The US PGA Championship is the last major of the year and by the end of the week we will no doubt feel as if we’ve had the Masters and three Open Championships played this year. The pristine Augusta National was followed by the horrendous Chambers Bay, an awful initiation into links golf; then the Open at St Andrews and now Whistling Straights.
I attended the PGA Championship the last time that it was played at Whistling Straights and I loved it, but then I am a fan of Pete Dye golf courses. He can be radical but he gets away with it for two reasons. Firstly, he always gives enough room to play, in other words, his hitting areas are wide, and secondly, his greens are always puttable.
Early in his career Dye visited Scotland and saw that when the greens had a lot of slope they were slow to putt on which gives even the club golfer a chance. He realised then that you couldn’t have excessive slopes on the greens and then have them run at over 10 on the stimpmeter.
This is the third time the PGA have used this course as the venue for their most important championship that will celebrate 100 years next year since its first playing in 1916.
This is a links-style course set up on the banks of Lake Michigan. It’s a golf course that requires accuracy off the tee and with your approach shots. The “greens in regulation” statistic is the most important, closely followed by putting. If there’s not much wind, the player who keeps the ball on the short grass will be looking for birdie, while the erratic golfer will be struggling for pars and scoring one-or two-overs. The bunkers are deep and most offline shots will also land on mounds, leaving the player with an awkward stance and shot.
The holes are all classic risk and reward holes. The easier holes on the course come early in the round no matter whether you tee off on the 1st or 10th tees. You need to be under-par after five or six holes. The four par 5’s are interesting with three of them reachable. The 11th is a three-shot par 3. The most difficult par 3’s are the 7th and the amazing 17th (which plays over 220 yards and has deep bunkers and mounds to catch a miss-hit shot) while the 15th and 18th holes are both very long par 4’s. The final hole is called Dyeabolical, after the designer. This has it all. Sand, water and swirling winds over the green.
Let’s hope we have an exciting finish but nothing like the one we had in 2010 when Dustin Johnson got a 2-shot penalty on the last hole for grounding his club in the bunker. That mistake cost him a spot in the play-off and he eventually finished in fifth place.
A little wind each day will really make it an exciting event to watch. Over the last few years we’ve had all the best golfers healthy and ready to play. Tiger seems to be improving after his 18th place finish at the Quicken Loans. Rory will be playing with hopefully no pain from his injury seven weeks ago. Louis Oosthuizen seems to have sorted out his back issues and I like his chances of going one better than the two major runner-ups he’s already had this year. From the Americans, we have in-form players like Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson.
Jordan Spieth will be hard to beat. The course suits him perfectly. Keep the ball in play and putt well. Add patience and a proven winner and that’s Jordan. If he’s successful he will become only the third player to win three of the four majors in one year, joining Tiger Woods, who did it in 2000, and Ben Hogan, who did it in 1953.
If Rory is completely healed, he will be in the hunt come Sunday, as will Justin Rose. I also fancy Australia’s Jason Day and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama.
Branden Grace has fared well in each of the last two majors, as has Charl. It’s also been good to see some form from Ernie Els. Who says he can’t win? Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Ray Floyd and Julius Boros all won majors in their middle forties. It was only four years ago that Ernie won the Open so don’t write him off too soon, especially if he gets the putter hot. He plays a lot of golf at Fancourt Links and Whistling Straights is just like Fancourt – except on steroids!
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Short putts
“Fairways & Green Cuz” – Note to David Marr before the final round of the 1965 PGA Championship from his cousin, Jackie Burke. Good advice even 50 years later for all the players at Whistling Straights.
“Golf, especially championship golf, isn’t supposed to be any fun, was never meant to be fair, and never will make any sense.” – Charles Price
TIP of the week
If the wind blows at the US PGA at Whistling Straights you will see a lot of players moving the ball back in their stance and try to hit what Tiger Woods calls “stingers”. That’s a low punch shot that runs. If you try this shot, make sure that as you move the ball back, you are still aiming correctly. Try to aim first; then take up your stance. Your angle of attack will be steeper and will result in a shorter follow-through.