KIAWAH ISLAND, SC – Usually when PGA Championship time rolls around we hear endless repetition of the PGA of America’s mantra for the event – “Glory’s Last Shot.”
I’ve never been a huge fan of that slogan. I think it actually dumbs down the importance of the tournament. After all, it is a major golf championship. It shouldn’t – and indeed doesn’t – need slick branding. Just recall all the storied history of the tournament – Walter Hagen, Jack Nicklaus, Davis Love, Phil, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson – the list is endless.
Nevertheless, whenever the PGA of America rolls out “Glory’s Last Shot,” I counter with “Glory’s Best Shot” because the PGA Championship is frequently played on courses relatively familiar to the rank and file PGA Tour player. Sure, the PGA has been held at Oakmont, Oakland Hills, and Winged Foot: ancient golf strongholds that strike fear into the hearts of every player. But the tournament has also been held at some courses more akin to garden variety tour stops such as a newly toothless Medinah, the ghastly “all water all the time” Atlanta Athletic Club, the Southern Hills layout that routinely hands out 63s like candy corn on Halloween, and such sundry milquetoast courses as Shoal Creek, Sahalee, Valhalla, Crooked Stick, Kemper Lakes, and PGA National.
“It’s strange – no major has as wide a variety of venues as the PGA Championship, but while that’s not always great or golf design fans, it’s terrific for the average Tour player because if Wayne Grady can win a PGA Championship, they feel they can,” explained golf architecture expert Bruce Moulton.
As such, some pretty strange rangers have won PGA Championships – Y.E. Yang, Jeff Sluman, Rich Beem, Mark Brooks, Shaun Micheel, Larry Nelson, (twice), Bob Tway, and Don January – and that’s just within the last generation or so. So the Billy Mayfairs Tommy Gaineys, Tom Pernices, James Driscolls, Jimmy Walkers, and Kris Blanks of the world can feel reasonably confident of at least having a fighting chance…
…except this year. Once again, golf’s great mad scientist Pet Dye was asked to build a ludicrously hard tournament venue to give the players shingles for four days. Asking Dye to build a hard course is like giving Popeye spinach – bad idea! We get train wrecks galore at Kiawah Island for the 1991 Ryder Cup and this year, weather permitting, we could see the same anguish from the players.
“I’m half a hunnert and seventy and I’m trying to get into Heaven now,” laments Dye, “and after what I’ve done to golfers world wide there’s no way St. Peter is gonna let me in.”
Everyone laughs of course – Pete’s a first ballot Heaven hall of Famer of course, Dye-abolical courses or not, but he has a point this year. Occasionally, the PGA of America gives us a venue worthy of respect, even fear. In 2008 they had Oakland Hills dialed up to sadistic difficulty, then combed the rough back towards the teex boxes so lies would be ferociously cruel if players missed he fairway. Thank goodness it rained and the course softened so good players like Garcia and Harrington could hit the gas and gives the fans an exciting finish. Baltusrol and Oak Hill also gave us PGA Championships that could have passed for U.S. Opens with all the cloak and dagger claustrophobia the players had to negotiate.
This year could prove to be another crucible for the pros if the weather cooperates. Kiawah has fearsome fangs, claws, and talons when the wind blows. It can stretch to an onerous 7,676 yards, the longest in tournament history. (Really guys? Seriously? This again?) The crosswinds can make the already narrow fairways criminally difficult to hit. And the oceanic greens have humps, hollows, and swales that will make the adventure on nearly every hole continue when the golfer reaches the green, (as opposed to the flat, uninteresting greens of rees Jones restorations).
“I love when we play tough courses because half the field talks themselves out of it before the first ball is struck,” said 2008 PGA Championship winner Padraig Harrington. “It gives me a better chance right out of the gate.”
“That’s exactly what happens some times,” echoed Jim Furyk. “I like the tougher venues because I know if I can bear down and grind, I can be in the mix where some of the other guys psych themselves right out.”
“I do like Pete’s golf courses. It makes you think. He makes you make decisions,” added Tiger Woods at today’s presser, even though he’s never won a major on a Pete Dye course. “He just makes you look the other way. And he’s a masterful designer in that way.”
So if the weather cooperates – wind and dry conditions so the course plays fast and firm – Kiawah will be its usual bearish self.
“We give away a sleeve of balls to every player,” course rep Mike Vegis once told me, “because we know you’ll be giving them back during the round,” he quipped mercilessly.
The forecast looks uncertain. It was wet this morning, but dried out a bit as the day wore on. A softened Kiawah will “let all the riff-raff onto the leaderboard” groused Hall of Fame writer Dan Jenkins, who hates strange names at majors as much as he loathes sushi and haggis. “I’m tired of being held responsible by my editors for the unpardonable crimes of Charles Coody and Tommy Armour.”
So as the players make their way through the practice rounds and as the course starts to reveal itself ever so slowly, we all play the waiting game. Go out and wrench the title from the rest of the field or tiptoe around the beast hoping you’ll not be noticed: that’s still up in the air, but one thing is certain. no matter what, Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course will be the star this week.
