Proven winners have head start
Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Jason Day amongst others are all household names when it comes to being in contention for the Majors, but with only two victories between them, none can afford to relax.
You see experience will have taught them that Majors are all about mental strength and resilience. They understand that the ordeal alone of staying in contention will batter them so they need to be able to derive a perverse pleasure from all that punishment.
It doesn’t seem fair, but it is what it is and the rewards of winning a Major are enormous. Some guys like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have thrived in that stressful environment while others simply can’t stay tough for long enough. Close calls don’t count. It’s all about the delivery.
The PGA Championship, while being the fourth and last Major of the year, has always struggled to establish its own unique identity.
For example, the US Masters resides permanently at Augusta National, a course famed for its azaleas, its beauty and Amen Corner. The US Open, being America’s national championship, is famed for attempting to be the toughest test of all four Majors while the Open has something totally unique, its links courses.
Over the years the PGA has been hosted by many of the great courses (like this week’s Oak Hill Country Club), but it also has had its fair share of largely forgettable venues.
With course set-ups more akin to what the tour players normally experience each week, players are not required to make wholesale changes of equipment nor use a dramatically different plan of attack to what is the norm. This usually guarantees greater comfort and therefore better scoring from what can reasonably be argued as being the most open (the PGA Championship is the only Major which annually features the top 100 players from the world rankings) and toughest of all the Majors to win.
With 16 of the last 25 winners securing their first Major at the PGA Championship, history this week will favour the person who can match the courage of his convictions.
Having posted -7 and -6 for the first 36 holes, current Major champions Scott and Rose have the form and pedigree to represent a very significant challenge for the rest of the field. For all their talent, their poise, their maturity, it has taken both of them time to learn about what you can and can’t do if you are to win one of the big ones. The question now remains – can they win consistently?
For the chasing pack, the pressure is now on as it seems that with the weather largely set fair the winning total may now be 12 under par at the very least and probably more.
This is where player familiarity with the course conditions separates them from the also-rans. Unlike the other Majors, there are no extreme conditions where the leaders might be expected to come back to the field.
For Phil Mickelson, Darren Clarke and even Rory McIlroy it seems already as if their chances of victory are over. Woods himself now requires something special in order to force his way into contention — and we know that he is far better when he is out front than when he is chasing.
Only time will tell if the PGA Championship will produce a proven winner or a new unheralded champion this week.
With many of the heavyweights already falling by the wayside such is the strength of the field that almost anyone might just be able to rise to the occasion and with victory secure a place in history as well as one very large replica of the Wanamaker Trophy.
However, you feel that Scott and Rose may have something to say about that!
