Southern Hills major history favors 36-hole leader at PGA

It never hurts to get off to a fast start at a golf major championship, but it really matters at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, site of the 104th PGA Championship, if history teaches us anything.

In a Q&A for the golf newsletter The Quadrilateral, Southern Hills club historian Clyde Chrisman noted that in all seven of the major championships the club has hosted as well as its two Tour Championships and last year’s Senior PGA Championship, the 36-hole leader has gone on to hoist the winner’s trophy.

“In fact, the only two who didn’t lead or share the lead after the first round are Dave Stockton and Tiger Woods,” Chrisman told Geoff Shackelford. “It’s not a course where someone has gotten hot in the last round or two and made a late charge to win.”

That’s a staggering stat. Ten events, 10 36hole leaders win? That just doesn’t happen.

During a CBS Sports media conference call, Jim Nantz gave a shout out to Shackelford’s Q&A. “I’ve never heard of anything like that in my life. We’re going to crown a champion, folks, on Friday night, OK?” Nantz cracked.

But Southern Hills, a Perry Maxwell design and perennial top-100 course, underwent a renovation by Gil Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner in 2018, and Nick Faldo, who played in his first U.S. major at Southern Hills at the 1982 PGA when Ray Floyd went wire-to-wire, termed it a new course.

“I bet you that one will change, it will be different,” Faldo said. “Unless Scottie Scheffler is leading by six, oh, boy.”

“But there’s something to be said, you’d better go out and make hay early,” Nantz said. “That’s a history for it there.”