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It's time to consider introducing a fifth major

The success of the WGC-Champions event in Shanghai could be a precursor to a fifth major © Getty Images

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Golf, particularly the professional version, is now a truly global game - of that there can be little doubt. Great players from all corners of the Earth now flood the two main tours, and almost all are capable of victory on any given week.

This year, the four major winners came from three different continents - an impressive diversity even from such a small sample size. Indeed, you have to go back to 2006 for a year when the three major winners (Tiger Woods won twice in that vintage) came from fewer different quarters of the globe.

Yet there is something of a disparity between the nationalities of the modern winners of major championships and where those major championships are actually held. Every year, without fail, three out of the four major championships are held in the United States - with the Open Championship in the United Kingdom (read: England and Scotland) the only exception.

How is that fair? America may have once been the epicentre for world-class golf - and may still, marginally, have the most prestigious tour - but that was predominantly a result of the game's widespread popularity in that one (wealthy) country and a peculiar stage in the history of transport technology where travelling long distances with any frequency was wildly impractical.

As a result, players flocked to the United States, migrated even, to play the best and earn the most. The same is true today - on the eve of the latest €10 million FedEx Cup playoffs no one can argue otherwise - but there is no longer that same reason to stay. On the contrary - travel advancements now mean players can go almost anywhere on any notice.

As a result, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the location of the four majors - or consider adding another. It simply isn't representative that 75 per cent of the biggest tournaments (and three of the four second-tier World Golf Championship events) take place in one country, whether or not that country is the United States.

A truly international major - one that moves from countries and courses from year to year - would seem both modernising and beneficial to the game. Replacing the US PGA Championship as one of the four majors with this new tournament would be one option - as it increasingly insists on being a 'US Open-lite', with its tough setups of prestigious courses, it is quickly losing a real identity - but it is likely to be strongly opposed by the powers-that-be.

The alternative then, is to add a fifth major to the schedule - most probably sometime in the early autumn. In this day and age it is not as revolutionary a suggestion as might be seemed - the LPGA have recently added one to their calendar, the Evian Masters, while the US Champions Tour also play five a year.

Injury shows how far the mighty can fall

Paul Casey is in golfing purgatory © Getty Images

• It was interesting to note this week that both Paul Casey and Tiger Woods are considering playing one or more of the events in the PGA Tour's Fall Series - usually the wasteland for players not quite good enough to establish themselves at the highest level, or those willing to put in the extra graft to maintain their place at the game's top table.
• Usually, such a quartet of tournaments would be beneath players of the calibre of Woods and Casey, which only goes to show the narrow margins that divide the best from the rest. Woods may be playing in one of the events to gain practice, having missed the FedEx Cup run-in - but he will nevertheless play. Casey, however, is a cautionary tale many of his peers could look to.
• 
  The Englishman began the year as high as world No. 3 and having won on the European Tour. But a toe injury - something that minor - derailed his swing and he has since failed to reach the FedEx playoffs and as such needs to play two more events to have a chance of retaining his PGA Tour card for the next year. Casey can return to the European Tour if all does not work out, but others who have been in his position in the past (or might be in future) may not be so lucky.
• 
  So many golfers these days are good, only some are great. But the margin between those two categories is evidently remarkably small.

Then again, major status is not just something that can be bestowed on an event just because someone in a plush office somewhere gives the word. The PGA Tour tried that with their flagship event, the Players Championship, and failed miserably. While the Open and US Open have always been considered the crème de la crème, the Masters didn't become considered a major until long after its 1936 inception, and the same goes for the US PGA. Just as golfers have to prove themselves to get into major championship fields, so the tournaments themselves have to demonstrate they are worthy of the status.

That would not be an insurmountable issue, however - find the right courses for the rotation and bring a big enough prize fund to the table, and the field will soon follow suit.

The hunger for a more global distribution of majors is there - the post-event reaction to Darren Clarke's Open victory hinted at that. As the proud Northern Irishman celebrated his victory, he was frequently asked about the possibility that a course from Northern Ireland could be returned to the Open rotation.

The 42-year-old was positive about the situation, as you would expect - although he was quick to acknowledge that the Royal & Ancient had already looked into the viability of taking the major back to Royal Portmanock or Portrush and not been overly encouraged by what they saw.

One line of argument that an Open Championship should return to Northern Ireland was because the country's players had suddenly become outlandishly successful on the world stage. The country deserved to be rewarded for the recent victories for the likes of Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell for a country of fewer than two million people, was the prevailing thinking.

But if that is the case, why does South Africa not deserve reward for the recent successes of the likes of Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen - or the past triumphs for Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Bobby Locke or Gary Player?

Shouldn't South Korea be rewarded for the success of YE Yang? How about Argentina for Angel Cabrera's wins, or Australia for past triumphs from the likes of Geoff Ogilvy and Steve Elkington?

Obviously, some countries would have more difficulty than others in finding both the course and upgrading the infrastructure to make it capable of holding a major event. But such obstacles have been overcome.

Hosting a true major event that would successfully be taken around the globe would not only help grow the popularity of the game - a potential boon for interest (and thus potentially revenues) for the existing tours - but would also put something back into the game in quarters that have given a lot but not received too much in return.

Golf has never been especially pro-active, however, especially with such matters that tamper so brazenly with the traditions it holds dear. Fortunately, a lightning rod may be at hand. From 2016, what will effectively be considered a worldwide fifth major will actually be played every four years.

Yes, the addition of golf to the Olympics - and the competition and attention it will inspire - could prove the ultimate catalyst for change. Be a success - and a fifth major might not be the most outlandish idea after all.

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