Fifth-of-Four Majors Watch: The Onslaught

With the course renovations, a new May date and that shopping mall erected behind the 18th green, the media had little choice but to shelve the traditional fifth major stories last year. But they've come back with a vengeance.

Judging by the cast of notables filing their answer to golf's least important question, I'd guess some editors have been telling their correspondents to settle the vital question of The Players' major status.

Larry Bohannan files this grabber of a lede:  

Is The Players Championship, being played this week literally up the street from the headquarters of the PGA Tour in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., the fifth major of men's golf?

Ken Willis offers five reasons The Players is a major. Get it? Five. I smell a GWAA award. Bruce Young drops "fifth major" in his opening sentence, then fails to put us through the misery of laying out a case. What a tease.

Lawrence Donegan (say it ain't so!) refers to the "age-old" question of fifth major status. Not sure about the age part, but it's definitely an old question.

Jim McCabe at least allows me to end this post with some realistic perspective. We'll ignore his line about the 17th being a "hideous excuse of a golf hole," point you to Lorne Rubenstein's column on No. 17, and let Jim put the fifth major story watch to rest...until next year:

When you touch five bases after hitting a grand slam, we’ll add a fifth tournament to the major championship landscape. Until then, there are four and only four major championships — the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA Championship. Everything else is a golf tournament.