Why the year's second Major is also the most exciting
5 Reasons Why The PGA Championship Is The Best Major
Some may never quite understand why the PGA Championship is sometimes held in less regard than the year’s other three Majors.
The Masters – as great as it is – is a limited-field event on a golf course that’s becoming increasingly easy to dominate.
The US Open is very regimented in terms of course set-up and The Open Championship rarely, if ever, deviates from what’s expected.
The PGA, on the other hand, simply doesn’t follow a set formula, and that’s a major part of its allure.
Below, we take a look at six reason why some fans might just enjoy the PGA Championship more than its three predecessors.
5 Reasons Why The PGA Championship Is The Best Major
Great Golf Courses
The iconic 17th hole at Kiawah Island, 2021 PGA Championship venue (Getty Images)
One year we’re at a modern links course and the next we’re at one of the great parkland or woodland venues in the States.
The PGA Championship hops around the country, taking in some of the very best layouts on the way.
There’s no strict remit in terms of characteristics, meaning the PGA of America can choose some of the USA’s top courses.
2019’s event was held at Bethpage Black, one of America’s most famous and toughest tracks before crossing the country to the beautiful public TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
Just some of the other iconic courses that the PGA heads to include: Whistling Straits, Southern Hills, Valhalla, Oak Hill, Medinah, Kiawah Island, Baltusrol, Hazeltine and Quail Hollow.
It’s an event that can provide great variation and offer up fans the chance to see some fantastic courses that we don’t get to see year-in, year-out.
The Best Field
You have to say the PGA Championship presents the best field of any of the Majors.
The qualification criteria is geared towards having the most in-form players on the start sheet.
The vast majority of the top 100 players in the Official World Golf Ranking tee it up, unlike The Masters, which has an invitation-only field, and the US and Open Championships, which are open to qualification and therefore players who sit well outside the world’s top 100.
With those events, the top 50 and 60 are invited, meaning those between 60 and 100 in the rankings, who could potentially be playing really well, often miss out.
The inclusion of 20 club professionals also adds another dimension and sense of intrigue.
The Trophy
The Wanamaker Trophy is without doubt one of golf’s best
The Claret Jug and Ryder Cup may just trump it but barring those two, the Wanamaker really is one golf’s greatest trophies and potentially one of the best in sport.
The size, the history and the prestige – it really is a prize that every golfer would love to own.
The Spectacle
There’s certainly a correlation between the above point and the brand of golf on display at the PGA Championship.
Unlike The Open (in some conditions) and the US Open, where pars are gold dust and the winner is often the person who’s made the fewest mistakes during the course of the week, the year’s second Major is one you have to go out and win.
With that in mind, the players often adopt an aggressive approach, which leads to more birdies and, by extension, increased atmosphere and excitement.
The Memories
When YE Yang beat Tiger Woods to the 2009 USPGA
YE Yang going toe-to-toe with Tiger in 2009 and Martin Kaymer defeating Bubba Watson in 2010’s playoff following Dustin Johnson’s bunker catastrophe are two tournaments that spring to mind.
The 2018 tournament at Bellerive was fantastic where Brooks Koepka held off Tiger Woods, and throughout history we’ve seen some incredible moments in the tournament.
Sergio behind the tree at Medinah in 1999, McIlroy in the dark at Valhalla in 2014 and Morikawa’s incredible eagle in 2020 at TPC Harding Park are just a few captivating PGA Championship moments in recent times.
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