Ahead of the US PGA Championship Sergio Garcia has been giving his verdict on the course at Baltusrol, what is going well for him and the quick turn around between the PGA and the Open.
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With barely any time to get acclimated, the PGA Championship is set to begin at Baltusrol Golf Club on Thursday morning.
Can you just imagine him putting together the champion’s dinner at some major one year.
Jason Day watches his tee shot on the fifth hole during a practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., Wednesday, July 27, 2016.
That has been replaced by temperatures 40 degrees warmer, five time zones but just 11 days removed from the thrilling conclusion to The Open at Royal Troon. He had paid his dues with a trio of close calls in the majors.
Second-ranked Johnson, 32, can overtake Day for world number one with a victory or runner-up finish. The 34-year-old has one win this season (Quicken Loans National in June) and $1,410,509 in the bank. He played in the final group with Woods at Bethpage Black and Royal Liverpool. Watson said. “So I’m spending the most money in there”. At the end of the day, the most important thing, the way the course is playing and the way the rough is, driving the ball well is going to be important, because it’s going to give you a little extra going into some of these hard greens.
20-1 Adam Scott Two-time victor on 2016 PGA Tour was first elite player to snub the Olympics (in April), would love to finish first in final major of this season. “You’ve got to come out and fire on all cylinders and get yourself up the leaderboard and show people that you’re there and you’re ready to win”, he said. I was like, ‘I hope he’s buying all the drinks, because he’s had a shocker there.’ But it was so nice to see.
“So you’ve just got to be comfortable in who you are, what you do”.
“But at the same time, when you’ve got the momentum and you’re playing well, it might not be bad to get straight back at it”, he said.
Major champions at Baltusrol: Phil Mickelson (2005 PGA), Lee Janzen (1993 U.S. Open), Jack Nicklaus (1980, 1967 U.S. Open), Ed Furgol (1954 U.S. Open), Tony Manero (1936 U.S. Open), Jerome Travers (1915 U.S Open), Willie Anderson (1903 U.S. Open). Rickie Fowler at No. 7 in the world and Garcia (No. 10) are the only players in the top 10 who have not won a major.
Garcia is different, because he has been at a high level for so long.
The Spaniard is no longer as temperamental, at times petulant, as he was earlier in his career when he accomplished so much at early age that he expected so much more.
Dating to a missed cut in the 2014 Masters, he has seven top 10s in his last nine majors, including his U.S. Open title at Oakmont. Yes, he is surprised to have not won a major as he approaches two decades playing them.
He said it would have bothered him five or 10 years ago, but no longer. “But the fields are deeper and so many guys have chances to win tournaments”, said Rory McIlroy on Tuesday. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the US, in Asia, in Europe, in Africa. It is tough to win. Just let the players play the golf course.
“Hopefully, it will happen”, he said.
When you consider that 49 of the top 50 golfers in the FedExCup standings are in the 2016 PGA Championship, there’s little doubt that this is going to be a knockdown, drag-out battle for (at least) all four rounds! I’ve gotten back to kind of the gunslinger, the way that I grew up playing, which is just step up and hit it. I went from over-dissecting shots to really feeling like less is more. “I asked them, ‘Who got those?’ And they all pointed at one guy”.
In only three years dating to 1960 have the four Grand Slam events been won by players who previously didn’t have a major, most recently in 2011 and 2003.
World number one Jason Day won his first major title in last year’s US PGA Championship and 2016 has also produced maiden major winners in Danny Willett (Masters), Dustin Johnson (US Open) and Henrik Stenson (Open Championship).
The 28-year-old Australian is trying to join Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners of the PGA Championship in stroke play. Was it really that long ago when he closed his eyes and hit that shot out of the tree in 1999 at Medinah to finish one shot behind Woods? “I think that’s what I did in the first two majors”.
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And typical of Johnson, he won’t give it much of a thought.
