The second major championship in the world of men’s professional golf tees it up this coming Thursday at the storied Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, for the playing of the PGA Championship. Oak Hill is one of those storied old-style courses that first opened in 1901 during the golden age of American golf course architecture. Its original course designer was Donald Ross and subsequent revisions of the course were done by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Tom Fazio. Most recently the East Course at the 36-hole Oak Hill complex was re-done in 2019 by Andrew Green.
Obviously a golf course that initially opened in 1901 would stand to need multiple revisions simply because the game and equipment have radically changed during the course of the last 122 years. However, the key to Oak Hill is to keep the ball in play off the tee. Oak Hill’s principal defense is its dense rough and with the heavy spring rains in western New York this year, you can be sure that the rough will be lush and thick.
Oak Hill also has water issues for the golfer who strays off line. Allen Creek comes into play on nine of the East Course’s 18 holes, so that too will be a factor. Yet looking back on past major championships and their eventual winners, one gets a mixed bag of classic ball strikers, one-hit wonders and blatant journeymen alongside some of the greats of the game.
Oak Hill has hosted six major championships. It has been the site of three United States Opens as well as three PGA Championships. In 1956, smooth-swinging Dr. Cary Middlecoff won the third and final major of his career, taking the U.S. Open by one stroke over Julius Boros and Ben Hogan. An extremely consistent golfer, Middlecoff shot 71-70-70-70 over four rounds. He also won the 1949 U.S. Open over Sam Snead and the 1955 Masters over Hogan. Middlecoff was a Hall of Fame golfer from the 1940s and 1950s who was the equal of the best golfers of his era. Lee Trevino won the first major title of his career at Oak Hill in the 1968 U.S. Open. Within two years Trevino went from being a driving range pro in El Paso to a U.S. Open champ. He beat Jack Nicklaus by four strokes and was equally consistent while shooting 69-68-69-68.
The PGA Championship visited Oak Hill in 1980 and the game’s biggest star, Jack Nicklaus, won the 17th major of his stellar career. He prevailed by seven strokes over Andy Bean. It was Jack’s fifth time in the winner’s circle at the PGA. Nine years later the U.S. Open returned to Oak Hill for a third and final time and once again a top-flight golfer found his way to the top of the leader board as Curtis Strange won his second consecutive National Open. Strange was one stroke clear of a trio of golfers, including Chip Beck, Mark McCumber and Ian Woosnam. Tom Kite held the 54-hole lead but stumbled badly on his front nine Sunday morning.
The PGA Championship returned to Oak Hill on another two occasions after the turn of the millennium but the end result had little to do with Hall of Fame golfers. At the 2003 PGA, Shaun Micheel hit one of the game’s most iconic shots on the final hole Sunday to beat Chad Campbell by two strokes. Micheel would never win again on the PGA Tour and he joined Orville Moody as the only members of the PGA Tour to only register one win on tour with that sole victory being a major title. In 2013, Jason Dufner made up for an overtime loss in the 2011 PGA to Keegan Bradley by beating Jim Furyk by two strokes to capture the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill. Dufner wasn’t exactly the unknown golfer that Micheel was as he did happen to win five times on tour, yet he definitely didn’t have a Hall of Fame resume as he spent a lot of his career struggling with his putting.
To the uninitiated, the PGA Championship is run by the PGA of America, the longtime organization of American club professionals. It is not an entity of the PGA Tour. The field for the season’s second major includes an all-professional field of 156 golfers with zero amateur contestants. There are certain criteria for playing in this year’s PGA such as being among the top 100 in the Official World Golf Rankings or as a past champions of the tourney. Another 20 golfers in the field are club professionals who placed in the annual PGA Club Professionals National Championship. While the field every year at the PGA is somewhat diluted by the 20 club professionals, it still has the strongest field among the four majors.
For a period of time the PGA Championship visited sites that were arguably below the standards of the courses used at the British Open, the U.S. Open, and Augusta National, home of the Masters. However, during the course of the last 25 years of so, the venues at the PGA are courses that are not only historic but also regulars on the listing of America’s Top 100 golf courses. During the course of the last three years, the PGA has visited San Francisco’s Harding Park, Kiawah Island, and last year’s site, Southern Hills in Tulsa. Next year the PGA Championship will be contested at Valhalla with subsequent tournaments taking place at Quail Hollow, Aronimink, PGA Frisco in Texas, a new Tiger Woods design, and then in 2028 at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Lately the PGA Championship has been contested at quality venues.
Justin Thomas won last year’s PGA at Southern Hills in a three-hole aggregate playoff over Will Zalatoris. Thomas has struggled this spring and is not the current betting favorite. This time around Las Vegas has Brooks Koepka, now playing on the LIV Golf Tour, as the favorite. Koepka had a runner-up finish in the Masters last month. Koepka owns four majors, two of which were at the PGA. Others to consider this coming week include the twosome of Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, both Masters champions. Rahm also has a U.S. Open trophy and a third major win at Oak Hill would almost certify Hall of Fame credentials. Scheffler has the game to win multiple majors because of his power and accuracy off the tee.
There are six golfers who haven’t yet won a major and are mentioned as favorites based upon their strong play during the last few years. First and foremost is Patrick Cantlay, a former Fed Ex Cup champ. Xander Schauffele has major ability. Tony Finau and Max Homa have won multiple times on the tour of late. Sam Burns is an iron master. Rickie Fowler is climbing up the rankings and just may be ready to take that next step to major success. Jordan Spieth may have to withdraw because of an ankle injury hurting his quest of the career grand slam.
The PGA Championship begins this Thursday on the East Course at Oak Hill in Rochester. Will the eventual winner be a modern star of the game or a one-hit wonder journeyman? We will have the answer a week from Sunday.
