There are about as many questions heading into this week’s PGA Championship as there are bunkers at host site Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
That would be 976 questions. Or is it 1,012? (In any case, I don’t have the space to answer them all, so you will understand if I skip a few… hundred.)
Not even course designer Pete Dye is sure of how many sandy excavations, scrapes and similar sundry disturbances there are on his 7,500-yard topsy-turvy creation on the shore of Lake Michigan.
“There’s about 1,000,” says Dye. “Most of them are out of bounds and never used. They’re there just for looks.”
Dustin (Snakebit) Johnson begs to disagree. In 2010, when the year’s last major was played here most recently, Johnson grounded his club in a “bunker” on the 72nd hole, incurring a two-stroke penalty that likely cost him a playoff spot for the title won by Martin Kaymer.
He, and the other players, won’t make the same mistake this week. If they do, it’s all on them. The PGA of America has gone out of its way to make sure players realize that anything with sand in it falls under Rule 13-4b. As a side note, the infamous spot that may have cost Johnson his first major title now is largely covered by a tent. He may make other mistakes this week, but not that specific one. We await his latest miscue with bated breath.
Question No. 272: Can Johnson finally break through?
This, the last and least of the four majors, has had more first-time major champions than the other three. Since 1946, 40 of this championship’s 69 winners were holding their first major trophy when all was said and done. The most recent was Jason Dufner in 2013. See below for the answer to this one. (More or less.)
Question No. 598: Is Rory McIlroy a legitimate contender?
No. Despite his apparently miraculous recovery from a total rupture of a ligament in his left ankle just before the Open Championship, the gruelling nine-kilometre daily hike around Whistling Straits’ rollicking topography, plus his rusty game (he hasn’t played competitively since the U.S. Open in June), makes his decision not only questionable, but dumb. Ah, the short-sighted optimism of youth.
Question No. 844: Is Whistling Straits a true links?
Just like Chambers Bay, which hosted this year’s U.S. Open, both are masterpieces. Of inflated man-made artifice. Golf’s equivalent of overly enthusiastic breast implants. They are not natural links like, say, St Andrews, site of the Open Championship. This formerly featureless four-kilometre stretch along the lake (an airfield at one time) required the input of more than 600,000 cubic metres of dirt and sand to create what now is regarded as one of the top courses in the world. Old Tom Morris wept.
Question No. “about 1,000”: Who will win?
Picking a winner in this 156-horse race is tough. Of course, with all due respect, you have to automatically delete the 20 PGA of America club pros.
In 2004, the first time the PGA Championship visited, long-hitting Vijay Singh won in a playoff over strategists Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco. In 2010, Kaymer won in a playoff over fellow bomber Bubba Watson. So, popular opinion has power hitters Johnson, Jason Day or Watson winning in a playoff over crafty shotmakers like Jordan Spieth (denying him his third major of the year) or Open champion Zach Johnson (who was T3 with McIlroy here in 2010). But how about overdue pretenders such as Lee Westwood (70 major starts without a victory), Miguel Angel Jimenez (69), Sergio Garcia (68) or, shockingly, Steve Stricker (64)? How lyrical would it be to see Stricker, at 48 and having grown up just a couple of hundred kilometres away from Whistling Straits, finally put this cherry on top of a stellar career?
Lyrical but not likely. Put your money on Bubba.
Next question?