PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Rory McIlroy has won the career Grand Slam and he’s won the Players Championship twice so there aren’t too many pros more qualified to weigh in on the hot-button topic of the week — should March be major?
“I'd love to have seven majors instead of five, that sounds great,” McIlroy said with a smile.
But while he is quick to classify The Players as “one of the best golf tournaments in the world,” he doesn’t think it needs to be considered a major.
“I'm a traditionalist, I'm a historian of the game. We have four major championships. You know, if you want to see what five major championships looks like, look at the women's game. I don't know how well that's went for them,” McIlroy said while speaking to the media ahead of the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he's defending his title.
‘Is the Players a major’ has been argued since before the first tee was stuck in the ground at a championship that dates to 1974.
“Before the first putt has been stroked, the first hotdog sold or the first complaint made about the rough, it has been billed as golf’s Super Bowl,” wrote Golf Digest’s Dwayne Netland. “This is quite a burden for an unborn event, no matter how noble its blood, but if the grandiose plans materialize, the Tournaments Players Championship may become the sport’s fifth major event.”
The debate has ebbed and flowed over the years and the Players has been unofficially tabbed “the fifth major,” but a spark was reignited when the PGA Tour launched a campaign for its flagship event with the tagline, “March is going to be major.” Then Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee fanned the flames with a take that blew up on social media over the weekend.
“In every single way that a metric could be used to measure whether something is a major, the Players, to me, stands alone and above the other four major championships as not just a major. It is, in my estimation, the best major," he concluded.
McIlroy neither attempted to one-up Chamblee with even more hyperbole nor knock the Players for being unworthy of praise. He didn’t want to tread in those waters and instead played the role of Switzerland.
“I think from a player perspective it's amazing. I think from an on-site fan experience it's amazing. It's an amazing golf course, location, venue,” he said. “But it's the Players. Like it doesn't need to be anything else. I would say it's got more of an identity than the PGA Championship does at the minute. So from an identity standpoint, I think The Players has got it nailed.
“But it doesn't — I think The Players can be — it is an amazing tournament in its own right and I don't think it being classified a major or not a major makes it any more or any less. I'm still very proud to have won that tournament twice as I'm sure all the other champions are. I don't think – it stands on its own without the label, I guess.”
Asked what he thinks the PGA Championship’s identity should be, McIlroy, a two-time winner of the Wanamaker Trophy too, said, “I think glory's last shot. I think it needs to go back to August.”
That may take some work to reconfigure the schedule – again! – but, hey, that’s what the Future Competitions Committee is supposed to be addressing. For now, McIlroy may have coined the next Players tagline: March, it stands on its own without the (major) label.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rory McIlroy on The Players Championship: 'It stands on its own'