Strange times at PGA Championship
Inside the clubhouse at Southern Hills is a sign that proudly signals its heritage with the phrase, ‘‘First to Five’’. No other course has hosted the PGA Championship as many times.
This PGA Championship already feels so different from the previous four.
Think back to a year ago. What would the odds have been that TigerWoods, threemonths after a car crash mangled his right leg and ankle, would be at SouthernHills; and Phil Mickelson, fresh off becoming golf’s oldest major champion, would decline to defend his title?
And on the first official day of practice, when Woods played the back nine and Bryson DeChambeau contemplated an early return from wrist surgery, the Saudi-funded golf league sent out applications for its first LIV Golf Invitational series that threatens to disrupt the sport.
Strange times, indeed.
‘‘It’s a bizarre situation, that’s for sure,’’ Viktor Hovland said. ‘‘It’s not often the defendingmajor champion doesn’t come back to defend. I think we all would have liked to have Phil here and tee it up. The way he won it last year was pretty spectacular. It’s just a weird situation.’’
Mickelson chose to extend his three-month hiatus from golf following his comments that he recruited top players to pay lawyers to write the operating agreement of the rival league. He said he didn’t care if it succeeded as long as it gave him leverage to make changes on the PGA Tour, and accused the PGA Tour of ‘‘obnoxious greed’’ while he played the Saudi International.
Woods arrived on Monday to play the front nine at Southern Hills— he won the PGA Championship the last time it was here in 2007— and reported he is much stronger than during his remarkable return at the Masters.
‘‘Just watching him at the Masters, that was unreal, just the crowds and what it does to a tournament when he tees up,’’ Hovland said.
Hovland knows the restored Southern Hills as well as anyone, not so much from his time at Oklahoma State but the fact the Norwegian star chose to make Stillwater home. He figured he has played it a half-dozen times since Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner restored the Perry Maxwell design that puts a premium on angles and accuracy into greens, because the edges now send golf balls some 20 yards away into collection areas.
The early scouting report is that a good short game will go a longway.
The onlymurmuring is how long the rounds might take. The rough is minimal. There’s are a few meandering streams that come into play. One issue is the middle of the front nine.
The tee shot on the par-3 sixth hole goes over the new tee on the par-4 third hole. And the seventh tee is directly behind the sixth green.
‘‘That corner could be really slow,’’ Hovland said.
Those are the least of golf’s problems at the moment.