The Poor Man's Major

At least that what it used to be known as.

In almost every single poll taken over the last 50 years, when asked which is the best major, respondents have almost equally over the years names either the Masters, The US Open or The British Open. In every case, the PGA Championship comes in last.

I guess it's not surprising. The Masters is played at an extremely beautiful layout at the same place every year. The US Open throws up the toughest challenge that they can handle and verges on the line of playable and unplayable. And the British Open has the charm of being our oldest championship, played at the most regal and sacred of courses.

And so the PGA Championship always rates as number 4 - a fact which gets right up the nose of the people that organise it. The PGA Championship is not run by the PGA Tour, as many people think. It is run by the PGA, the organisation for club & teaching pro's, who bitterly split with their touring brethren back in the early 60's.

The funny thing is, at least for my mind, is that it has without doubt been the best run major the last 11 years. The Masters got a little silly by trying to "Tiger Proof" the course after his debut 1997 win. The result was that they changed Augusta beyond all recognition and certainly changed the character of the course that Bobby Jones & Dr Alistair MacKenzie intended. The US Open has at times gone over the line in terms of playability - think Shinnecock Hills when they had to water the greens halfway through the final round and the "Massacre at Winged Foot". At Oakmont, the greens were so fast that even the ball markers were sliding off the greens.

An our beautiful old Open? Despite the course superintendent getting out of control at Carnoustie a couple of times, those old fellows do a great job. But alas, they can't control the weather and sometimes the skies and wind conspire to make things a bit unfair for either the early or late groups at times.

But the PGA has simply got the balance just about perfect between being very hard, but fair. They turn out a great course, with sensible pins, and you will hear the players say "tough but fair" - something they don't utter much at the US Open :-)

Whistling Straits is a fantastic course - it debuted at the PGA in 2004 where Vijay Singh was victorious on the 3rd playoff hole. The course is probably Pete Dye's masterpiece, it looks like an Irish Atlantic Coast course, but in fact the entire place has been manufactured. It was a flat airfield, and all the bunkers, mounding and elevation changes were all done by bulldozer.

This course will play like a British Open - the wind won't get extreme but it will be a factor and the course has some serious length with a few 500 yard par 4's. The par 5's cannot be reached in 2 by anyone but the really longest, so the bombers don't have that much of an advantage. The rough is seriously penal, and there are so many bunkers, no-one has actually finished counting them yet.

That says 2 things to me fellow Long Reefers. Someone who is a fantastic ball striker, with at least average or better length, and a sharp and strategic mind will win this week. The greens are likely to run at no more than 11 on the stimpmeter - e.g. closer to a British than either a US Open or Masters (the reason being is that the greens get hit by wind). This pretty much means that just about any good ball striker with a hot putter is in teh mix this weekend.

I can't wait !

Good Luck All.

The LRFG!