Plot quickens as major moments come thick and fast
From the opening major of the year, the Masters, to the second, the US Open, there's a good couple of months in between. There's another four weeks before the Open swings into action after that. And then, like a prankster jumping out from behind a curtain and shrieking 'Boo!', the PGA Championship is upon us.
Despite its abundant qualities and strength in depth - 99 of the world's top 100 are competing at Oak Hill this week - the PGA Championship has, somewhat unfairly, become known as "the other one" on the major rota. The dust has barely settled on the race for the Claret Jug at Muirfield and here we go again, coughing and spluttering into another major melee.
When practice for the 95th championship began on Monday, it had been just 15 days since Phil Mickelson marauded to Open glory. There's hardly been time to draw breath, and therein lies the problem for a contest that has always had to fight for its identity. It could be worse, of course. Back in the swinging 60s, the Open and the PGA were played in consecutive weeks in July. Back-to-back majors on different sides of the Atlantic? There were no moaning prima donnas in those days. Jack Nicklaus won his first PGA Championship in Dallas 50 years ago, just seven days after finishing third in the Open at Lytham. "I went from a 55-degree temperature to a 110-degree temperature," he recalled.
"I remember when I picked up the trophy I couldn't pick it up. I had to take a towel. I mean you could've cooked your breakfast on the trophy sitting out there it was so hot."
Glory's last shot for major men firing blanks
If you've ever taken a flight from Prestwick Airport, then you will have probably noticed the phrase Pure Dead Brilliant emblazoned everywhere in the terminal. I don't know about you, but the last thing this correspondent wants to read before being propelled thousands of feet into the sky is the word 'dead'. It's a bit like this for some golfers at the PGA Championship. Billed for many years as 'Glory's Last Shot', the marketing men charged with giving the contest an extra dose of razzamatazz have simply heaped more anguish and pressure on to those chasing that elusive first major title. They don't need reminding that the clock is ticking.
It was back in 1999 when a teenage Sergio Garcia harried Tiger Woods all the way in the PGA Championship at Medinah, and memorably scissor-kicked his way up the 16th fairway after a swashbuckling recovery shot from the base of a tree. Fourteen years on, the Spaniard remains major-less. So too does Lee Westwood, the Englishman who now seems to have officially acquired that dreaded tag "the best player never to have won a major". The 40-year-old's share of third place in the Open at Muirfield last month was his eighth top-three finish in a major, eclipsing the record racked up by Harry Cooper, who posted seven podium places without ultimate success between 1925 and 1938.
Plenty of players have roared on into theirs 40s though and there is always cause for optimism in this game. Westwood will make his 63rd major mission this week, the same number it took Tom Kite to win his first, the 1992 US Open, at the age of 42.
Underdogs become the top dogs
Punters will pounce on anything in an attempt to give them an advantage in the perilous business of predicting a major winner. If it's decidedly dicey omens you're looking for then what about this one? The last four PGA champions - Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer and YE Yang - all had the letter 'Y' in their last name. What are the chances, therefore, of David Lynn mounting another challenge this year? Why not. In the grand traditions of unfancied players flourishing on the PGA stage, Lynn's second-place finish behind a rampant McIlroy at Kiawah Island in 2012 helped to strike another blow for the underdogs in the final major and changed the English journeyman's career.
The championship has always offered up curiosity. It is the only major Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson never won, thus denying them the career grand slam while the championship has provided the one and only major win for a total of 34 players thus far. Ten years ago in 2003, it was Shaun Micheel who had his lightning bolt moment the last time the championship was held at Oak Hill. The year before that, it was the equally unheralded Rich Beem who was the one-hit wonder. Beem, who bravely staved off the menace of Woods, now languishes in 762nd in the world rankings. Micheel, meanwhile, is 1040th after an injury-plagued spell. They may not register on the global game these days but their mark on the PGA Championship will remain.
Fans have the final say
"Get in the hole." "You're the man". . . . the relentless yelps of golf fans never fail to irritate. Now they will have their say in more ways than one. For Sunday's final round, the pin position on Oak Hill's 15th, a par-3 with water along the right and bunkers to the left, will be decided by public vote. In the interests of safety and sanity, they won't be given a completely blank canvas, though. Four possible placements have been devised by PGA officials with the idea being to "educate fans on how a course set-up affects strategy and let them take part in their own PGA Championship."
They'll be choosing the clubs next.
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