It’s an unfortunate, and probably unfair, assessment, but in most minds the PGA Championship is by a distance the least distinguished of the major championships. Lacking the magic of Augusta National, the status of being America’s national championship, and not possessing the uniqueness of the Open Championship, the PGA of America’s Championship lacks an identity when compared to the other three of golf’s marquee events.

A large part of that problem is its positioning in the schedule. This year, coming less than three weeks since Phil Mickelson claimed the Claret Jug at Muirfield, the PGA Championship has once again been thrust upon the minds of weary players, and the golfing public. Rather than being something that everyone anticipates, the PGA is almost an after-thought. Coming so soon after The Open, rather than the fourth novel in a series, the PGA can often feel more like an additional final chapter to the third book.

And that’s not to discredit the PGA Championship as an event, which possesses many worthy qualities.

Dating all the way back to 1916, the PGA has a history that the Masters cannot match. It also collates a field that is arguably unsurpassed by any other in golf, with 99 of the world’s top 100 ranked players teeing it up at Oak Hill Country Club this week. In more recent years, it could be argued that the PGA has consistently been the most exciting of the majors. Last year, you had Rory McIlroy producing a scintillating performance at Kiawah Island, coming a year after Keegan Bradley’s thrilling victory over Jason Dufner in his first major championship appearance. In 2010, Martin Kaymer defeated Bubba Watson in a playoff after an exciting and controversial final round, with Dustin Johnson missing out after the bunker charade at Whistling Straights. Five years ago, at Oakland Hills, Padraig Harrington crushed the hopes of Sergio Garcia once again after a thrilling duel down the stretch.

The PGA Championship has so much to savour, but with its close proximity to the Open Championship, it almost feels like we aren’t quite being allowed to appreciate it as much as we, or the Championship itself, deserves.

Historically, it used to be a lot worse. Commonly, the PGA Championship was played the week after the Open, with transatlantic flights in the mid-20th century not being particularly conducive to easy travel. Consequently, players would either skip one of the two events, or arrive back in the United States jaded.

Jack Nicklaus once described a particular example that occurred in 1963. Missing out on the Claret Jug by a single shot at Royal Lytham, the then 23-year-old had to make the transatlantic journey to Dallas Athletic Golf Club in order to play in the sweltering heat of Texas for the PGA. Nicklaus would win that PGA Championship, for his first of a record tying five titles.

It was a win that came a mere 10 days after his narrow-loss at Lytham.

"They used to have the British Open and the PGA back-to-back, which was really kind of silly," Nicklaus said. ''I was fortunate to be able to get back. It was a big change. I think a lot of the guys got back, and I think they were probably pretty tired from the British Open and I think they were pretty tired from the weather just absolutely beat them down. I guess I was a young guy and I handled those conditions pretty well."

In comparison to then, the scheduling now is acceptable, but it could be so much better. Not just for the players, but also for the PGA Championship.

Last year, Graeme McDowell commented on the importance of the PGA: "There's not a guy standing on the range that wouldn't put it head-and-shoulders over any tournament in the world – apart from the other three major championships."

Now, it must be said that there is nothing particularly wrong with being the clearly defined fourth most prestigious event of the year. However, that doesn’t mean that the PGA of America shouldn’t seek to improve on what is already in its own right a fantastic Championship.

Coming so soon after The Open, the PGA does not receive any significant build-up or hype. It more or less descends and then disappears before we even really notice it, which certainly isn’t a fair reflection on the event as a whole. After the victor holds the

Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, there are a total of eight months until the next major, the Masters Tournament. That is a huge factor in the unrivalled expectation levels for the Masters each year. There are then two months before the U.S. Open, a month until The Open, and then like a flash of lightning the PGA is upon us.

Can that be rectified? It certainly can, if the event was moved to another date. Since 2007, the FedEx Cup Playoffs have taken a firm hold of the schedule until the end of September at East Lake. This year, the European Tour will introduce its Final Series from the end of October until November.

That provides a window between these two series’ of events in early October. In its early days, as a matchplay event, the PGA was contested in late-September into early October, with it even being played in May on a few occasions in the 1940s, and in February in 1971. So there is a precedent for the PGA to make a schedule alteration, and another one would make a significant difference to a Championship that lags so far behind the other three majors in terms of public consciousness.

But an October date is unlikely to ever happen, due to a probable loss of television revenue. With the NFL season fully underway by that point, rating for the PGA Championship would be negatively affected. However, it would hardly be a critical blow to the PGA of America, which as joint-administrators of the Ryder Cup could also move the biennial event to a position in early August to avoid a clash.

The PGA Championship has the distinction of being the final major of the year, and it’s a position that needs to be highlighted and appreciated. When asked on this very subject, Padraig Harrington, the winner five years ago stated: "But it's all part of making a tournament prestigious. If they move it to October, could they make it a bigger tournament? Who knows? But it wouldn't be a bad thing for us (players)."

It wouldn’t be a bad thing for golf fans, or indeed the PGA Championship.

In fact, it may very well be the making of a Championship that is under appreciated and underrated by most.