Major history question

Question
Hi Mr. Hoffman,

Knowing what the modern day 4 majors are, and also knowing that Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam in 1930, I wonder- when did the PGA Championship become a major, and when did the British Amateur stop being a major?



Every spring when the PLAYERS comes around, there is talk of the unofficial 5th major.  If it were to ever become a major, the question would come up- does Jack now have 23 majors?  Do Davis and Freddie now have 3?  Logically it would seem they wouldn抰, since it wasn抰 a major when they won it.  But Hagen has 11 majors, 5 being PGA抯 in the 1920抯.  But if Jones won the Slam in 1930, the PGA wasn抰 a major in the 20抯- was it?



Please give me your thoughts.



Thanks very much!!



Ross


Answer
Ross,

When Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam the tournaments were The British Open, The British Amateur, The U. S. Open and the U. S. Amateur.

Here is some additional information from wikipedia......

The majors originally consisted of the Open Championship, the British Amateur or The Amateur Championship, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Amateur. With the introduction of the Masters Tournament in 1934, and the rise of professional golf in the late 1940s and 1950s, the term "major championships" eventually came to describe the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, and the (U.S.) PGA Championship. It is difficult to determine when the definition changed to include the current four tournaments, although many trace it to Arnold Palmer's 1960 season, when after winning the Masters and the U.S. Open to start the season he remarked that if he could win the Open Championship and PGA Championship to finish the season, he would complete "a grand slam of his own" to rival Bobby Jones's 1930 feat. Until that time, many U.S. players also considered the Western Open as one of golf's "majors", and the British PGA Matchplay Championship was as important to British and Commonwealth professionals as the PGA Championship was to Americans. During the 1950s, the short-lived World Championship of Golf was certainly viewed as a "major" by its competitors, as its first prize was worth almost ten times any other event in the game, and it was the first event whose finale was televised live on U.S. television.

The oldest of the majors is The Open Championship, which is usually referred to as the "British Open" outside the United Kingdom. Dominated by American champions in the 1920s and 1930s, the comparative explosion in the riches available on the U.S. Tour from the 1940s onwards meant that the lengthy overseas trip needed to compete in the event became increasingly prohibitive for the leading American professionals and their regular participation dwindled after the war years (Ben Hogan, for example, entered just once after the war, winning in 1953). However, in 1960, Arnold Palmer entered in an attempt to emulate Hogan's 1953 feat of winning on his first visit, and although unsuccessful, began competing regularly thereafter, restoring the event's prestige (and with it the prize money that once again made it an attractive prospect to other American pros). The advent of transatlantic jet travel in that period also helped to boost American participation in The Open.

Thanks for the question,

Michael