If you can’t handle the heat...

FEARFUL of melting into the zoysia grass, what with temperatures in the mid-90s and a humidity beyond insufferable, walks are kept to a minimum in advance of the 93rd PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

How hot is it? Well, you perhaps could find Tiger Woods and his old caddie-friend-bodyguard-confidant-bungee partner Steve Williams sharing a lemonade before you’d come across any player who has played 18 holes more than one day in a row.

But before the sweat-stained crowd jumps in and starts moaning that it’s too hot and the PGA of America needs to find venues in parts of the country where it’s more comfortable, consider these points: One, didn’t just a month ago we have an Open Championship that was cold, wet, and windy, so miserable that Rory McIlroy suggested it played such havoc that it was borderline unfair?

Two, to suggest that this city should be avoided because of the heat would be a huge disservice to the memory of a man whose stature remains perhaps the grandest in American golf, Bobby Jones. An Atlantan, Jones could be held up as the consummate gentleman and his pile of championships, impressive as it might be, has never come close to matching the character with which he travelled through life.

Finally, there is this: If you accept that golf is about handling the elements, then consider excessive heat one such challenge, right there with wind, rain, and cold. Last week, in the middle of the Bridgestone Invitational, Louis Oosthuizen understood what was important. “It’s all about conserving energy,” he said.

Considering that it annually battles a PR campaign, the PGA Championship certainly doesn’t need this sidebar about heat. Bad enough that the Masters is seen as having the greatest aura, the US Open considered the toughest, and the Open Championship as the most flavourful, you don’t want people viewing your tournament as something that might inflict heat stroke.

Frankly, it’s always been a curiosity to me that this major championship seemed to gather the least amount of respect, maybe not with the players, but surely with the media. It’s very telling that no one is ever suggesting a change to the Masters or the US Open or the Open Championship, but annually we get suggestions that the PGA Championship could be better if it were moved to March or be changed to match-play, a format it employed from its debut in 1919 to 1957.

Spare us both storylines. The PGA Championship needs to continue as a stroke-play championship and to occupy a week in mid-August. The reality is, you could never move it back on the calendar, not with both the American and European PGA Tours so invested in fall tournaments and the Asian market now a viable locale. And a possible March date would preclude too many courses from playing host.

So, for better or worse, the PGA Championship is an August ritual and while it will perhaps forever be seen as the ugly stepchild in the major family, there are positives. Mostly, this: Its field is stronger and deeper than any of the other majors.

Of course, having said that, it occurs to me that PGA of America officials did themselves no favours by caving in to the ego of a 57-year-old who has no business having an ego. But Jerry Pate shamelessly does, which is why he is demeaning in a very small way the stature of this major championship.

Yes, he won his only major championship at Atlanta Athletic Club in 1976, but so what? First, it was 35 years ago. Second, he got to return for a victory lap at the 2001 PGA Championship here. And third, it was a US Open, for crying out loud; let the US Golf Association massage his ego.

But Pate, perhaps longing for a spotlight that he never really had, pushed for the spot, the PGA of America foolishly said yes, and now a guy who can’t play on the Champions Tour is somehow mixing it up with the world’s best players. Even more reason to get hot.