A Look At The Major Tournaments In Golf by Jena Luthovski

In golf, there are four major tournaments, which are ‘The Masters’, ‘The U.S. Open’, ‘The British Open’ and the ‘PGA Championship’. The player, who wins all the four tournaments in the same year, wins the grand slam.

‘The Masters’ is held every year, in the month of April and is a player’s first major tournament in the year. Afterwards is the ‘The U.S. Open’ during month of June, ‘The British Open’ in July and the ‘PGA Championship’ in August.

The credit of starting, ‘The Masters’ tournament, goes to Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones. This major golf tournament is held every year in the same location which is the Augusta National Golf Club, in Georgia, U.S.A. A player who wins ‘The Masters’ is automatically invited to play the other the major golf tournaments (‘The U.S. Open’, ‘The British Open’ and ‘The PGA Championship’) for the next five years. They also earn a lifetime invitation to play ‘The Masters’ and receive a five season membership on the PGA Tour as well as invitations to ‘The Players Championship’ for the next five years. In the year 2006 the prize money for ‘The Masters’ was a whopping 7 million USD.

The ‘U.S Open’ or the ‘United States Open Championship’ is conducted by the United States Golf Association. The tournament takes place at a variety of gold courses and it’s known to be a tough one. It’s set up in such a way that a player would find it very difficult to maintain a low score and there is a premium of accurate driving.

The ‘British Open’, also known as the ‘Open Championships’ is the oldest of the four major golf tournaments in men’s golf. Every year any one of the well-known and prestigious golf clubs in the U.K. play host to the tournament and it is always played on a links course. In the year 2006, the prize money was for this tournament was 4 million pounds, the largest of the major tournaments.

‘The PGA Championship’ also known as the US PGA Championship is conducted by the Professional Golfers Association of America as part of the PGA Tour. A player who wins the PGA gets accessed to privileges such as automatic invitations for playing in the other three majors (The Masters, US Open and The Open Championship) for the next five years. They do not have to qualify for the PGA Championship for life. They also get to a five season membership on the PGA Tour and also invites for ‘The Players Championship’ for the next five years.