Fellow Players Championship winner Justin Leonard is backing defending and also double-winning TPC Sawgrass champ Rory McIlroy when it comes to suggestions the tournament be officially honoured as golf’s fifth major.

McIlroy was asked earlier in the week his thoughts of talk of making The Players a major championship but would have nothing to do with it.

Indeed the World No. 2 politely commented: “I’m a traditionalist, I’m a historian of the game. We have four major championships. If you want to see what five major championships looks like, look at the women’s game. I don’t know how well that’s went for them.”

Leonard captured the 1998 Players Championship that was a fourth of a dozen PGA Tour victories for the now 53-year-old and with the now Aspen, Colorado resident teeing-up this week as the defending Chubb Classic champion, having won for a first time on the Champions Tour here in Naples near on a year ago.

And Leonard was asked ahead of teeing-up his thoughts of talk of The Players being named a fifth major, and in replying to this journalist’s question, also pointed out he is also ‘a traditionalist’.

” I don’t know if there needs to be a fifth major,”  said Leonard.

“You know, four majors is a lot. The Players stands alone among all the tournaments. I don’t think it needs a designation as a major championship to hold the prestige it already holds.

“So I’m a bit of a traditionalist. I don’t think it should be designated as a major. I’m fine with having won one major and a Players Championship. That’s usually — that’s good by me. I wish I won more, but it is what it is. I think it stands on its own. I don’t think it needs any label of being a major championship”.

It seemed only opportune to also quiz Leonard on the state of the men’s pro game.

“Interesting would be my word. You know, yeah, with Brooks coming back, looks like Patrick Reed is heading in that direction. I don’t follow the other tours very much”, he said.

“Now that I’m not doing TV I don’t watch a lot of PGA TOUR golf. I do on occasion, but that was part of my job for six
years so I consumed my share of it.

“Now I catch a little bit here and there. But I think with Rory winning the Grand Slam last year, three or for players that
still have the opportunity to, Scottie kind of being the most obvious this summer at Shinnecock; I would say the men’s
game and the game of golf in general is in very good shape.

“But, yeah, seemed like there for a while there was a lot of news that wasn’t necessarily made on the golf course. It was off to the side, and, you know, some transition going on certainly. Certainly then you factor in what the TOUR,
sounds like they’re going to do with the schedule and things like that.

“So it’s great. It’s in good shape. But it is changing”.