THE 2018 MAJORS

The 100th PGA Championship returns to a happy hunting ground for South Africans.

PGA venue is happy hunting ground for South Africans.

The US PGA Championship will celebrate its 100th playing in 2018. And the centenary championship surprisingly goes to a golf club that is hardly a household name in golf, Bellerive in St Louis, Missouri.

Bellerive does have a strong South African connection, though, in that the only two majors previously played there were won by Gary Player and Nick Price.Will one of our current players achieve a hat-trick in August?

Bellerive is an old club (1897), but moved in 1960 to a new site in the Midwest city on a course designed by the pre-eminent architect of that era, Robert Trent Jones. Five years later it became the youngest course in history to host a US Open, won by Player.

It was an historic victory in that he became only the third golfer, and the youngest at 29, to complete the Grand Slam of all four majors. He won a Monday playoff against the Australian Kel Nagle, and was never under par in any of the five rounds. He shot either 70 or 71. Bellerive was a tough proposition, and Player won on two-over-par 282.

Significantly, too, he broke a run of 33 consecutive American winners of the US Open, going back to the Scot Tommy Armour in 1927. Did you know that in a spell of 75 years, from 1928 to 2004, there were just seven foreign US Open champions, and five were South African? Player (1965), Ernie Els (1994-97) and Retief Goosen (2001-04). Tony Jacklin (England 1970) and David Graham (Australia 1981) were the others.There have been seven foreign champions in the 13 years since 2004.

Nick Price, at age 35, won the first of his three majors, the 1992 PGA, at Bellerive. Its demand for strong driving and long-iron play suited his game. Victory was the catalyst for an incredible run of form on the PGA Tour which saw him win 12 tournaments over the next 25 months, four in 1993 and six in 1994. They included the 1993 Players Championship, and back-to-back major triumphs at the 1994 Open and PGA.

Price, like Player before him, struggled for birdies at Bellerive, and won with six-under 278 (par had moved to 71 that year), posting three 70s and a 68 in round three. He only took the lead for the first time on the back nine on Sunday. American Gene Sauers had led for nearly the entire 72 holes, before slumping to a last day 75 and T-2 finish. Sauers finally got his “major” at the 2016 US Senior Open.

Bellerive underwent a major renovation by Rees Jones in 2006 – today it is ranked No 118 in the

Golf Digest Top 200 in the USA – and in 2008 hosted the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the BMW Championship won by Camillo Villegas with 15-under 265.

The first PGA Championship was played in 1916, and contested as matchplay until 1957. Interestingly, it was not discontinued during World War Two, other than 1943. That enabled it to catch up a few years on its older major siblings, the Open, which will be played for the 147th time in 2018, and the US Open, for the 118th occasion.

The USGA chose Pebble Beach to host its 100th US Open in 2000 (Tiger Woods), and the R&A had Royal Birkdale stage the 100th Open in 1971 (Lee Trevino). The youngest major, the Masters, will have its 82nd edition in April.

The US Open and Open will this year visit two of the most iconic courses in world golf, Shinnecock Hills and Carnoustie, with reputations as two of the toughest major layouts in the game.

Shinnecock Hills, on Long Island, New York, ranked the fourth best course in the USA, is steeped in history, one of five clubs that in 1894 founded the US Golf Association.The course is unique by American norms, more linksy than any other, exposed to Atlantic Ocean breezes, and with more bunkers than trees. It also has the hay-like rough you find at UK and Irish links.

The fourth US Open played there in 2004 produced a South African winner in 35-year-old Retief Goosen. It was arguably Goosen’s greatest triumph, as he one-putted 11 of Shinnecock’s firmly baked and tricky greens on Sunday to hold off Phil Mickelson, who had the crowd on his side in the last pairing of the day. Stunned silences of disbelief greeted every putt Goosen holed on the back nine, rather than encouragement. They both had 71 in the final round, and Goosen won with a four-under total of 276.

Ernie Els began the final day two behind Goosen, the leader, and level with Mickelson, but found Shinnecock too much for him with a last round 80.

It will be interesting to see how the modern generation adapt to the intricacies of a very different layout to what they are used to on the PGA Tour. The course has been lengthened by 400 metres as part of a restoration with the addition of 17 new back tees.

The Open returns to Carnoustie for the eighth time, the northernmost Open venue in the UK, and the last two championships there have provided riveting Sunday entertainment.

There was the final-hole Jean van de Velde tragicomedy in 1999, and then Padraig Harrington’s similar meltdown in 2007.The par4 18th hole at Carnoustie can do that to the best players in the world. It’s a 445-metre par 4 with the famed Barry Burn twice crossing the fairway; out-of-bounds close to the green.

In the 1999 Open, Carnoustie was considered one big unplayable lie, and nicknamed Car-Nasty. The R&A setup was so difficult for the wind that blew that it made the best golfers in the world look ineffectual.The winning score of 290 was the highest in the Open since 1947.

Holding a three-shot lead over the field playing the 72nd hole, Van de Velde made a 7, hitting his third shot into the deep burn, with its near-vertical stone edges.The crowd and TV viewers were treated to the comic sight of the Frenchman standing ankle deep in the water, pants rolled up above his knees, contemplating whether he should play the ball. Common sense prevailed, and he took a penalty drop. He still got into a playoff, but that went to the Scot Paul Lawrie, who had started the final round 10 shots behind Van de Velde.

Harrington took a double-bogey 6 at 18 in the final round in 2007, having twice been in the Barry Burn, off the tee, and with his third shot. A brave up-and-down secured a playoff with Sergio Garcia, who had begun the last round with a 3-shot lead, and six over Harrington. Garcia closed with a 73, and Harrington 67. Harrington won the playoff to become the first Irish champion in 60 years.

Carnoustie is a fascinating design, with holes that constantly change direction. No more than two in a row face the same angle to the wind off the North Sea. Its intimidating bunkers have vertical revetted walls of turf.

Champions have included Gary Player,Tom Watson and Ben Hogan, before Carnoustie fell off the Open rota for 24 years between 1975 and 1999, not being an easy

place to access. Many spectators in July will travel there by train, as there is a mainline station at Carnoustie.This Scottish east coast course usually has the lowest attendance of any of the Open venues.

The 42nd Ryder Cup goes to Paris in September, and this will be the 20th playing of the match between Europe and United States.The first was in 1979, and Europe lead the series 10½ to 8½. It’s only the second time the match has gone to the Continent, and the modernistic Le Golf National is a perfect facility to stage a Ryder Cup, being able to accommodate huge crowds with its stadium-type holes on the Albatros course.

The amount of water hazards coming into play over the closing holes should make for dramatic viewing in matches which go to the 18th.

Le Golf National was created as France’s national golf centre and permanent site for the French Open, and has been played there since 1991 (other than two years).The Open will again be there at the end of June, and many of the likely Ryder Cup candidates from both sides might use the tournament as a perusal.