Rich Beem: Golf's majors tough to reschedule in condensed season

Rich Beem believes a player could go and win "two or three majors" in quick succession if the 2020 major season is condensed later in the year.

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The former major champion was scheduled to play in this year's PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park this May, live on Sky Sports Golf, which joined the Masters in being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Both majors are hopeful of being rescheduled later in the year, while the US Open and The Open are yet to confirm whether they will be able to go ahead as planned.

The decimated golf calendar could force the governing bodies into condensing the four majors into a shorter space of time, although Beem believes finding alternative dates could prove problematic.

"You've got to find out a way of not only stagger them [the majors], if they are to go ahead and play them," Beem told Sky Sports News. The players mentally prepare themselves in a different mindset to get ready for all these events.

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"I think that you're probably going to have to put at least a week between all of them if not two, but how do you do that and what are the dates you're going to start the first and end the final one?

"Throw in the Ryder Cup - which we found out hasn't been postponed or cancelled as yet - and you could have five events in a 10 or 12-week period, which is going to be awfully difficult. If you are going to play them, something is going to have to give and giving players time off in between events isn't going to happen that much.

"They're going to have to figure out how they're going to prepare themselves, physically and mentally, for a pretty busy stretch. You never know, someone could get hot in those weeks and you could have a guy who wins two or three of them.

"If, for whatever reason, the Masters decides at some point to not postpone it and cancel it, then if one major cancels then I think they all have to cancel. I don't think it would be right for one major to be played and for the other ones to not be played."

One suggestion to ensure the major schedule gets completed is to switch the Masters from its usual April slot to mid-October, although Beem believes we would see a different Augusta as a result.

"I've never played there [Augusta] in October, but I can't imagine the golf course being in that beautiful of shape," Beem added. "It does take some time for that for that Bermuda [grass] to get stunted in its growth and that only happens when you get the first breeze.

"Augusta probably has the best agronomists in the world working for them, so how about they go old school and play Bermuda grass in October and then overseed with Rye grass afterwards for the following April?

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"I think that there's nothing that's going to be off the table for a quite a while in any of these events, so you could see some pretty dramatic changes and see a lot of different golf courses in how they're presented and how they're played.

"It wouldn't surprise me whatsoever to see Augusta go back and play it on Bermuda grass, like they used to back in the day. I think they're considering all options and it'll be interesting to see what they come up with."