The tournaments today are DESIGNATED as majors, the Western was CONSIDERED a major.
Glenn,
I think every player that has played in The Masters would have done so if there were no purse.
Because they know the tournament to be a major, because someone started calling it that one day.
With all due respect JES, the names on the trophy that are missing; Morris, Park, Vardon, Ray, Ouimet, Evans, Barnes, Travis, Travers, Ball, Hagen, Little, Armour and many others.
Of course they are missing because the tournament wasn't around then, but that's part of my point. Here's a tourney that's not a championship of anything other than a private club tournament, that's not even half as old as the Open, not nearly as old as the other two (U.S., PGA) and has a field half the size. Yet, someone decided to call it a major one day and ceased to call the ones mentioned (as well as the North and South) majors, and the names on those trophies on those other tournaments are a hell of alot longer and "complete" if you will.
This will probably really start off a firestorm, but I often wonder if Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods would've have won quite so many green jackets if the field at AGNC were to be expanded to roughly the size of the other three. Obviously they are great players and the cream rises to the top most of time in big tourneys, but would their numbers have been the same if they were competing against fields that were comparable to the other 3 and not against the Mid-Am., Pub. Links and Amatuer Runner-ups as well as players that had won the tournament when they were half their present age? I'm not so sure. The percentages decrease when there are more good players to beat.