Edge goes to long hitters at Baltusrol

tee. This leaves a blind approach shot to a fairly difficult green. Even though it was the third easiest hole in 2005, the second hole still played a shade over par for the week.

The third hole is a 503-yard brute of a par 4 that was the second-most diffic ult hole last time around. Every player wants to get off to a good start but it won’t be easy this week at Baltusrol where the winning score was just four-under par in 2005.

“It definitely favours the long hitters if they can hit the fairways,” Beem said.

Even if the bombers are missing fairways, they still should have an advantage because the rough, although long, is graduated and players should be able to advance the ball without too much difficulty even out of the deep stuff.

Beem sees another advantage for the longer players, even if their tee shots are offline.

“They can hit it in spots the shorter players can’t hit it and they can see the green complexes,” he said. “There is probably half the greens out there where, if you don’t hit it 300 or 320, you can’t see the green. And as a short hitter, you kind of get discouraged by that because you want to see the green as much as possible but you just can’t.”

Baltusrol hosted a major in all but one decade of the 20th century, so golf fans will see a style of golf course they are quite familiar with. This isn’t Whistling Straits or Chambers Bay — there will be no question what a bunker is or whether the greens will disintegrate before our eyes.

This is a classic tree-lined North American parkland course built over rather flat terrain. It doesn’t offer the eye candy of some of the more breathtaking major championship venues, but it tends to have a knack for sorting out the biggest, baddest golfers on the planet.

“Everything is straight out in front of you,” Rory McIlroy said on Tuesday. “There’s no real hidden secrets to it and I feel that’s what really let’s me excel. I feel like I can play my game at the PGA Championship. I can hit driver off the tee most time, and from there, if I drive it well, I feel like I have an advantage.”

The two-time PGA champion drove the ball well on Tuesday and was winning the practice round long drive competition on the first hole for most of the day after hitting his opening shot 345 yards. He was edged out in the afternoon by Byeong Hun An, who hit it two yards farther.

One caddy said that the long par 3s could be difference-makers this week with players of average length having to hit three-, fourand five-irons. Long hitters attacking par 3s with five-, six- and seven-irons should have a distinct advantage.

Another twist at Baltusrol is that there are only two par 5s and they come at holes Nos. 17 and 18. At a beastly 649 yards, the 17 th hole gave up just a single eagle in 2005, but the opportunity will be there for late round drama.

Torrential rain forced players off the course on Monday afternoon, but 24 hours later, the two inches of rain was a distant memory as the course dried out well under withering temperatures in the mid-30s C. The frequently changing forecast is calling for rain on Thursday and Friday. If the course significantly softens up, the long bombers will be licking their chops even more.