Week 31 Approach Shots: PGA Championship
By PGATOUR.COM Staff
A RARE FEAT: Padraig Harrington is attempting to become just the second player since 1938 to repeat at the PGA Championship. Tiger Woods is the only player to repeat since that time, winning back to back in 1999 and 2000 and again in 2006 and 2007. Prior to 1938, there were five players to repeat, including Walter Hagen's tournament record four straight (1924-1927). James M. Barnes won two straight over the course of four years. Barnes won in 1916 and repeated in 1919, because the tournament was canceled in 1917 and 1918 due to World War I. Gene Sarazen (1922-23), Leo Diegel (1928-1929) and Denny Shute (1936-1937) are the only other players to repeat at the PGA Championship.
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FIVE-TIME CHAMPS: Tiger Woods, who did not have a chance to defend his title last year, will be looking to join Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen as the only players in PGA Championship history to win five times.
RETURN OF BEEMER: The last of Rich Beem's three PGA TOUR wins came at the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Since Beem's win in 2002, he has missed five of six cuts at the PGA Championship. In eight starts and 22 rounds at the PGA Championship, Beem has three rounds in the 60s, two coming during his win in 2002.
AMERICAN DOMINANCE: American-born players have won 10 of the last 13 PGA Championships. Fiji's Vijay Singh (1998 and 2004) and Ireland's Padraig Harrington (2008) are the only international players to win the PGA Championship during that time. Last year, there were only three American-born players who finished in the top 12 (Ben Curtis, who tied for second; Steve Flesch, sixth; and Phil Mickelson, who tied for seventh).
BUT NOT LAST YEAR: Padraig Harrington's win in 2008 marked the first time since 1994 that at least two of the four major championships have not been won by American players. That 1994 distinction belonged to Jose Maria Olazabal (Masters), Ernie Els (U.S. Open) and Nick Price (British Open and PGA Championship).
MAKING HISTORY: Japan's Ryo Ishikawa received a special invitation to play in this week's PGA Championship. Ishikawa, believed to be the youngest entrant in a PGA Championship, will be 17 years, 10 months, 27 days when he begins play.
AVOID THE SHUTOUT: If Tiger Woods fails to win the PGA Championship it will be the first time since 2004 that he has not won at least one major in a season. He didn't win major championships in 1998, 2003 and 2004.
CINK GOES FOR BACK-TO-BACK MAJORS: Stewart Cink will be going for two major championships in a row when he plays this week. Cink, who won the British Open last month, enjoyed his best PGA Championship finish in 1999 at Medinah Country Club, when he tied for third. His other PGA top-10 came in 2002 at Hazeltine. Cink finished T6 at last week's World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.
NORTHERN LIGHTS: This week's PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., marks only the fourth time Minnesota has hosted this tournament. The first time came in 1953, when Walter Burkemo won at Keller Golf Course in St. Paul. Six years later, Bob Rosburg won his lone major title, winning at Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb. In 2002, Rich Beem won the first PGA Championship held at Hazeltine National (see related story below).
HAZELTINE TO HOST RYDER CUP IN 2016: This will mark the second time the PGA Championship will be held at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Rich Beem won the PGA Championship in 2002. After this year, the PGA of America will return to Hazeltine in 2016 with the Ryder Cup Matches. Hazeltine also hosted the U.S. Open twice, with Tony Jacklin winning in 1970 and Payne Stewart in 1991.
EXPECT HIGH SCORES: In 2002, the course ranked as the second-toughest course on the PGA TOUR that season behind Bethpage State Park's Black Course, host site of the U.S. Open. The scoring average for the par-72 Hazeltine was 74.735, while the scoring average for the U.S. Open was 74.901.
THE DREADED 16TH: The par-4 16th at Hazeltine ranked as the fifth-toughest hole on the PGA TOUR in 2002, with a 4.494 scoring average. For the tournament, there were 48 birdies, 223 pars, 114 bogeys and 51 double bogeys. The 51 double bogeys tied for the most on TOUR in 2002 (No. 17, TPC Sawgrass).
ON-COURSE OBSERVATIONS: PGA TOUR Network correspondent Brian Katrek is on the scene at Hazeltine National Golf Club for this week's satellite radio coverage (XM 146/SIRIUS 209). Reports Katrek:
Obviously, all eyes are on Tiger Woods. As is the case in most of his majors, he is the prohibitive tournament favorite. And I'm not saying he's not going to win, but he only hit 54 percent of his fairways at the Buick Open and just over 50 percent of his fairways at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. He's going to have to hit more fairways here if he wants to win.
• As far as the course is concerned, it isn't soft, but it's softer than it was two weeks ago. They had several inches of rain last weekend that softened up the golf course and could make it play very long. Setup wise, there's a lot of flexibility that Kerry Haigh is going to have. For example, the 14th hole is very likely to be played as a drivable par-4 at least one of the days this week.
• The graduated rough has crept its way up to the greenside areas now. In some areas around the greens, the grass between the green and the greenside bunkers is shaved, but the backside is surrounded by longer rough. Normally, the bunkers are completely surrounded by rough.
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