Golf Events / Bill Elliott / 07 May 2008 /

He'll enjoy the action at Sawgrass, but Bill Elliott is not convinced by American claims to its grand status

Few things in life are drearier than an American on the make. Well, when it comes to the Tournament Players' Championship at Sawgrass the Yanks have been on the make for at least the last 25 years.

During this time a relentless marketing campaign has pushed for the TPC to be officially recognised as the so-called 'fifth major'. To which the rejoinder has to be: why? Did we need a fifth Beatle (actually we had one, he was called Georgie Best at the time), a fifth Ace, a fifth quarter-final or even a fifth in our traditional weekend fourball?

As the hype cranks up towards this week's version of the TPC Padraig Harrington inevitably was asked the big question. His answer pretty much captured the truth of the matter. "If you win then you think, yes, this is the fifth major. But if you don't then you just think it is the fifth most important, " said the reigning Open champ.

To be blunt, I'd even query if it is the fifth most important. Like a lady of a certain age, the TPC is obsessed with itself. It continues to squeeze itself into dresses that are too tight and too short and then thinks 'God, I look good' while a lot of other people just go 'aargh, grow up love'. The fact is that the TPC is not yet a triumph of style over substance but it sure as hell is trying to be.

Viewed from where I sit, what the golf world needs is not a fifth major but a genuine fourth one. Let's face it, who gets over-excited about the USPGA Championship? Yes, I thought so. Just another over-fiddled American tournament on yet another forgettable American course. The USPGA is a major because Arnold Palmer decreed it so and everyone else fell into line nearly 50 years ago.

Back then the Americans dominated the world of golf. They had the players, the money and the hoopla while the rest of the planet just looked on and salivated. Foreign golfers on the US circuit were until recently rarer than good sportsmanship in a Man U-Chelsea rumble. You may, however, have noticed that this has changed.

Take the Aussies, the South Africans, the Europeans and the Far East artists out of the American circuit and you're left with...er, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and, occasionally, Jim Furyk. The likes of Boo Weekley and Brandt Snedeker may offer occasional light relief but, for the most part, the actual American part of the American tour is the wrong side of a big yawn. The kids who live next door to me exhibit more personality and they are only two and four-years-old.

Sure, the TPC can be fun, especially that ridiculous 17th hole, an island-green design that
offers excitement but precious little intelligence. This is a tournament obsessed with its own sense of difference, a view endorsed by players who are obsessed with the hills of money available this week. Yet in reality the whole thing is a fairground sideshow compared to the genuinely big weeks. What we must all begin to work towards is a week that can replace the tedious USPGA and what we must hope is that this event is staged somewhere outside the USA and, actually, Europe too.

It is now ludicrous that the USA stages three of the four majors. Times have changed although I doubt too many of them have noticed. It is a smaller world and America is a diminished country. It is time for a new fourth major and this should be sited in the Far East which is where golf is growing like never before and where the interest is genuine.

It is time for the Yanks to realise that we are no longer over-impressed with them. Enjoy the TPC - I will - but appreciate that this is no fifth major, just a tournament that is moderately more interesting than any other.

Somewhere out there, while he nurses his sore knee, I suspect a Mr T. Woods agrees with me.

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