PGA Championship

The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers Association of America. It is one of the four major championships in professional golf, and it is the golf season's final major, played in mid-August on the 3rd weekend prior to Labor Day weekend. It is an official money event on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, and the Japan Golf Tour, with a purse of $10 million for the 96th edition in 2014. In line with the other majors, winning "the PGA" gives a golfer several privileges which make his career much more secure, if he is not already one of the elite players of the sport. PGA champions are automatically invited to play in the other three majors for the next five years, and are exempt from qualifying for the PGA Championship for life. They also receive membership on the PGA and European Tours for the following five seasons and invitations to The Players Championship for five years. The PGA Championship has been held at a large number of venues, some of the early ones now quite obscure, but currently it is usually staged by one of a small group of celebrated courses, each of which has also hosted several other leading events.