PGA Championship
Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:19:49
It’s hard to believe, but this week is the PGA Championship, the last major of the year. It is being held this week at Whistling Straits Golf Club in Kohler, Wisconsin, where it was previously held in 2004.
Whistling Straits is a very unique course that shares many characteristics with a links style course. It was a flat piece of land and all of the mounds were made by buried railway cars. It’s incredible as you make your way to the course because all of the land surrounding it is flat corn fields, and then the course itself has hills and mounds all over. A number of holes run atop a large cliff with Lake Michigan in perfect view. It really is a spectacular looking course and will make for a very challenging Championship.
The golf course is meant to play firm and fast, but that won’t be the case the first few days of the PGA Championship. With all of the rain it has seen it is soft and playing very long. The greens are huge, with some severe undulations, and when the course is playing firm, it can be very difficult to get the ball close to the hole. They should be much more accessible this week though with these soft greens.
Whistling Straits has a couple of very distinctive greens on it, and the 18th is one of the craziest you’ll ever find but it makes for a pretty interesting finishing hole. You will no doubt see some guys chipping on the 18th green because trying to putt through the trap that cuts into the green is not a very good play! The 12th hole also has another unique and interesting green. It’s a short par 3 that can range between a wedge and an 8 iron and the back left of the green is no more than 7 yards wide.
Whistling Straits is a course that really grows on you; the more we play it the better I think it is.
On Tuesday we played a practice round with Vijay Singh which is always fun. He is great to play with and the fact that he is a past champion here at Whistling Straights sure provides some useful information. Vijay’s new caddy, Dave Clark, is a good friend of mine so we had a great day. On Wednesday we played nine holes with another friend of mine, Bruce Smith, who is a club pro from Dallas. He is a fellow PGA section member who regularly beats me in section events! I was joking with him today that he better not miss any fairways this week because he never misses a fairway when I play with him. He is playing really well right now and I’d love to see him make the cut this week.
There is not a lot to do off the golf course in the area, which is just as well with such a busy and important week, although there are a few good restaurants in the town of Sheboygan. The hotel I am staying at has a pond in the back yard and there is supposedly some good fishing, so I’ll keep you posted on that!
Looking forward to a great week!
Thanks for reading, Brennan
