New World Order: Not majors, but the next best thing

Sure, subjectivity can be a maddening thing.
Politicos deliver news these days with spin, pundits have personal agendas and media outlets increasingly cater to the particular bent of their audience. Hey, you think it's a coincidence that Rush Limbaugh is a marketing centerpiece on the Golf Channel? Chubby, right-wing rich guys who can't break 80 represent the network's biggest demographic.
This week's New World Order list is stilted, of course, but there's no endorsement overlap, no predisposition or bias. Just plain, unfettered, unfiltered nonsense from somebody who has attended each of the events included on the perceived pecking order presented.
The subject this week has grown increasingly topical over the past two months, especially as the fields of the Accenture Match Play and Players Championship have evolved. To wit: Outside of the game's four major championships, it's gotten a bit tougher to immediately identify the fifth-most important event in golf.
Purely for practical reasons, we'll limit the discussion parameters to U.S.-based events, because, while the European Tour's flagship BMW tournament at Wentworth and season-ending Dubai World Championship would almost certainly surely qualify for inclusion, I've never attended either.
So, beyond the Grand Slam, as the PGA Tour heads into a talent-laden week at historic Riviera Country Club, here's the honor roll of the next-best events in the Lower 48, along with an explanation of their merits and liabilities based on first-hand impressions.
It's not an attempt to categorize the biggest, just the best of the rest -- with no massaging or marketing message. Sure, it's like being an English teacher grading essays on a curve, when the right answers are hard to identify, much less quantify, but that's half the fun of it.
In other words, sometimes, you just plain recognize quality when you see it.
Players Championship, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

The signature event of the U.S. circuit, staged about 500 yards from PGA Tour headquarters, has taken some hits in the past few weeks in that two top 10 players, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy, have announced that they plan to sit it out this year.
It won't matter much. When all the various elements are calculated, there's not much doubt that the home fires burning at TPC Sawgrass still smoke the rest.
"What is globally known as the fifth major?" Ian Poulter said Wednesday morning on the Golf Channel when asked to handicap the biggest stops after the majors. "It's TPC."
Westwood rather famously disagreed last spring.
"Since the invention of the World Golf Championships, I think it's actually stepped back from that," he said. "They have to go in now before the Players Championship. So what is it, eighth on the list now?"
Not even close. The game's numero uno should recognize the No. 1 tourney outside the majors easily enough, for a defining variety of reasons.
Unlike the four WGC events, Sawgrass features a full field that's as deep as any all year. It offers the year's biggest purse, not that money impacts the quality in the eyes of the public. The tournament draws a huge throng annually, both for the golf and as a social outlet. The Pete Dye course isn't everybody favorite, but there is no more democratic layout on tour -- everybody from plinkers like Fred Funk to bombers like Henrik Stenson have won over the past few years. Now that it's staged in May, the weather hasn't been as much of an issue.
What else is there? Probably the biggest reason it isn't universally trumpeted as the fifth-most important event is because the tour, for years, foisted that phrase down the throats of the press and public in an attempt to legitimize the tournament's stature.
No need.
WGC Bridgestone Invitational, Akron, Ohio

As a Cleveland-area fixture for parts of six decades, Firestone draws a good crowd, the old-school golf course is proven and solid, and the field is stacked, because it's a crème-de-la-crème WGC event with no cut and money for everybody who manages to finish the week while still breathing.
But it's got something the equally loaded Accenture Match Play doesn't -- history. The tour has been playing at Firestone Country Club dating to 1962. Winners include an entire wall of No. 1s or Hall of Famers: Nicklaus, Watson, Wadkins, Olazabal, Norman, Mickelson, Duval, Singh and Woods.
It's a short field, which means it's arguably easier to win compared to some of the invitationals or top regular events like Quail Hollow, but Bridgestone's biggest asset is that there are no real weaknesses.
BMW Championship, Lemont, Ill.

At one point, the PGA Tour planned to steadily rotate the third FedEx Cup series event to other locales around the Midwest. But when the complaining hue and cry in Second City registered, the Ponte Vedrans elected to sit tight for a while at venerable Cog Hill.
Sure, the Dubsdread Course has been harshly criticized since its makeover a couple of years ago, but it's another venue that's been around for years and usually draws good crowds. Say what you will about the redesign -- players certainly have -- but the water-strewn 18th is a terrific stage and the title sponsor puts on one of the best shows of the year in terms of infrastructure.
Again, it's another short field with 70 players and no cut, which eliminates plenty of Friday angst and means the day doesn't last as long for Chicago's golf-savvy fans, but if there's a better-run event on tour, nothing springs to mind.
Memorial Tournament, Dublin, Ohio

Full disclosure: To me, the event picks up bonus points simply because vestiges of tournament host Jack Nicklaus seem to be everywhere. In fact, there are statues of the guy stationed on the drive to the course and beside the clubhouse.
Memorial is an invitational event with a field size of 120. Back before the mega-purse FedEx Cup and WGC events were invented, the invitationals (Colonial, Bay Hill, etc.) occupied the next tier after the four majors. Which, of course, means they have been doing bumper business for decades.
The Muirfield Village course is one of the best of the year -- it hosted a Ryder Cup -- and the crowd support is exactly what you might expect, since it's staged in Nicklaus' backyard. Outside of the weather, which nobody can control, it's another place where the ticket price is surely worth the money,
Wells Fargo Championship, Charlotte, N.C.

