Five-time winner of the latest tournament to back players as majors: ‘It’s a big one’

Five-time PGA Tour winner Russell Henley maintains a soft-spoken reputation, and that would be a good way to describe his demeanor during his press conference in Arnold Palmer’s Invitational.

Hot takes are not in Henley’s typical repertoire. The position the PGA Tour veteran took at Bay Hill on Tuesday was uncharacteristically controversial.

When asked about next week’s Players Championship, Henley was clear about his stance: The Players are “a staple”.

His opinion is one separated by some visible figures in the gameincluding Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chambleeand comes amid an unofficial push by the PGA Tour to get the golfing world to recognize its premier tournament as the fifth men’s major. Although not everyone agrees, including the Tour’s biggest star, Rory McIlroy.

Russell Henley on The Players Championship: ‘I’ve always considered it a big deal’

When Henley took the podium for his pre-tournament press conference Tuesday at Bay Hill, he did so as defending Arnold Palmer Invitational champion.

Henley triumphed by one stroke over Collin Morikawa last year to capture the biggest win of his career. The following week, he finished T30 at The Players.

Although Henley has never lifted the Players trophy at TPC Sawgrass (his best finish is a T13 in 2022), he believes the tournament is on par with golf’s four majors: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Open Championship.

“I mean, I think it’s a big one. It’s our home tournament. I don’t know the stats like when they say ‘best course in golf’ or whatever, but it is,” Henley explained Tuesday at Bay Hill.

Henley argued that given the tournament’s history, its iconic host course and past champion’s pedigree, The Players has “always” been uppermost in his mind.

“And the history with that tournament. I mean, I’ve always considered it a major thing in my mind. It’s just such a complicated golf course and it rewards great shots, usually. Visually it’s very intimidating and I feel like if you have a good week there you’ve done a lot of really good things,” Henley said. “You look at past champions and … it hasn’t favored any one player. People don’t usually win it back-to-back unless you’re Scottie (Scheffler).

He continued: “It’s a tournament I always look forward to. I like the challenge of it. I consider it a big one.”

Chamblee calls the majors, but Rory McIlroy disagrees

The recruitment of Henley players did not arrive in a vacuum. Players as a major has been a hot topic in the golf world this year.

Under new CEO Brian Rolapp, PGA Tour seems to be pushing to elevate players to prime status in the minds of fans. Take it promotional video of the players, the tournament was launched in early February who boldly said: “March will be great”.

Shortly after that video was released, Chamblee appeared on the airwaves to argue not only that the Players are a major, but that he is the “best major.”

“When you look at The Players Championship — with all due respect to the other four majors — it’s the best field in golf. It’s the deepest field in golf. And because of the fact that in its 50-year history, only one player has successfully defended it, I’d argue it’s the hardest championship to win. Everyone else has had much more successful defenses in February.” “So in every single way that a metric can be used to measure whether something is important, The Players, to me, stands alone and above the other four majors — not just as a major. In my estimation, it’s the best team.”

McIlroy has captured two Players titles in his career, including last season. But when he was asked about the Players Headlining debate next week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he offered a very different opinion from Henley and Chamblee.

“Look, I’d like to have seven championships instead of five, that sounds good. But I’m a traditionalist, I’m a historian of the game. We have four majors. You know, if you want to see what five majors look like, look at the women’s game. I don’t know how well it’s been going for them,” McIlroy said at Pebble Beach.

However, McIlroy clarified that players not being great does not diminish the importance of the tournament. In fact, he argued that he had a better “identity” than one of the existing leaders.

“It’s the players. It doesn’t need to be anything else. Like I would say it has more of an identity than the PGA Championship at this point,” McIlroy said. “So, identity-wise, I think the players have figured it out. It stands on its own without the label, I think.”

The 2026 Players Championship officially kicks off on Thursday, March 12, at TPC Sawgrass.