I’m talking about the whole ‘fifth major’ tripe which raised its head again this past week courtesy of the game’s highest profile TV commentator, Brandel Chamblee.

Like many before him, the former PGA Tour player posited the theory during Open week that the U.S circuit’s flagship event should be deemed a ‘Major’.

His reasoning was a little less common than others (Chamblee thinks it would be fair punishment for those golfers who defected to LIV to be locked out of The Players) but the broader notion of designating a fifth Grand Slam event is one which has quite a bit of support.

There are some valid reasons The Players could make a claim to such status, not the least being the strength of field it boasts each year.

But what would be the mechanics of doing so? Do we just start calling it a Major? Is there some kind of vote or process to follow?

Of course not. There is no committee or tribunal with the authority to make a definitive ruling on what tournaments are deemed part of the Grand Slam.

The game’s most important events don’t come with a certificate of authenticity. In typically beautiful golf fashion, they just ‘are’.

"Chamblee says he thinks of The Players as a major and there is no problem with that. But until the majority of those with a vested interest in the game think the same way, The Players will be just what it has been for several years now: the fifth most prestigious event in the game." 

Of course, the tournaments that make up the ‘impregnable quadrilateral’ have changed over time and there have been no shortage of words written and podcasts recorded exploring just when and how The Masters became a major and why the old North and South Open stopped enjoying the same status. None has yet uncovered a definitive answer.

Major status is a tricky blend of acceptance and acknowledgement of fans, players, media and administrators which has no hard and fast rules.

For precedent, we need look no further than the LPGA, which deemed in 2013 that the then Evian Masters would become the Evian Championship and be the women’s game’s fifth major.

A decade later it continues to be debatable whether that experiment has been a success though another decade from now will it simply be accepted? Possibly/probably.

Could the same happen with The Players? Possibly.

But the reason the men’s Majors work is because they sit outside the professional ecosystem hence the world’s collective Tours have no capacity to designate any of their events as such.

Which brings us back to the whole debate being circular, endless and ultimately stupid.

Chamblee says he thinks of The Players as a major and there is no problem with that.

But until the majority of those with a vested interest in the game think the same way, The Players will be just what it has been for several years now: the fifth most prestigious event in the game.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.