major because over 50 years ago the tour players used to be part of it. That's it. The Players Championship is the premier event of the PGA Tour, has been for almost 50 years, and by all accounts other than you being enamored by the name "major", it is a superior tournament.
 
Fun to watch, but not a must watch.
 
I'm sure it will be shown several times on replays on the golf channel. Not that I'm complaining but... they show PGA. Some LPGA. An occasional Champions tournament when there's no PGA playing... little Korn Ferry, and no European tour... unless the Aus HANDA tournament counts as that... I don't know.

The Mexico tournament isn't must watch tv for me but it'll be on as background noise.
 
Once they came up with the FedEx Cup those events went from being the 6-10 best events to the 9-12 biggest events. At that point more players start skipping them and then they are right alongside Bay Hill, The Memorial, and now The Genesis and those tourneys have more tradition. So now their prestige is really either kind of beside those and above The Honda, The Farmers, and The Waste Management. I mean they are pretty down the line for interest level now.
 
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I really like the match play event in Austin!
 
I am sure I will tune in, but I do think the schedule has really changed how many tournaments each of the top players will enter.
 
They haven't lost their luster in my eyes. I will watch them all.
 
LICC said:
The average golf fan will not be able to tell you what tournament Steve Elkington won. So you have no rationale for why you think the PGA is more important than the Players other than you are told by the media that it is called a major. That's it.
What reputation does the PGA Championship have? It is a major because over 50 years ago the tour players used to be part of it. That's it. The Players Championship is the premier event of the PGA Tour, has been for almost 50 years, and by all accounts other than you being enamored by the name "major", it is a superior tournament.
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Interesting discussion - thanks for your thoughts.

I couldn't tell you who won the past five (or even three to be honest) Players Championships, but, with a bit of thinking time, I could go pretty close to telling you who won each of the four majors each year since 2000. I watch pretty much any golf that is on around the world, but only really make a point of specifically following the majors. Clearly you value the Players Championship very highly, which is great. Personally, I don't. Differing viewpoints are OK.

I believe that one point of difference is perhaps that people outside of the US don't always view the "USPGA" as being a primary determinant of what is important. Honestly, the fact that the Players is promoted by the PGA Tour as the premier event on the PGA Tour means nothing to me in the scheme of things - the four majors have far more prestige world-wide. However, your perspective is obviously different, and that is fine.
 
Not sure where the "media tells you" line comes from. When I started playing, I quickly figured out which 4 were the Majors and the media had nothing to do with it.
 
The current 4 WGCs do nothing for me. IMO they rank below Riviera, Bay Hill, Muirfeild and the Canadian Open as well.
 
Just like any other tour event to me. If it not a major or the Ryder Cup, it is not must see TV for me.
 
I really enjoy the match play simply because it's something different but there rest of them don't get any more attention from me than other events. They're just another week usually.
 
OGputtnfool said:
Not sure where the "media tells you" line comes from. When I started playing, I quickly figured out which 4 were the Majors and the media had nothing to do with it.
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You could equally argue that the Players being the "Fifth Major" is solely because the USPGA Tour tells you so ...
 
If Tiger isn’t playing in it, when he qualifies for it, you can bet it doesn’t matter. Brooks said flat out none matter but the big 4. The rest of the tournaments are complete media induced nonsense. Entertaining for people to watch who are die hard golf fans but none of the players care. They don’t care about the FedEx points nonsense either.

Can’t wait to see how many players hem and haw about questions on the olympics. They don’t want to play in it but if they say as much the media will slaughter them. The media scare of Zika luckily gave them all a way out. Maybe the coronavirus will be the next thing they will use to get out of it.
 
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I'll watch it if I'm sedentary and board... but I'm not going out of my way for any of these events
 
I just don’t like new schedule- these are meh for me
 
swark said:
Interesting discussion - thanks for your thoughts.

I couldn't tell you who won the past five (or even three to be honest) Players Championships, but, with a bit of thinking time, I could go pretty close to telling you who won each of the four majors each year since 2000. I watch pretty much any golf that is on around the world, but only really make a point of specifically following the majors. Clearly you value the Players Championship very highly, which is great. Personally, I don't. Differing viewpoints are OK.

I believe that one point of difference is perhaps that people outside of the US don't always view the "USPGA" as being a primary determinant of what is important. Honestly, the fact that the Players is promoted by the PGA Tour as the premier event on the PGA Tour means nothing to me in the scheme of things - the four majors have far more prestige world-wide. However, your perspective is obviously different, and that is fine.
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You do know that the PGA and the PGA Tour are entirely separate entities? Why would the US PGA have more prestige to you than the US PGA Tour?
 
swark said:
Interesting discussion - thanks for your thoughts.

I couldn't tell you who won the past five (or even three to be honest) Players Championships, but, with a bit of thinking time, I could go pretty close to telling you who won each of the four majors each year since 2000. I watch pretty much any golf that is on around the world, but only really make a point of specifically following the majors. Clearly you value the Players Championship very highly, which is great. Personally, I don't. Differing viewpoints are OK.

I believe that one point of difference is perhaps that people outside of the US don't always view the "USPGA" as being a primary determinant of what is important. Honestly, the fact that the Players is promoted by the PGA Tour as the premier event on the PGA Tour means nothing to me in the scheme of things - the four majors have far more prestige world-wide. However, your perspective is obviously different, and that is fine.
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You don’t know that Rory McIlroy won the Players last year?
 
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