The reason Brandel Chamblee’s brave leaders get is wrong

I have the highest respect for Brandel Chambleeas a golf person and a person person. He is golf’s most engaging TV personality, and as a provocateur Brandel is world class. I need you really Lift your front heel off the ground like Jones, Hogan and Nicklaus did at the top of your swing to enter golf’s pantheon? The latest story says no – but Brandel says yes! And he has the pictures and studies to back it up.

If you’re going to face Brandel Chamblee, you better have your arguments in order.

I wouldn’t want to face this guy in a debate though Paul McGinleyformer European Ryder Cup player and captain, does a great job on the Golf Channel. Unsurprisingly, given what will follow here, McGinley once argued on live TV that the island green 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, March’s annual home of The Players Championship, is an excellent test of golf skills, even on windy days. Chamblee said it was too much. I think if a producer had instructed both gentlemen to adopt the other’s point of view, they could have argued that side as well.

With Chamblee and McGinley up in the air here, I think this next comment is overdue. Chamblee has often been praised, in this space and elsewhere and appropriately, for having the best hair (men’s division) in golf, with all due respect to Robert Rock (English pro), Neal Shipley (American pro) and Fred Ridley (American Golf Administrator). But why aren’t the nodes in McGinley’s connections given the proper ones? THERE NOBODY in golf that Full Windsor does better than him. Ronald Reagan would be very pleased.

OK, OK, the preamble is over. Brian Rolapp, the new CEO of the PGA Tour, has realized that the Tour does not own any of golf’s most valuable and celebrated events: the Masters, the Ryder Cup, the British Open, the US Open and the PGA Championship. He owns the players championship, which some people STILL are referred to as TPC (Tournament Players Championship), first played in 1974 at the Stadium Stadium, which some people STILL call it TPC Sawgrass, its birth name. It would serve the Tour’s interests well for a Players victory to be celebrated as much as, say, a US Open victory.

At the WM Phoenix Open this week, Chamblee said“The players, for me, stand alone and above the other four major championships, not only as a major, but in my estimation, it’s the best team.” He has been following this path for years. We are all shaped, immeasurably, by our experiences. Chamblee played in the event 12 times. He has covered it for Golf Channel every year since 2004. The Tour’s contractual relationship with Golf Channel is there for all to see, one that extends through 2030. The network is the Tour’s primary broadcast partner Thursday-Friday. Of course Brandel wants to celebrate the players in every way until Sunday. It’s not like he’s a socialite. For more than two decades, Chamblee has proven to think for himself. But human nature is human nature.

Chamblee’s latest Player Commentary, new and improved for ’26, compliments a new tournament venue for players. Like my colleague Dylan Dethier pointed out the other dayThe new 30-second promo spot for The Players Tour (March 12-15) ended with this all-purpose poetic rant on your favorite screen: “MARCH WILL BE MAJOR.” The spot’s soundtrack is from the 2016 electronic club hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” a mindset that no one associates with tour golf unless you’re Tiger Woods and you’re thinking about the weeks leading up to the US Open at Torrey Pines, a course that featured prominently in his childhood wonderland. That’s part of what made his playoff win over Rocco Mediate such an important moment in golf lore. You may not have known this, but it is included in every story about the event. What that tournament meant to Woods elevated its importance to all of us. Want a metric for that? There is none. We are sorry.

PGA Tour player Michael S. Kim had an answer (via X) on Dylan’s account of the Tour’s efforts to raise the profile of the Players: “Honestly I’d be more proud to win the Players over the PGA. (If I had to choose. I know. Haha.)” (Periods inserted by the son of an English teacher.) I don’t doubt Kim’s sincerity. For starters, last year’s winner of the Players (Rory McIlroy) took home $1 million more than last year’s winner (Scottie Scheffler) of the PGA Championship. But do you think Scheffler would trade titles with McIlroy? Absolutely not. He is following the story. Ditto for every other player you’ve spent your hard-earned emotions on: Rory; Tiger; Phil; Vijay; Ernie; Seve; Curtis; Watson I; Watson II; Jack; Arnold. etc., etc.

Now, if you want to establish that men’s golf has three Grand Slams, you should. (The Masters and the two Opens.) Nicklaus, on his way to a record 18 championships, won the PGA Championship five times, against courses that had 40 or more club professionals on them. Woods, among his 15 majors, won four PGA titles, against much deeper and (arguably) more demanding fields in golf. If you want to subtract their PGA Championship titles from their big totals, be my guest. Nicklaus goes from 18 to 13. Woods goes from 15 to 11. Tom Watson sits at eight – he never won the PGA Championship. Even Arnold stays pampered. Seven majors, no PGA among them.

But you know why this new accounting, with the PGA off the list and (let’s just say) on par with The Players, was never going to happen? Because none of the previous winners would let it happen. Because of the storied history of PGA courses and the players who have won on them. Because of our association with those winners (Hagen, Hogan, Nicklaus, Koepka) and those places (Pebble, Olympic, Bethpage). I’ve said this before, and one of these decades I believe this idea will catch on: if the PGA really wants to separate itself from the other three majors, it might consider making Pebble Beach the bigger annual home of the event: a 54-hole qualifier at Pebble, followed by a two-day, 16-player weekend match at Cypress Point.

Discuss.

Meanwhile, I have a response to Brandel’s statement that the Players are the first of the top five teams:

Did you ever meet, sir, a kid on a late summer day on a practice putting green, aiming at a five-footer and saying:it it’s for the players!”

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com