The answer seems to come down to where you’re from, and in Australia there’s little doubt the Open Championship remains the game’s pinnacle achievement.

In an informal, anonymous poll Golf Australia conducted of a dozen or so past and present Aussie touring professionals, every single one listed The Open at the top of the tree. Thereafter the ranking was also unanimous: the Masters sits second, followed by the US Open and the US PGA Championship in last place.

Our five-time champion Peter Thomson always bristles at the suggestion he won his remarkable quintet only because the best of the US players stayed home.

Interestingly, their responses were almost immediate, signalling that the hierarchy is obvious. So it’s all pretty clear-cut stuff, as even a small sample can present a picture of the majors landscape here.

It’s a discussion that surfaces periodically and changes with time. In the middle of last century, American players didn’t give the Open Championship the time of day, but Europeans, Australians and every other golf-playing nation continued to view it as the premier contest in the sport. Our five-time champion Peter Thomson always bristles at the suggestion he won his remarkable quintet only because the best of the US players stayed home.

American opinion is a better gauge, in a way, because they have three ‘home’ majors to separate. A heightened sentiment for and understanding of golf’s oldest championship coupled with a deeply held love of their own national Open and the ‘newcomer’ at Augusta perhaps gives Americans cause to reflect a little deeper. The prestige of the Masters and privileges that come with winning the green jacket probably still trump the US Open, just as our Aussie players indicated. But I suspect the battle between the two Opens in American eyes is closer than we might think.

A close indication of the broader feeling came via a 2012 Sports Illustrated survey that asked PGA Tour players to select the best major, rather than rank the four in order. Exactly half picked the Masters as No.1 and only two percent chose the PGA Championship. In the middle were the Open Championship with 25 percent and US Open with 23 percent.

Regardless of nationality, few would argue that the PGA sits last of the four and a clear third among the American-based majors. The PGA has raised its game in recent years with stronger fields, venues that better detach it from its perceived role as a pseudo US Open and an intriguing discussion about potentially taking the championship global for other countries’ PGAs to co-host. It’s a move that would surely further enhance its reputation and in time make the positions in this ranking a little less definitive.