PGA Championship has the best qualification method

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The Wanamaker Trophy is the hardest major championship trophy to win -- and that is not all that makes the PGA Championship special.

Keep reading before you start e-mailing and calling me a moron. The PGA Championship annually boasts the best field in major championship golf and this year could be one of the finest. The biggest question mark is Paul Casey, the third-ranked player in the world who had to withdraw from the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational with a rib injury. Robert Karlsson, who ranks 17th, is out with a lingering eye injury, as well.

PGA TOUR players have a separate qualification process for the season's final major. Beginning with the week following each PGA Championship an earnings list is started and it runs through the tournament that ends two weeks before the next year's PGA. Those players in the top 70 on the list gain entry into the field. The field of 156 is then filled with other players based on space availability.

A TOUR player who doesn't make the field will tell you that he had every opportunity to play better and earn his spot outright. And in this case, that is certainly true. That is how I felt at Winged Foot in 1997 when I sat in the clubhouse waiting for the nod that never came. While others were on the course, I was heading home knowing that somewhere during the course of the year I could have done more. A few dollars would have made all the difference.

Qualification for the PGA Championship for TOUR players is fairer than any other major. The U.S. Open and the British Open both hold a series of 36-hole, single-day qualifiers to fill out their fields. Entry to the Masters is based on wins or Official World Golf Ranking points and in some cases points around the globe. The PGA Championship has been doing things differently for a long time and there is no question that they have gotten in right.

This knowledge, and the knowledge that there is no better field assembled in golf year-in and year-out makes you wonder why the PGA Championship doesn't get even more respect. I say that hesitantly because certainly as a major championship the tournament is regarded very highly. But as the most professionally equitable event in the game, it seems as if the PGA Championship should get equal -- if not higher billing -- than its three major championship counterparts.

To win the PGA Championship means that you have beaten the best. The only other tournament that can even compare in terms of field strength is THE PLAYERS Championship, which often has several more members of the top 100 in the world. Whether you believe that the Wanamaker Trophy is the game's toughest hardware or not it is time to give the PGA Championship its due as the toughest major championship field of the year.

It's a major championship, it is supposed to be hard.