What, you never heard of it?
That's because in its eight-year history, it has already had three different names. But while the banks and title sponsors continue to evolve, devolve and create some marketing confusion, the site, Quail Hollow, continues to draw one of the best fields of the year.
Mirrored after the Masters, players are coddled and fans can't seem to get enough. In fact, the ticket allotment sells out every year, even when former champion Tiger Woods isn't playing.
A few years ago, the tournament brilliantly insisted that it wanted to be placed on the schedule in the slot preceding the Players Championship, which helped ensure more global players showed up on their way to Sawgrass. These days, it seems like as many are coming to play in Charlotte as they are in Ponte Vedra Beach.
It's no accident that the venue has been chosen for a future PGA Championship. It's been building toward that crescendo throughout its existence.
WGC Accenture Match Play, Marana, Ariz.

Sort of like the cactus that dots the desert terrain outside Tucson, beauty comes with some barbs.
For purists, match play is an underserved format. But the finality of the daily head-to-head matches can also act as a detriment. While last year's final pairing of highly regarded Paul Casey and Ian Poulter was a battle between top 20 fixtures, other finales have produced far less firepower over the years.
What makes match play beautiful is what makes it a prickly gamble. Unlike in stroke play, the plot often thins as the weekend approaches and players are sent packing. But it's also incredibly unique, and next week's field will feature the top 64 in the current world rankings, down to a man.
That in itself is worth saluting and helps offset the mediocre crowds, a punitive course for fans to walk and its geographical isolation.
Deutsch Bank Championship, Norton, Mass.

The second event in the FedEx Cup series, which ends on a Monday and benefits from playing on three-day weekend, draws massive, spirited galleries from throughout the New England area.
Thanks to some revisions, the TPC Boston course presents a solid and interesting test, including a fun par-5 finishing hole where hero shots can produce a nail-biting finish, and the big boys always turn up to play. Like at Charlotte and the BMW, to use a baseball analogy as we enter spring training season, the Boston tournament is a five-tool player.
Arnold Palmer Invitational, Orlando, Fla.

Palmer spent millions last year trying to freshen up a track that players have privately criticized for years. But despite some misgivings about the course, they show up annually to genuflect before the King.
And how can you argue with the list of past champions, including six-time winner Tiger Woods, who thrice has made a winning birdie putt on the 72nd hole? Throw in Singh, Mickelson, Ernie Els and others of their ilk, and the course has certainly delivered a steady diet of top-tier winners. It's inarguable fact -- Palmer and his fans like to see the big names win.
Outside of the Stadium Course of the Players Championship, Bay Hill arguably draws the biggest galleries of the Florida Swing, which helps the invitational feel fresh.
Northern Trust Open, Pacific Palisades, Calif.

GolfWorld magazine this week published a delicious historical look at the Los Angeles Open, which once drew the biggest names in the game.
Some people probably needed reminding. Not me.
Riviera Country Club is a jewel that's every bit as shiny as Pebble Beach, even if the local fan constituency doesn't enjoy dealing with the mind-numbing traffic-flow issues anymore. That's a convoluted way of saying that gallery figures have occasionally been embarrassing.
Riviera annually produces one of the 10 strongest fields of the year in the States, with or without a certain homegrown Orange County local who never managed to win at this venue and who hasn't played there in years.
For fans, it can be a painful process to attend an event at Riviera, which hosted the 1995 PGA Championship and numerous other majors. But if you are steeped in the game and appreciate the beauty of a timeless design, it's worth the price of a traffic-driven ulcer from navigating Sunset Boulevard.
WGC Cadillac Championship, Doral, Fla.

It's all about the field at Doral, which, for as long as it has been around as a tour venue, ranks among the more overrated tracks in annual use.
As a WGC event, the big boys turn out en masse in Miami, thought fans don't necessarily follow suit. For whatever reason, the WGC event at Doral hasn't generated much of a buzz from the fan base, especially compared with the product that's on the field, so to speak.
It presents a huge purse, has generated top-flight winners like Woods, Mickelson and Els, but it's never a good sign when the biggest buzz on the premises is in the media center. Maybe Miami will wake up at some point, like it did when Woods and Mickelson dueled on Sunday in 2005.
Two years later, it was converted into a short-field WGC event, which actually seemed to sap the event of its energy, not accentuate it.
Waste Management Open, Scottsdale, Ariz.

It never draws the best field. Not even close.
But the Phoenix Open is a tribute to what can be accomplished even without Woods in the field. Sure, the event is as much a spring bacchanal as a golf tournament, as evidenced when Kenny Perry once asked a female fan if she attended the tournament.
"I love that tournament," she said. "I go every night."
They pack them in by the hundreds of thousands and the closing stretch at Phoenix often delivers the best white-knuckle 90 minutes of the season. Like the Travelers Championship, which also has solved the mystery of how to wildly success without Woods and Mickelson, the Phoenix Open isn't just a golf tournament, it's a can't-miss cultural event.
Tour Championship, Atlanta

This much is certain after more than a decade of covering the event at historic East Lake Golf Club -- it's better than it used to be.
Still, the FedEx Cup finale is mostly about money, not that there's anything wrong with that. The course is the venerable stomping grounds of Atlanta legend Bobby Jones, but just doesn't create many goose bumps personally. Perhaps because deciding the FedEx's $10 million bonus and season-long points parade on a par-3 hole, the 18th, seems less than ideal.
With only 30 players, the window of play for the day is remarkably truncated for fans. Attendance is better than in years past, but the buzz feels more like a midweek ballgame between the Braves and Brewers.
The tour has certainly propped it up as best it can in an attempt to make it relevant. Whereas the winner at Bay Hill or Memorial earns a two-year tour exemption, the Atlanta victor gets three, for beating exactly 29 other guys. With so few players in the field, drama can take a hit.
And so can an event's overall reputation. Subjective or not.