The US PGA Championship, which hasn’t been held in May since Sam Snead’s victory over Johnny Palmer in 1949 at Hermitage Country Club in Virginia, tees off its second 100 years at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course tomorrow (May 16) with the strongest field in major championship golf.
The schedule change this year – moving the tournament from late August to mid-May – means defending champion Brooks Koepka didn’t have the customary 12 months to savour his first PGA Championship, which featured a final round 66 and a record 264 72-hole aggregate score to hold off a charging Tiger Woods in the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club.
With the compressed schedule, Koepka – who arrives at Bethpage Black having won three of the past eight majors he’s played – knows a player like himself could be in contention in the three remaining majors on the calendar if he hits a hot run of form. “If you get on a nice run, you can rattle off consecutive majors, which would be something,” says the 28-year-old Koepka, who is a strong favourite with the bookies to return to winning form this week. “You’ve seen guys get hot, and they go for months where they just play some incredible golf. Hopefully I can set myself up to do that.”
Tiger Woods won the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black with a score of just three-under-par, and was the only player in red figures for 72 holes. Lucas Glover went one shot lower when he won the 2009 US Open, with only five other players finishing under par for that championship. However, in the two FedEx Cup Playoff events held at the course, Nick Watney won in 2012 with a score of 10-under, and Patrick Reed won in 2016 at nine-under, so low scores are out there is the conditions are right. Both of those tournaments were held in August, when the course was running were and fast. And it may play just as difficult in May, since the early-season growth should provide lush rough, slower fairways and receptive greens.
“Bethpage is an incredibly difficult golf course; it’s hard to even think that it’s a public golf course sometimes,” said Koepka. “It’s a tight course. The fairways are relatively narrow, and they’ve got some turn to them. So you’ve really got to pick and choose what you’re going to hit off the tee. You don’t always need driver. It’s all about placement. You know if you hit it in the rough, you know you’re going to be struggling to make par.”
The 7,432-yard Black Course, which has a par of just 70, has undergone extensive bunker renovation and restoration since 2009, but is essentially the same highly demanding course that the players faced ten years ago. But with the improvements in modern equipment and the power of the current crop of top players, it will be interesting to find out whether a big driver or a hot putter will win the day in 2019.
BETTING ODDS: 9 Johnson, Woods; 12 McIlroy; 14 Koepka, Spieth; 16 Rose, Day; 18 Thomas; 20 Fowler; 22 Rahm, Molinari, Mickelson; 25 Schauffele, DeChambeau, Fleetwood; 28 Stenson; 33 Reed, Finau; 40 Garcia, Scott, Grace, Casey.
The 101st PGA Championship begins on May 16, with full coverage on Sky Sports Golf.
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