This week is the PGA Championship at Tpc Harding Park. This venue has hosted big tournaments before, including the 2009 Presidents Cup, the site of Tiger’s famous argyle sweater club twirl. The field is absolutely loaded, with the best part being that many of the world’s best players are playing very, very good golf right now. With that being said, let’s jump into it.
Course Preview
TPC Harding Park will play as a 7,200 yard, Par 70 this week. The course was designed by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting. In 2005 the course was renovated in an effort to make it more PGA TOUR playable, as it added 400 yards overall.
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The design was enhanced in a modern way, while also trying to highlight the original design and routing. The cypress-lined course dances along the coast of Lake Merced, giving the grounds a wonderful mix of coastline views, as well as forest views. The wind can become a factor any day, at any time, often making the course play longer than the advertised number.
Field
It would be wrong to start this section with anyone other than Brooks Koepka. He has been the king of the PGA Championship, looking to win his 3rd straight title this week. Brooks had an opportunity to win last week, but put his final tee shot in the water, and went on to make double-bogey. He has made an alignment change recently that seems to have broken him out of his slump. How crazy would 3 straight PGA titles be?
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Justin Thomas is the newly crowned World No. 1, after taking the title from Jon Rahm who only had it for 2 weeks. We’ve seen JT win a lot in a short amount of time before, so will this be another one of those runs? Tough to say, but he’ll have Bones back on the bag this week, so we will see if the pairing can keep it going.
This will be the first major for the new bulked-up Bryson DeChambeau. He continues to keep his name in the news for doing and saying some outrageous stuff. He wants to live until he’s 140, and refuses to hit a golf ball within at least 30 yards of an ant. We will see if all this weight gain translates into major championship golf.
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Rory McIlroy has struggled to put together 4 straight good rounds of golf. He played a practice round at Harding Park earlier today with Jason Day, and a few permitted media members stated that he looked “locked in” and that his game was in great shape. With having not won a major since 2014, Rory may be a little more focused than usual this week. The putter let him down last week, and that will have to change for him to have a shot at capturing the title. Worth noting, the last time the TOUR was at Harding Park was for the 2015 WGC Match Play, where Rory won.
Tiger Woods is back after missing last week’s WGC. He was on property on Sunday, really trying to get his game at a point where he feels like he can win. The temperatures will hover in the 60s all 4 days, which isn’t the best news for his back. When asked today if he believes he can win, Tiger said “Of course.” Hoping for a strong week from the Big Cat.
Players to Watch
Tommy Fleetwood finished T35 last week, but seemed to find something during his Sunday round. Tommy has the game to win anywhere in the world, and always brings it during big tournaments.
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Kevin Kisner has quietly played good golf recently. He has the game to beat anyone and can putt the absolute lights out, which is always important at a major.
Featured Groups
Thursday
11:33 a.m. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas
4:58 p.m. Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia
11:22 a.m. Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose
4:47 p.m. Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau, Adam Scott
Weather
san francisco WEATHER
My Pick to Win
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I’m coming off a win. I had Justin Thomas getting it done in Memphis, so let’s keep it rolling. This week, I’m picking a guy who always seems to fly under the radar in the big tournaments, even though he’s always right there. In his last 9 majors, he’s finished inside the Top 5, 4 times. These include 2, T2’s. Xander Schauffele. The dude is a big game hunter, and he’s due to finally break out and win one. Let’s go Xander!
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