![]() Open there in 1968, becoming the first player to break 70 all four rounds (it was 25 years before that happened again in a U.S. Robert Trent Jones tweaked the Ross design to make it tougher as Oak Hill began landing majors. This doesn't look anything like it once did. Koepka is among those 32 players who have played Oak Hill at either the 2003 or the 2013 PGA Championship - eight have played both years - and he's in for a surprise. “They were all (ticked) off because they couldn't see anything,” Koepka said. He was paired with Woods and his massive gallery. Koepka had friends from the Boston area drive across to watch him. He made his PGA Championship debut at Oak Hill in 2013, memorable for reasons that went beyond his scores. I like the disciple, the mental grind that comes with it," Koepka said. ![]() When he won at Bellerive in 2018 and Bethpage Black in 2019, he joined Woods and Padraig Harrington as the only back-to-back PGA champions in stroke play. Koepka, who recently revealed his wife is pregnant with their first child, would appear to have his major mojo back. Was that the familiarity of Augusta National for Mickelson, a three-time Masters champ? Oak Hill might be the place to validate that. Koepka was a runner-up with 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, who only two years ago became golf's oldest major winner in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. If the Masters was any indication, that's no longer a concern.īrooks Koepka, a four-time major champion, had the 54-hole lead at Augusta National until Jon Rahm tracked him down in the final round. One question going into the year was how LIV Golf players would fare against more than just a 48-man field and stronger competition from top to bottom. The 156-man field includes 17 players who are part of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League - down one from the 18 who played in the 89-man field at the Masters last month. The exception is Will Zalatoris, out for the season after back surgery.Īlso missing is Tiger Woods, who had surgery on his ankle last month and is likely to miss the other two majors this year. The PGA Championship is known for having the strongest field of the four majors, and this year was no exception with 99 of the top 100 players from the world ranking expected at Oak Hill. What hasn't changed is the nature of the field. “I've been to Rochester once before for an amateur tournament, and it was in June. That would be thrilling news to Scottie Scheffler. It should be pleasant enough for players not to have to bundle up in pursuit of the Wanamaker Trophy. Temperatures are expected to be in the 60s when the 105th PGA Championship starts Thursday. There was a week of unseasonable warmth, weeks of rain, a combination that led to enough grass on the ground and leaves in the trees. Mother Nature, always the unknown factor in golf, appears to have cooperated. “The last six weeks there have been more conversations with the superintendent than normal - to your point, checking on the weather, checking on what's growing and what's not,” Haigh said, noting the Rochester area had some 45 inches of snow this winter. Kerry Haigh, the PGA's chief championships officer, recently has started most conversations with the Oak Hill staff by asking a question on everyone's mind: How's the weather? Imagine a major in May on a course located about an hour east of Buffalo. Oak Hill, however, was already locked in for 2023, the last hurdle before a a lineup of courses in warmer climates. The PGA of America announced in 2017 it would be moving its premier championship to May, a decision that would eliminate northern courses from future consideration. And part of the newness to this PGA Championship is the calendar.
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