This year, he’ll be one of many big names taking on the new challenge of Baltusrol Golf Club. Of course that was all before Spieth showed up, and before Jason Day chose to get everything in his game to work, and before Dustin Johnson made a decision to get out of his own way and win a major.
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The PGA Championship takes over Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., this week for the final golf major of the year. The course is a par 70 that comes in at a length of 7,428 yards. In the 2005 US PGA Championship, Phil Mickelson came up just short of the green but got up and down for birdie to beat Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington by a shot.
Of the last three men’s championships, Jack Nicklaus (US Open 1980) scored eight-under par 272, and Lee Janzen (US Open 1993) also shot eight-under. A tee shot that is too straight or to the right will leave the base of the pin hidden by a rise in the fairway, and leave a longer approach.
Championship tradition militates against a Day victory, but Dustin Johnson has to be rated a seriously good prospect for a second Major title of this season.
Genevieve Hecker won the first national event at Baltusrol, the 1901 U.S. Women’s Amateur, on the original Old Course, and Willie Anderson claimed the U.S. Open title on that layout two years later. In this, the second major in three weeks, fast conclusions are inevitable.
HOST COURSE: As it was in 2005, the PGA Championship will be played on the Lower Course, which has hosted the seven most recent majors held at Baltusrol.
Backspin: This is his last chance to salvage a poor year in the majors. Not only has “who’s in” and “who’s out” drawn plenty of attention, the event in Rio has upset the calendar forcing the final Major of the season to move forward to this week just a single week after the previous Major at The Open Championship.
A combination of so many good young players and the expectations put on players by the brilliance of Woods can make fans ask why the game’s top players aren’t winning more majors these days. He remains sidelined following back surgery and apparently won’t play at all this season.
Woods is the only PGA champion to record successive wins since the tournament adopted a strokeplay format in 1958.
But good memories count for a lot, and Mickelson’s game has hardly been in a better place than it is now as he looks to become the PGA’s second-oldest champion in history.
With that in mind it’s hard to fancy Jordan Spieth this week.
Draftkings has chose to keep the entry fee for the Millionaire Maker at 33 dollars compared to the 20 dollar price tags we saw for The Masters and U.S. Open. And then he almost won the British Open with one of his best performances in the majors. Stenson has won two of his last three starts. In doing so, you need to be well prepared which is why we have created this handy little guide noting nine interesting things you should know about the 98th PGA Championship. Heading into the PGA Championship the last week of July, Spieth is having a very good year, and he needs to be reminded of that every now and then.
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I do like McIlroy and Johnson each for a Top 10. We should readily accept, however, that the PGA could go to a first-time victor this week. Henrik Stenson has barely had time to re-arrange the odds and ends on his mantelpiece to make way for the Claret Jug and here we go again, battering and clattering away in another Major championship. Holmes at a great price at +6400. I am all for new ideas and trying to make things fresh, but I would focus on promoting the players instead of getting gimmicky. Jordan Spieth is looking for three in two years.
