Why are Majors so special -- other than tradition??

[Jim Nugent]

In many ways, major golf tournaments are not a lot different from many other events on tour...

1.  They have real good fields, but so do a number of other tournaments.  In fact the tournament with the best field is not a major, but the Players.  Iīm guessing at least a half dozen other tournaments have similar fields as the majors.  

2.  They are played on great courses, but other tournaments also get top courses: Pebble, Riviera, Olympic, Southern Hills, TPC Sawgrass to name a few.    

You donīt have to prove youīre in the top 20% or 30% of players throughout the season to get into the majors.  Only be one of 150 or so qualifiers.

Itīs mostly the same guys who play each other all year, playing similar courses.  They feel more pressure -- these are the majors that everyone measures their careers by.  But seems to me they gain their status mostly through tradition.  Quite different from most other sports, where to become champions you normally have to beat everyone over the course of the year before you can even qualify.  

I think this is one reason in golf, on occasion a 396th player wins a big championship.  In almost any other sport that would be impossible.  

[Ian Andrew]

The best players playing each other for a title that has more stature than all the others. The standard of greatness in Jack's 18 majors not Sam Sneads 80+ tournyment wins.

[rgkeller]

The primary reason is that none of the majors are run by the PGA Tour and are thus freed from the rules and and sameness that afflicts the traveling circus.

[David Panzarasa]

Remember that these golfers have known "majors" before they were ever pros and it is stamped in their heads that the majors are the big ones. from media, to the all around aura of the majors. So, when the majors come each year, it is just a feeling I would think and something that has been a goal since watching tv golf all their lives. Just like the ryder cup verse the Presidents cup. ryder cup is something we all watch and know and has been around for a long time....something players all want to be in and strive for when they try to become pro golfers...yet the Presidents cup is by far and away a better field and better players yet does not hold a candle to the importance of the Ryder cup. It is all about tradition, and what you see while growing up and strive for while becoming a pro golfer.

[Jeff_Brauer]

They are special because there are no pro-ams for the pros to deal with.....

[PThomas]

Shivas - Tim Cronin , on the "How many majors does Jack have" thread, sums up on p 2 why that tournament should NOT be considered his 5th Open...I agree with Tim

[PThomas]

in case you really HAVEN'T read it , it discusses how his number went from 20, which is what it was when he won his last Masters, to 18, somehow

I can still hear Summerall saying as he teed up on 18 that day: "If he wins, it will be his 20th major title".....

[Tom_Doak]

For me, the majors are benchmarks.  Because three of them only go back to the same courses every 5-10 years, it gives a much clearer perspective on how the game is evolving than those events played on the same course one year after another.

For the players, the majors are where they are more likely to choke their guts out.

Mark B:  Twenty years ago, all the majors paid LESS than regular tour events.  I believe The Masters was the first to jack up the purse to be slightly more than all but the Tour's year-end event.  They realized they were making $$ off the tradition of the event and they should share a bit more of it with the players ... and they realized that some people would start seeing the event as not more important if the purse was not as large.

[Mike_Clayton]

No appearance money.