The LPGA Tour has added the Evian Masters in France to its list of majors, giving it five major championships. That means about a quarter of the tour's tournaments are majors.
That's too many for several reasons.
First of all, that's way too high a percentage. The tour is struggling to add tournaments and naming an existing tournament in a foreign country a major does nothing to help.
Second of all, you change the record books by adding a fifth major. There are more opportunities for young players to amass majors and catch some of the legends of the game prematurely. What constitutes a grand slam now? Do you have to win all five majors. Does Annika Sorenstam have to come out of retirement to re-accomplish a career slam?
Thirdly, it hurts the tour's branding. You have to create tradition, and making a tournament a new major further confuses people who aren't steadfast fans of your game. Making the Women's British Open a major a few back made sense. Golf fans relate to the British Open. The LPGA Championship, U.S. Women's Open also make sense and are recognizable. While the Kraft Nabisco Championship has been a major for a long time, it still needs better branding for casual golf fans, and adding the Evian Masters as a major is only going to befuddle even more.
