Once 'Glory’s Last Shot' the PGA Championship benefits from move to May

The tournament has a renewed impetus as the second major of the year, though not everyone agrees with the change

STAR ATTRACTION: Fans wait for player autographs during a practice round prior to the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. Picture: Andy Lyons/Getty Images

For years, the PGA Championship branded itself as “Glory’s Last Shot” – a marketing effort to elevate its baked-in reputation as the afterthought or forgotten stepchild at the tail end of golf’s major championship season.

Staged in the typically intense summer heat of August on often forgettable courses disproportionally located in Ohio during golf’s growing era of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, the PGA came by its reputation as the “fourth major” fairly naturally. The only grand-slam event with an entirely professional field, its perceived strength of depth was often its biggest enemy as it opened the doors for too many Bob Tways, Mark Brookses, Rich Beems and Shaun Micheels to step up and steel the “glory” from the marquee talents golf fans prefer to see hoisting major trophies.