Five-time PGA Tour winner Russell Henley maintains a dignified personality, and that would be a good way to describe his demeanor during the press conference at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Hot takes are not in Henley’s usual repertoire. The position the PGA Tour veteran took at Bay Hill on Tuesday, however, was unusually controversial.
When asked about next week’s Players Championship, Henley clarified his position: The players are “important.”
His opinion is one shared by some prominent figures in the game, including Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, and comes amid an unofficial push by the PGA Tour to have the golf world recognize its premier tournament as the fifth major for men. Although not everyone agrees, including the biggest star of the Tour, Rory McIlroy.
Russell Henley on The Players Championship: ‘I’ve always taken it seriously’
When Henley sat on the podium at Tuesday’s pre-tournament press conference at Bay Hill, he did so as the defending Arnold Palmer Invitational champion.
Henley won by one shot over Collin Morikawa last year to capture the biggest win of his career. The following week, he finished T30 at The Players.
Although Henley has never lifted the Players’ trophy at TPC Sawgrass (his best finish is a T13 in 2022), he believes the tournament is on par with golf’s four majors: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Open Championship.
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“I mean, I think it’s great. It’s our home tournament. I don’t know the stats like if they say ‘the best golf course’ or anything, but it is,” Henley explained Tuesday at Bay Hill.
Henley argued that given the history of the competition, its participation process and the pedigree of past champions, the Players had “always” been top of his mind.
“And the history of that tournament. I mean, I’ve always valued that in my mind. It’s a tricky golf course and it rewards good shots, usually. It’s very intimidating visually, and I feel like if you have a good week you’ve done a lot of really good things,” Henley said. “You look at the champions of the past and… it didn’t pick any one player. [Scheffler].”
He continued: “It’s a tournament I always look forward to, I like the challenge of it.
Chamblee calls the Majors, but Rory McIlroy refuses
The takeover of Henley’s players did not come in a vacuum. The golfers have been the talk of the golf world this year.
Under new CEO Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour seems to be pushing to elevate The Players to the top of fans’ minds. Take the promo video the Players Tour dropped in early February that boldly stated, “March is going to be big.”
Shortly after that video was taken down, Chamblee went on air not only arguing that the Players are important, but also “the best.”
“If you look at the Players Championship – with respect to all the other four majors – it’s the best field in golf. It’s the deepest field in golf. And because of the fact that in its 50-year history, only one player has successfully defended it, I would argue that it’s a very difficult major to win. Everyone else had very successful defenses in February,” Chamble said. “So, of all the metrics that can be used to measure how big something is, The Players, for me, stands alone and above the other four major leagues – not just the biggest. In my estimation, it’s the best head.”
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McIlroy has captured two singles titles in his career, including last season. But when asked about next week’s multiplayer debate at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he offered a very different perspective than Henley and Chamblee.
“Look, I’d like to have seven majors instead of five, that sounds good. But I’m a cultural person, I’m a historian of the game. We have four majors. You know, if you want to see what the five majors look like, look at the women’s game. I don’t know how well that goes for them,” McIlroy said at Pebble Beach.
However, McIlroy made it clear that the players’ absence does not diminish the importance of the tournament. In fact, he argued that there is a better “identity” than one of the existing titles.
“It’s the players. It shouldn’t be anything else. As far as I can tell it has more identity than the PGA Championship right now,” said McIlroy. “So as an identity, I think the Players have hit the nail on the head. It stands on its own without a label, I think.”
The 2026 Players Championship officially begins on Thursday, March 12, at TPC Sawgrass.
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