PGA Championship Contemplating A Permanent Move To May?

There has been increased chatter about the Players Championship moving back to March, but the various headlines working off of Rex Hoggard's story suggesting a 2020 PGA Championship move to May missed the buried lede: golf's fourth major may be considering moving from August to May. Permanently.

Check out the key quotes from PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua, quoted by Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard about what we already knew (the 2020 event may be played in May to avoid the Tokyo Olympic Games), and what we hadn't expected:

“We are huge proponents of the Olympics. We are all about the Olympics, but we also have to protect the PGA Championship and we can’t just bounce the PGA Championship around every four years,” Bevacqua said.

Can't bounce around.

And...

“To truly make it work, to make it succeed and to make sure golf is in the Olympics for the next century, the whole schedule needs to be adjusted,” he said.

Bevacqua may be testing the waters to see how television and fans feels about the change, but I'd guess he and new PGA Tour Commish Jay Monahan have sketched out a new schedule post-2019 that moves the Players to March, the PGA to May and the "playoffs" to a conclusion before or on Labor Day.

This would be an enormous boost to the PGA Tour's moribund playoff product where ratings stink, the format does not resonate and players seem uninspired following the PGA Championship. But put the playoffs back a few weeks after The Open, inject just a little life in the format (play-off), and suddenly a few of those issues go away.

So it would make sense for the PGA Tour to move the Players back to March, allowing the PGA Championship to move permanently to May. Except that...

The PGA of America's PGA Championship currently owns an August date when there are few other major sporting events, giving it the opportunity to regularly register the second highest rated golf telecast of the year behind the Masters.

Furthermore, as difficult as August can be agronomically, May might be even more of a headache for northern venues that experience a long winter. Places like Rochester, Long Island, Whistling Straits and Minneapolis are all very tricky to get peak conditions in May, impossible in a freak year.

So thinking of this as a trade, I'm feeling like the PGA Tour gets the better end of the bargain, solving two huge issues. There has to be one piece for the PGA of America missing. Maybe a player to be named later or some cash sent along as a courtesy?

With a television contract due to expire after the 2019 PGA, it's clear the PGA of America CEO is testing the waters for a permanent move.