US PGA Championship: Golf's fourth major moved from August to May

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Jimmy WalkerImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Jimmy Walker was the 2016 US PGA Championship winner

US PGA Championship 2017

Venue: Quail Hollow, Charlotte, North Carolina Dates: 10-13 August

Coverage: Watch live on BBC Two, Red Button and BBC Sport website. Listen to BBC Radio 5 live commentary and follow text updates - including in-play video clips - on website and mobile app. Click for full times.

The US PGA Championship will be held in May instead of August from 2019, making The Open the final major of the season.

The US PGA will now be held a month after April's Masters, before June's US Open and July's Open Championship.

The Players Championship will also move from May to March, while the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship moves from May to September.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the changes would "greatly enhance the professional golf calendar".

One of the reasons the US PGA has been moved is to accommodate the Olympics, which will be held in Tokyo in 2020.

PGA of America chief executive officer Pete Bevacqua said: "It provides our PGA Championship a strong landing spot on the calendar and a consistent major-championship rhythm that golf fans can embrace.

"For nearly 85% of our membership, May is also on the front-end of the golf season."

Venues for the tournament have already been announced up to and including 2023.

The move has proven popular with many of the game's big names.

Jack Nicklaus, an 18-time major winner said it "should be a good thing for the game of golf", while 14-time major winner Tiger Woods tweeted his support,, external saying: " Really like and support decision by PGA and the Tour. A big event every month and flexibility with schedule."

Analysis

BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter

It's all change in the golfing calendar.

There are implications that are going to ripple all over the place - one of them is that The Open is going to become the last major of the year.

It also means there's going to be more room for Olympic golf every four years in that August window and crucially, for the PGA Tour, there is the opportunity to wrap up their lucrative play-offs before the American sporting attention is totally diverted and overwhelmed by the start of the NFL season.

It does give a very easy-to-follow narrative to the golfing year because it will start in March with the Players Championship - regarded as the fifth major - then we will have the Masters in April, the PGA Championship in May, the US Open in June and the Open in July, and attention can switch to the play-offs on the PGA Tour.

When we get into September there's perhaps the opportunity to bring the Ryder Cup forward and for events like the BMW PGA Championship to have their moment as well.

But there's going to be a heck of a lot of haggling going on among the established tournaments and I do wonder how the World Golf Championships, which were supposed to be the tier below the majors, are going to fit in the golfing firmament.

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