Will it be four first-time Major winners in a row when this year’s 98th PGA Championship tees off at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey Thursday?
Already we have seen three first-time winners this year - Danny Willett at the Masters, Dustin Johnson at the US Open and just two weeks ago, Henrik Stenson at the Open.
Considering the depth in men’s golf nowadays it will hardly be a surprise if we see yet another first time Major winner on Sunday. Think world top-50 players, who’ve yet to triumph in one of the game’s big ones but been around for some time - Ricky Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Matt Kuchar, Hideki Matsuyama, Brandt Snedeker and Jimmy Walker.
And then there are the South African challengers, men like Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen, who’re both chasing their second Major titles, as well as gifted Branden Grace, the world number 12 who’s surely just a good four rounds away from being this country’s next Major champion.
One, however, cannot look too far beyond the top five in the game at the moment to be the men to beat this week - defending champion Jason Day, Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Stenson. And, let’s not discount Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters champion who’s good enough to fire at any stage and rip any course to pieces, and Phil Mickelson, who went toe-to-toe with Stenson just two Sundays ago on the Scotland west coast.
With the tournament moved forward because of the Rio Olympics next month - even though many of the players in action this week won’t be in Brazil - the playing schedule is as tight as it’s ever been. To think two weeks ago the players were getting ready for the Open at Royal Troon and now they’re across the Atlantic in New Jersey preparing for the year’s last Major.
Many of the players will probably still be a little jaded after putting in so much effort in the last few weeks, not only at Troon, but also at the US Open at Oakmont in the middle of June. It’s been a taxing season all round, but there’s still to be some quality golf at the Major that’s produced some interesting winners over the years.
Remember Rich Beem triumphing at Hazeltine in 2002 and Shaun Micheel a year later at Oak Hill? Then there was YE Yang, also at Hazeltine, in 2009, and Keegan Bradley at Atlanta Athletic Club in 2013; neither player being in Major hunt since.
This will be the ninth Major and second PGA hosted at Baltusrol.
In the 2005 PGA, Mickelson won with a score of four under par, making birdie on the final hole on a Monday finish to edge Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington, for his second Major triumph.
The other South Africans in the field this week are four-time Major winner Ernie Els, George Coetzee and rookie Brandon Stone, who’ll be competing at his second Major after missing the cut at Troon two weeks ago. - The Star