It seems like it was just a few short weeks ago that Phil Mickelson was making a curling birdie putt on the final hole at the Open Championship at Muirfield to win his first British Open title as well as his fifth major championship. That”s because it was just a mere two weeks ago. Because of the nature of scheduling on the professional golf tours, while the British Open is still very fresh in our memories, we are just a few short days away from the playing of the 95th annual PGA Championship at the historic Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.
First-round play commences Thursday. A field of 155 of the game”s top players as well as PGA of America club professionals will tee it up at the year”s fourth and final grand slam tournament. In fact, when you compare the strength of the field of golf”s four majors, the PGA Championship historically has the strongest field in comparison to the Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open.
The fans of the game very well know Oak Hill Country Club. Originally founded in 1901, the first course under the banner of Oak Hill was a nine-hole course alongside a river. It utilized an old farmhouse as its original clubhouse. In 1921, the University of Rochester suggested a land swap with the Oak Hill members and when all was said and done, the golf course received 355 acres of farmland in the suburb of Pittsfield while the college received the golf course land alongside the banks of the Genesee River.
The club took advantage of the swap by hiring noted golf course architect Donald Ross to build a 36-hole complex at the new site. A Rochester civic leader, Dr. John Ralston Williams, planted close to 10,000 trees on the two courses. The East Course, where the PGA will be contested, is the meat-and-potatoes course whereas the West Course is more member-friendly. This time around the East Course at Oak Hill will play to a par of 70 with the yardage set at 7,163 tree-lined yards.
Oak Hill has always been highly regarded by the greats of the game. Ben Hogan was quoted as saying that the “first hole at Oak Hill is the toughest opening test in golf.” Ernie Els has said that “Oak Hill is the best, fairest and toughest championship golf course I”ve ever played.” Hogan shares the course record at 6-under-par 64 with Curtis Strange, who won the U.S. Open there in 1989. Strange”s round was as close to being in the zone as one can be in golf as he recorded 10 threes on his scorecard during second-round play.
It was during the post-World War II era that Oak Hill came into the national consciousness. The course”s first moment on golf”s center stage was during the 1949 U.S. Amateur when Charlie Coe defeated Bill Campbell in the final match. Coe and Campbell were lifetime amateurs with extensive golfing resumes. Arnold Palmer, a 19-year-old college student, reached the round of 16 that year.
In 1956 the National Open was held at Oak Hill. Cary Middlecoff notched a one-stroke victory over a quality leader board. The runner-ups were Hogan and Julius Boros, and Hogan might have made it to a playoff had he not missed a 2-foot putt on the 17th hole during the final round. Some 12 years later, a relative unknown by the name of Lee Trevino captured the U.S. Open at Oak Hill, winning his first professional tournament as well as the first of his six majors. Trevino, who carded rounds of 69-68-69-69, was the first golfer to win the Open with all four rounds in the 60s.
The 1980 PGA was contested at Oak Hill and it was a one-man show. Jack Nicklaus was the only golfer under par that week, winning by seven shots to capture his fifth PGA title as well as his 17th major championship. Nicklaus” victory tied him with Walter Hagen for most PGA Championship wins. He was 40 years old at the time and it was his second major triumph of the summer. Four years later the U.S. Senior Open was held at Oak Hill and Miller Barber ended up taking home the hardware, beating Arnold Palmer. Five years later, the aforementioned Curtis Strange won his second U.S. Open title. Strange”s course-record 64 on Friday got him on the leader board, but a triple-bogey on Sunday by Tom Kite sealed the deal for Strange to win back-to-back Opens. Most notable about the 1989 National Open was the trivial fact that there were four holes-in-ones on the sixth hole while Strange was shooting his course record. The ace makers were Doug Weaver, Mark Wiebe, Jerry Pate and Nick Price.
The drama of the Ryder Cup came to Oak Hill in 1995 and the Europeans won the cup by a razor-thin score of 14 1/2 to 13 1/2. Strange and Jay Haas lost crucial matches on the 18th hole during Sunday”s individual matches. In 1998, Hank Kuehne won the U.S. Amateur at Oak Hill. Notable about Kuehne”s accomplishment is that his brother, Trip, lost to Tiger Woods in the finals of the Am in 1994 while his sister, Kelli, won the Women”s U.S. Amateur. They are the only brother-sister combo to hold the U.S. Am title.
Ten years ago, virtual unknown Shaun Micheel hit a 7-iron to two inches on the final hole on Sunday to beat out Chad Campbell in the 2003 PGA. Micheel is one of those one-hit major wonders who has struggled with his game during the past decade. Other current players who competed that week included Tim Clark, who finished third; Els, who came in fifth; Jim Furyk, who ended up in 18th place; and the trio of Mickelson, Luke Donald and Adam Scott, who tied for 23rd. Tiger Woods was in 39th place. Jay Haas won the Senior PGA at Oak Hill in 2008, finishing at 7-over-par, the highest winning total in tournament history.
Oak Hill”s East Course is all about history and tradition. The longtime head pro is Craig Harmon, the son of 1948 Masters champion Claude Harmon and the brother of PGA Tour swing guru Butch Harmon. It is the only course to host the Open, the PGA, the Amateur, the Ryder Cup, the Senior Open and the Senior PGA. You can be sure that it will be a fairer test of golf than the contrived setups earlier this year at Merion for the National Open and Muirfield for the British Open. Look for a rock-solid iron player to find his way atop the leader board come Sunday afternoon for the playing of the 95th annual PGA Championship, the year”s final major championship.
