Russell Henley believes The Players is a major

The PGA Tour is at Bay Hill this week for the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. It is the latest Signature Event of the season and promises to be rather epic.

Such was definitely the case last year when Russell Henley outlasted Collin Morikawa for the win. It was a big moment for Henley and as defending champion he obviously made the rounds ahead of this week’s action.

Russell is among those who counts The Players as a major

As exciting as the API is it is hard to not look ahead to next week’s Players Championship. Some of that is that Rory McIlroy is the defending champion and that he is also the defending Masters Champion so the stories write themselves, but a big part of it is the prestige that surrounds Sawgrass and its annual outing.

Russell Henley believes the Players is a major

It has long been debated as to whether or not the Players is a major champioship. Henley was asked for his thoughts about it this week and said he considers it one.

Q. Stir the nest a little bit. There’s a lot of talk about the tournament next week, THE PLAYERS, how important it is. Just your gut feeling opinion, major, not major?

RUSSELL HENLEY: I mean, I think it’s a major. It’s our home tournament. I don’t know the statistics on like what they say, like best field in golf or whatever, but, I mean, it is. And the history with that tournament? I mean, I’ve always considered that a major in my mind. It’s just such a tricky golf course and it rewards great shots, typically. It visually is very intimidating. I feel like if you have a good week there you’ve done a lot of really good things.

You look at the past champions and nobody is really, it hasn’t really favored any one player. People typically don’t win it back-to-back, unless you’re Scottie. But it’s, yeah, it’s a tournament I always look forward to, I love the challenge of it, and it’s one of, yeah, I consider it a major.

Q. If you want to win majors, where would you put it? It would be pretty high on your list, wouldn’t it?

RUSSELL HENLEY: Oh, definitely, definitely. I mean, winning there, when you win on a golf course like that, with that kind of history, I mean it proves you can do it anywhere, I think, for sure. Those closing holes are really tough, I would imagine, when you’re carrying a lead.

This seems like a pretty political answer. You aren’t necessarily going to find a PGA Tour member to come out and say that the Players is not prestigious.

A month ago the Players regarded that March was going to be “major” in a social post that had a lot of people curious, for what it’s worth.

Perhaps we will get an answer next week.