Important Professional Golf Tournaments

There are four major tournaments in Professional Golf: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship.

These four most important golf championship games kick off with the Masters in April and go until the end of August. Winning all four is a nearly impossible feat; the "grand slam" has only happened once in the history of golf, won by Bobby Jones in 1930. (Though this is on a technicality, as the Master's did not yet exist. The closest a golfer has come to the grand slam as it is defined today is Tiger Woods, who won the 4 consecutively, but over 2 years.)

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The elusive grand slam, therefore, is more of a myth than a reality; Roger Federer has 16 Grand Slam titles for men's tennis. But that does not change the level of importance that these 4 series hold.

The Masters Tournament kicks off the golf season, held in the first full week of April each year. (Women are not able to compete as the Augusta National Golf Club is a private men's only course.) The Masters is the only championship with a stagnant location. Bobby Jones, previously mentioned as the only slam winner, created the Masters when he designed and opened the Augusta, GA course in 1963.

The US Open is scheduled in June, so that the final Sunday of game play is on Father's Day. The Open is played at a variety of courses, with difficult scoring a goal to increase driving precision. The leaders are often close to par as the greens are chosen particularly for their severity (to be in the running for host, many clubs undergo renovations to make their courses more difficult).

The Open Championship, or British Open, is held on one of 9 historic courses in England and Scotland. It's the oldest of the four and the only grand slam championship on foreign soil. The British Open is held the weekend of the third Friday in July.

The PGA Championship, part of the PGA Tour, is held annually 4 weeks after the British Open. As it is the last of the majors, the PGA holds great importance: players who do well in the PGA are automatically invited to the other three the following year.

Important Professional Golf Tournaments

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