Who will go for it at the risk-reward 17th hole?

WHEN Donald Trump was stripped of the right to host l the 2022 US PGA Championship as punishment for inciting the Capitol Hill riots, tour officials chose to award the tournament instead to a course that should offer competitors a formidable challenge. Tee Located some 1,200 miles east of Trump National, Southern Hills is no mean substitute, having been revitalised in 2018 after an £8million investment. The new course has widened fairways with fewer trees, but new bunkers and exposed green edges that will increase the danger.

The 87-year-old Tulsa institution has also had 425 yards, taking its overall distance to 7,556 yards, with two par fives and a par of 70. It promises to deliver a different spectacle to the last time Southern Hills hosted the tournament, in the heat of August 2007, when Tiger Woods triumphed after four days during which players devoted much energy to trying to avoid the rough.

‘It’s so hard to get close to the pins because the greens are not large,’ Russ Myers, the course superintendent, told Golf Digest. ‘You can hit 18 greens, shoot 70 and be disappointed because you feel like you should’ve shot 64.’