Why The PGA Championship Should Return to Match Play (And Why It Won't)

They're called "major championships" because of their history. Unlike the Buick Open or the St. Jude Classic, these tournaments are about more than just one victory. They're about adding yourself to the history books.

The Masters has Augusta National and the famed green jacket. It's the tournament that defines the golf world, right down to Amen Corner, the Eisenhower Pine and "the shot heard 'round the world." Winning the Masters gains you admittance into one of the most exclusive dinners in all of sports, where only past champions can meet during Masters week. The U.S. Open is America's championship, known to be the toughest test in golf. The British Open is the world's tournament, known to most outside the U.S. as, simply, The Open Championship. Winning it lands you the Claret Jug and the title of "champion golfer of the year."

But what does the PGA Championship bring? For every major victory Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have had this decade, we've also been handed the Shaun Micheels and Rich Beems of the world (not to knock them, it just doesn't feel like major winners). The PGA Championship had the right idea when it first became a championship. It was distinctive because it was the only major that was played in the match play format. Up until 1957, it was a match play event, and it needs to return to that format. The problem is, it'll never happen.

With all the big events popping up on the PGA Tour these days (the WGCs, Players and Tour Championship, not to mention the FedEx Cup), the PGA Championship seems to be a little too "normal." It has an elite field on a tough golf course, but you almost get the feel that it's the ugly sister to the U.S. Open ... from the same womb, just not nearly as attractive.

Changing to match play would give it a unique feel. You play 36 holes of stroke play to qualify for the match play (low 64 move on) and get ranked by what you shot, similar to the U.S. Amateur. From there, it is win or go home, and you'd get to see players battle it out for a much bigger prize than the Accenture Match Play. This format works wonders at the Ryder Cup, and should be implemented more than once a year on the PGA Tour. It's a game regular golfers prefer over stroke play anyway, and a format that is huge in every level of golf besides professional.

The problem this will never happen is the same as with a lot of corporate situations ... the business side wouldn't agree with the logic. The networks use the majors as rating boosters, and if, lord forbid, Tiger Woods got knocked out in the first couple of rounds, and the final match was Lee Westwood versus K.J. Choi, exactly 43 people would tune in to see who won. (On the flip side of this lies the possibility that Tiger would face Phil or Sergio Garcia in the finals, and the last time Tiger was in a major championship playoff, the ratings tended to jump.)

It is something I have found to be almost too logical, yet nobody wants to agree that the PGA Championship, above all other tournaments, needs a little flavor. A match play championship at the end of the year to decide one of the four major winners? If that was upcoming, I'd be downright giddy.