SPRINGFIELD, NJ – As night falls at Baltusrol and the forest-draped mountain is shrouded by low clouds, the waning crescent moon shines feebly in the overcast sky. Finally, the promised rain came, just a thin shower, but I was too late. Against all predictions, the 2016 PGA Championship finished on time Sunday night. Inside the clubhouse amber lights burn...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – —“I didn’t win despite my handicap, but because of it – just as Hogan came back from that automobile accident, and Babe Zaharias came back from a cancer operation. — Ed Furgol after winning The 1954 U.S. Open at Baltusrol At precisely 9 o’clock the sun went down with a last vermillion flash behind old Baltus...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – Right on cue, Baltusrol did what it always does at major golf championships – surrender a record low score. Sometimes it’s an immortal that does it – such as Jack Nicklaus or Phil Mickelson. Sometimes, however, it’s a journeyman who comes out of nowhere – Lee Janzen or Thomas Bjorn leap to mind. Each of those four...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – When the tempest breaks at a major championship, it tends to do so with Olympian fury. A bar sinister moves across the sky with a rapidity that seems incredible. Then the wind’s voice rises with growing fury. The clouds turn black, then green, convulsing all a once into a washing machine in the sky. That’s what we’re waiting...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – The approach of sunset was as grand as a Norman Rockwell painting. Rugged Baltusrol Mountain, also called First Mountain, stood sentinel over the stately golf course with its rambling Tudor architecture clubhouse as it has for over a century, while the sun dipped down low between the clouds and hillside, spreading a reddish flame across the...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – When you look at a map of Baltusrol Country Club, the payout of the golf course resembles a barbell with the left side over-inflated on the bottom. But to the professional golfers assembled here for the last major golf championship of the year, the 98th PGA, it looks more like the plumpest, fattest, juiciest chicken wing this side of Buffalo...
I caught up with Graeme McDowell, Kevin Streelman, Sergio Garcia, and golf course architect Rees Jones while roaming the grounds, while Phil, Henrik, and Danny Willett and more dropped by the media center for interviews. You can read all about it Golf News Net. We’ll have more all week from Baltusrol, as well as an extended dance version of the Jay’s...
“Ye friends that weep about my grave Compose your minds to rest Prepare with me for sudden death And be forever blest” That is the chilling epitaph on the forlorn, grey tombstone standing sentinel over wealthy oxen farmer Baltus Roll’s lonely grave in a northern New Jersey Presbyterian burial ground. His was a pioneering family in the region, so...
Keeping with the trend of hosting the PGA Championship in a year ending in “3”, Rochester’s Oak Hill (East Course) will host the 2023 PGA Championship. It will be the fourth time the club will host the PGA, to go along with three U.S. Opens and two U.S. Amateurs. Oak Hill, regarded as one of the most difficult major championship venues, was torched...
Another terrific Jay’s plays show in the books! 50 year media center vet Marino Parascemzo joined us to talk Tiger, the Tour, Oakmont, and more! Always great to have a grizzled old pro whose been everywhere and done everything. Then we take a trip out to Boston to check out Granite Links, the John Sanford-designed golf course that was the springboard for his...
HAVEN, WI – Put together Pete Dye – who’s been called a “mad scientist,” “Bela Lugosi,” and “the scariest golf designer in the world” – and a major golf championship, and you’d think that the Tour pros would be in for a brutalizing like they get at places like Oakmont, Winged Foot, or Oakland Hills...
Though Matt Jones, Jason Day, and Justin Rose are blowing through Whistling Straits like a storm out of the pages of the Book of Revelations, turning the Pete Dye-designed major championship course into a Nike Tour venue, thirteen former major winners with a combined 29 titles between then will sit out the weekend after missing the 2-over cut line. Tiger Woods may...
HAVEN, WI – With a tip of the hat and a golf clap to Una Jones of the PGA of America, here’s everything you need to know about the magic number – 63, now accomplished 27 times. HIROSHI IWATA JOINS CLUB 63 With a 9-under-par 63 in the second round, Japan’s Hiroshi Iwata tied the all-time 18-hole scoring mark in a major championship...
HAVEN, WI – “I once got my ass kicked in Wisconsin!” moaned Harold Ramis’s character in the movie Stripes. So did Dustin Johnson five years ago. (Metaphorically! Metaphorically!) But DJ did the A-K-ing today, getting some measure of revenge for his debacle five years ago at the finish. As we go to press, he leads the PGA Championship by one...
There’s rock-n-roll, football, baseball, museums, and great public golf at Erin Hills. Come take a look at all Wisconsin has to offer besides great major championship golf at the PGA Championship.