The PGA Championship Has Lost Its Identity. Here's How To Get It Back...

The PGA Championship has come back around and that means we're set for a reminder of how the great old championship continues to deal with an identity crisis.

The Major, run by the PGA of America, started out life back in 1916 with a match play format before moving, and keeping with, stroke play from 1958 to the modern day.

It has taken place at different times of the year, moving most recently to May back in 2019 when the PGA Tour upended the golfing calendar by finishing its FedEx Cup season in August to avoid clashing with the NFL.

The PGA is undoubtedly a great championship and worthy as one of golf's four Majors, but there are many reasons why it finds itself firmly in the fourth out of four position today.

The move from August to May was heralded by the PGA of America, and it seems the organization, publicly at least, is extremely happy with its slot in the calendar.

It signals the true start of the summer season for its PGA professionals, allows more courses in warmer states to be in the rota and puts the tournament right in the thick of the professional golf calendar, instead of having it as an afterthought in August.

But the negatives outweigh the positives.

Pre-2019, golf fans had two months of anticipation from the Masters to the US Open, and the PGA Championship filling that gap had led to a Major per month and the entire Major season only lasting from April to July.

The PGA Tour's Signature Events don't help, either, with the RBC Heritage, Cadillac Championship and Truist Championship all taking place in that Masters to PGA Championship gap. All three Signature Events feature $20m purses and the majority of the PGA Tour's best players, so it's an extremely saturated part of the season.

The August date might have not been ideal but, in hindsight, it looks to have been a key identity of the championship.

The 'Glory's Last Shot' tagline was very relevant, as it genuinely was the final opportunity for players to end their season on a high with Major glory.

It was still fourth of the four but it had something to it. Now, it finds itself in a packed part of the schedule and having to justify why May is such a great date for it. It isn't.

This is all the while the other three men's Majors are getting better and better.

The Masters is The Masters - the best of the four Majors for me.

The US Open is golf's toughest test and continues to strengthen under Mike Whan's leadership, and the USGA's 'anchor sites' of Pinehurst, Oakmont and Pebble Beach are the pillars of an incredibly strong rota of courses.

The Open also continues to grow in stature under the R&A's leadership, with links golf and the history as golf's oldest Major its key selling points.

The PGA is also being caught up by The Players Championship more and more every year, which will only grow further if the PGA Tour manages to get the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm back.

"It's The Players. Like it doesn't need to be anything else. I would say it's got more of an identity than the PGA Championship does at the minute," Rory McIlroy said earlier this year.

What does the PGA Championship have? It has great history, commendable ties to the club professionals and one of the best trophies in golf, but I think there are three things it should be considering.

My three-point plan to improve the PGA Championship

It needs to vacate its May date. In such a saturated part of the calendar it really needs to be special to stand out, and it has not been achieving that in recent years.

Moving dates doesn't exactly look easy but I see two options.

With the FedEx Cup Playoffs in August, there would need to be some negotiations but the 'Glory's Last Shot' tagline should return. It truly did distinguish the PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy, who has won the championship twice, agrees.

"I think glory's last shot. I think it needs to go back to August," he said when pressed on how to improve the PGA Championship.

The Masters was The Masters, the US Open was the hardest, The Open was links golf and the PGA was your final chance.

Another way to move from May would be one that would prove very popular with international fans, and that would be to go global.

This would push the PGA Championship into a new era, and would force the PGA of America to partner with other Professional Golfers Associations around the world and hold the championship, perhaps in October or November, in places like Australia, South Africa or Japan.

Another thing I believe the PGA of America should really consider is changing the format back to its roots.

Match play is how the championship started and it is arguably the most-played format at grassroots and club level. What does the PGA of America stand for? Grassroots and club golf.

The golfing calendar is crying out for a big match play tournament following on from the HSBC World Match Play and WGC-Match Play, so this really could be an open goal.

You could turn it into a five-day tournament and have a third-place match and perhaps a PGA Pro tournament running concurrently to give fans on-site plenty of golf to watch, as the argument will be that match play isn't a great spectacle for those hoping to watch as many players as possible.

You could even run the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at the exact same time on the exact same course.

They would certainly need to work some things out and approach it with some innovative eyes, but the PGA Championship going back to match play could be a huge success.

Another area the championship needs to get better at is its courses.

Whistling Straits and Kiawah Island are far and away my two favorites from recent years, as well as Bethpage Black for the atmosphere, but it heads to quite bland venues far too often.

Yes, they're beautiful country clubs and fantastic courses that any golfer would dream of playing, myself included, but too often they're parkland courses that aren't hugely distinguishable from what we watch week-to-week on the PGA Tour.

They certainly aren't courses that make you put your TV on like Augusta, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst and Open Championship links courses.

So there's my wish list for the PGA Championship. Let's make the PGA Championship great again.

Do you agree that it has lost its identity? And how do you think it can improve? Let me know in the comments section.