Although it seems as if we’ve barely caught our breath following the dramatic conclusion of the British Open Golf Championship some two weeks ago, the calendar does move forward at a steady pace. We find ourselves just five days removed from the commencement of the 99th annual PGA Championship, the fourth and final major title of the 2017 golf season. Jimmy Walker is the defending champion.
The PGA Championship will be held at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. First founded as a private country club by James Harris in 1959, Quail Hollow was designed by George Cobb (Sea Pines, Clemson, Augusta National Par Three) and was immediately regarded as one of the top golf courses in the South. Since its initial founding it has gone through several revisions, including re-dos by Arnold Palmer in 1986 and George Fazio in 1992, 2013 and most recently in 2016. Alameda’s James Hahn won the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in overtime in May of 2016 and the following day Fazio and his band of earth moving equipment began a revision of the golf course, a mere 15 months before Quail Hollow was scheduled to host its first major championship.
Of course, while this grand slam golf stuff is new to Quail Hollow, it has always been a course that is familiar with the top golfers of multiple eras. Quail Hollow has been the host of the aforementioned Wells Fargo for the past 14 years with past champs such as David Toms, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, J.B. Holmes and Rory McIlroy, a two-time champion. Although David Toms is a control player, the vast majority of professionals who have played well at Quail Hollow have been bombers who have been able to control their ball off the tee. The course plays to a par of 72 and can be stretched out to 7,442 yards.
If we were to go back in time to the days of the Kemper Open, the same is true for Quail Hollow. Past winners of that longtime tour event that ran from 1969 through 1979 at Quail included three-time champ Tom Weiskopf, Raymond Floyd, Doug Sanders and Andy Bean. During its time as a senior tour site, the list of past champs is just as impressive featuring such names as Sanders, Peter Thomson, Miller Barber, Bruce Crampton, Gary Player and Dave Hill.
Fazio’s revision that ran from May through August of 2016 included redoing all of the greens in a ultra-dwarf strain of Bermuda grass. It handles the humidity and the heat of an August in the Carolinas better than past grasses. Three front-nine holes and one hole on the back nine were completely dug up, repositioned and redone for this coming week’s PGA Championship. There also was a complete revision of all of the bunkers at Quail Hollow with redesign work completed by adding walls of sod to the sand, making for a more punitive experience.
Of course, all this prep work to get a major championship as well as the 2021 Presidents Cup Matches at Quail Hollow can be attributed to the direction of current owner Johnny Harris, who is the son of the original founder. As early as 1995, the younger Harris openly promoted the concept of improving Quail Hollow to the extent that it would be able to host a U.S. Open or a PGA Championship. For the last decade, Quail Hollow has been a popular site among PGA Tour professionals, but this time around Harris was all in with the thought that his course should be an active part of major championship history.
There are a lot of storylines this time around and there are just as many professional golfers entered in the field at Quail Hollow who are capable of taking home the gargantuan Wanamaker Trophy, indicative of winning the PGA Championship. Jordan Spieth is the most obvious case in point as he attempts to follow up on his dynamic victory in last month’s British Open. He is also one of three golfers currently active in professional golf with the chance to complete the career grand slam with a victory in the PGA. Another is Rory McIlroy, who is a Masters green jacket away from the career grand slam. On a more improbable note, Phil Mickelson needs to win the United States Open to fill his trophy case with all four major titles. Nonetheless, Spieth is on a bit of a summer roll with back-to-back wins in Hartford and at Royal Birkdale. However, winning two majors in a row is always a tough assignment and the tree-lined Quail Hollow may prove to be too much for Jordan and his balky driver.
Because of its hefty yardage, Quail Hollow will reward the power player over the control player. We have to look at an array of young stars who could prevail in next week’s PGA Championship. Dustin Johnson was the hot golfer of the year until he had a house mishap prior to the Masters. He has been null and void since then although he showed good form with a top-10 finish at the Canadian Open last week along with a strong start in Akron. Johnson, who won the 2016 U.S. Open, is the Greg Norman of the modern era when it comes to big and booming drives that seem to consistently hit the sweet spot on the club face. If Johnson truly is on the road to recovery, he will be a most dangerous competitor at Quail Hollow next week.
In the world of major-less linksters, the twosome of Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger have to be considered favorites at the PGA Championship. Both are long off the tee, have all-around games and have gotten use to winning on the PGA Tour. Thomas has three wins this season while Berger has a victory in Memphis and a runner-up finish at Hartford, mainly because of a Jordan Spieth overtime bunker shot. Rory McIlory won for the first time on the PGA Tour at Quail Hollow and has added the 2015 Wells Fargo to his impressive golf resume. However, he just terminated his longtime caddie and he has been a basket case with his multiple putters. Rory is better than anyone else when he is on his game, but he isn’t always on his game.
Unlike recent major sites such as Chambers Bay or Erin Hills, there is no lack of familiarity when the professionals tee it up Thursday in the PGA Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. While one can debate which major is more important than the others, the fact that the PGA is the final major of the year means this is the last chance for a member of professional golf’s elite to add his name to the Wanamaker Trophy alongside those of Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. For someone, it will make their 2017 season. For the rest, it will be another year without taking home one of golf’s four grand slam titles.
