Just ran across this statement in Wikipedia on the British Open...
"Because of a lack of participation by American players due to the overseas travel times, the Open Championship was not considered a major in the U.S. until the early 1960s, when Arnold Palmer began competing in Great Britain. Until that time, many U.S. players considered the Western Open as one of golf's majors."
While not everything in Wiki is right, this gives my exact reasoning.
Interesting about the Western, which I've heard before, including here on GCA.com. Absolutely disagree with retroactive compiling of records. If they had different majors in earlier eras, we should count those for players of that time. Not the ones anointed today.
Jim,
You need to do a little more research than simply pulling a few quotes of Wikipedia. Palmer won the Open Championship in 61, so lets take a look at the respective results from the previous 10 years of both the Open Championship and thew Western Open
Open Championship (winner and course)
1960 St Andrews Kel Nagle
1959 Muirfield Gary Player
1958 Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club Peter Thomson
1957 St Andrews Bobby Locke
1956 Royal Liverpool Golf Club Peter Thomson
1955 St Andrews Peter Thomson
1954 Royal Birkdale Golf Club Peter Thomson
1953 Carnoustie Golf Links Ben Hogan
1952 Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club Bobby Locke
1951 Royal Portrush Golf Club Max Faulkner
Western Open
1960 Western Golf & Country Club Redford, Michigan Stan Leonard
1959 Pittsburgh Field Club Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mike Souchak
1958 Red Run Golf Club Royal Oak, Michigan Doug Sanders
1957 Plum Hollow Country Club Southfield, Michigan Doug Ford
1956 Presidio Golf Club San Francisco, California Mike Fetchick
1955 Portland Golf Club Portland, Oregon Cary Middlecoff
1954 Kenwood Country Club Cincinnati, Ohio Lloyd Mangrum
1953 EBellerive Country Club Saint Louis, Missouri .J. "Dutch" Harrison
1952 Westwood Country Club Saint Louis, Missouri Lloyd Mangrum
1951 Davenport Country Club Pleasant Valley, Iowa Marty Furgol
I will take the Open Championship winners (and venues) against the Western Open "champions" any day thank you very much.
Wikipedia also has this to say about the Western Open:
"In its early decades it was regarded by some as a major championship, although this designation was unofficial and it is never included in tallies of golfers' major championship wins nowadays."
Peter Thomson proved his class in 1965 beating a top class field at Birkdale which included Palmer, Nicklaus and Lema, 3 of the top 4 on the US money list at the time. His class and place in history, along with the Open Championship, is undeniable.