Resolved: The PGA's stewardship of golf's 4th major ensures its eventual death as a major

[Mark Pearce]

I knowit was an exciting finish because everyone says so and it went to a play off but I was bored to tears.  What with Dufner's waggle and unfortunate bearing  and Bradley's long putter this was a competition played out by two guys I didn't want to win over a course I wouldn't want to see, let alone play.

Somehow appropriate, though, that the US PGA has the dishonour to be the first major won by a long putter.

[Mike Hendren]

Somehow appropriate, though, that the US PGA has the dishonour to be the first major won by a long putter.

2009 Masters - Angel Cabrera.

[Will MacEwen]

Somehow appropriate, though, that the US PGA has the dishonour to be the first major won by a long putter.

2009 Masters - Angel Cabrera.

Angel didn't actually belly his putter - he stroked it conventionally.  It was very peculiar.

[Martin Toal]

Some of the thread above illustrates the problem with the PGA. It is basically a parochial event that wants to be a world event. But why should anyone outside the US care more about US club pros than their country's club pros?

Seems like the element of tradition is missing, except the tradition of endless TV coverage of a thermometer about to burst in the heat.

Good luck to Keegan Bradley, seems like a nice kid, but I went to bed after he tied Dufner at the 18th in regulation.

[Terry Lavin]

I don't see any way the PGA loses its major status. It's been around a long time, and it's been a major for a long time. It always gets the best field of the year, and the purse is huge. It goes to (usually) very interesting golf courses. And, disagreeing with your thread's title, I think the PGA does a great job putting the tournament on...I wish the USGA did as good a job with course setup.

I am a huge fan of golf course architecture...that's why I am on this site. But when it comes to me watching golf (and majors) on television, the course's architecture is not the most important aspect to me. Yesterday was outstanding...great drama, a very challenging golf course, and players trying to win a major championship. The fact that it was played at Atlanta Athletic Club, and not Fishers Island, Shinnecock, or Sand Hills, did not detract from my enjoyment in the least. I doubt it detracted from 99.99% of the viewers' enjoyment either. There's simply no way this event will eventually die as a major, in my opinion.

I agree with everything you said and would only add that being "last" in a list of just four majors makes the PGA's plight sort of impossible to remedy.  It probably suffers from fan burnout after the first three majors.  The Masters is the luckiest, because it is the first and because it is played at the same site every year.  That gives it the advantage of the golf fans coming out of hibernation, when they are at their most excited state of fandom.  The institutional memories from all of those years of watching the Masters on television is something that cannot be underestimated, when gauging the ardor of the viewing public.  Next, golf fans in the states always look forward to the US Open because it is our national championship and because we have had so many terrific winners over the years.  Virtually every legendary US player has won the Open at least once, so it's the ultimate American proving ground.  There is also the allure of some of the venues, like Winged Foot, Merion, Pebble Beach and the like.  Then there's the Open Championship, which is sui generis.  There's just nothing else like it.  American golf fans just love it.  After that, we tend to head to the beach and forget about golf.  The PGA Championship, unfortunately, is a bit of an afterthought, capturing only the most ardent golf fans, despite the fact that it has a pretty solid field, better than the US Open, that's for sure.  It doesn't help itself by some of the courses it chooses to play on, or the weather in the places it chooses to go, but mostly it is affected by the calendar itself.

[Jud_T]

Actually in terms of world rankings that was apparently the best major field ever.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

The PGA was once offered a spot in September by TV but they chose not to move the date  AND go up against American football in the ratings game. Wouldn't the Australian Open be played in  the November to January time period ? Would American TV pay big bucks in that time period ? I doubt it. That's football end of season to playoff time here. Golf would lose big in the US TV ratings game.

[George Pazin]

Actually in terms of world rankings that was apparently the best major field ever.

Further evidence of the meaningless of the ranking...

Can't say I found this one particularly compelling, but someone has to be the 4th of 4. It's a little like the "ugliest" Victoria Secret angel - she's still smokin'. I'd rather watch the PGA than any regular Tour event, save The Players(tm) - it's probably a wash there, maybe slight edge to TP.

[Brent Hutto]

It's funny how you see so much discussion of "growing the game" but then when major after major demonstrates the parity among, say, the top 200 players in the world we're all up in arms about lacking one True Champion who can "bestride the narrow world like a Colossus", which we interpret as mediocrity. Or we blame it on Titanium and Urethane.

I think we've grown the game to the point where 20 different countries on every continent are producing players as physically capable as the best player in the world would have been a couple generations ago.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Good comments all around. Terry and David, I'm not sure tradition or "that's how things have been" ultimately provides a strong bulwark against  change. At some point the Royal Navy cut out the grog, stopped the sodomy, and eliminated flayings, quarterings, and keel haulings.

I do agree, Terry: 3 is a magic number.

Akin to the PGA-PGA Tour split, could club pro changes create a schism in the membership that leads to the US PGA combining with intl PGAs and taking the PGA Championship global?

With global choice there could be a fantastic rota of courses -- some locales allowing organizers to move the PGA into the February deadzone for US sport, maybe push into early March. The last shall be first.

[Terry Lavin]

It's funny how you see so much discussion of "growing the game" but then when major after major demonstrates the parity among, say, the top 200 players in the world we're all up in arms about lacking one True Champion who can "bestride the narrow world like a Colossus", which we interpret as mediocrity. Or we blame it on Titanium and Urethane.

I think we've grown the game to the point where 20 different countries on every continent are producing players as physically capable as the best player in the world would have been a couple generations ago.

BH:

Good points all.  Let's just look at who has won the majors for the past three years.  One could argue that there's a lot of parity because most, if not all, of the past 12 winners were first-time major winners. Here's the list:


2011

August - Keegan Bradley (United States), PGA Championship

July - Darren Clarke (Northern Ireland), British Open

June - Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), U.S. Open

April - Charl Schwartzel (South Africa), U.S. Masters

2010

August - Martin Kaymer (Germany), PGA Championship

July - Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa), British Open

June - Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland), U.S. Open

April - Phil Mickelson (United States), U.S. Masters

2009

August - Yang Yong-eun (South Korea), PGA Championship

July - Stewart Cink (United States), British Open

June - Lucas Glover (United States), U.S. Open

April - Angel Cabrera (Argentina), U.S. Masters


The hole in the argument is that very few of the young winners have gone on to really distinguish themselves.  Immelman disappeared, some of it medical, I'm sure, but he never developed any further.  Oosthuizen and Kaymer are still looking somewhat random as winners.  Glover only recently came out and started playing better, but I don't think anybody thinks he will win more majors.  Mickelson is an established multi-major winner, Cabrera has great credentials, GMac won after winning the US Open and Clarke is a Hall of Famer who got his first major late.  Cink is arguably a fluke winner, YE Yang isn't going to be an immortal.  And while their families would argue that Schwartzel and Bradley are going to be around and winning a long time into the future, the odds aren't great.

Tiger's absence from the winner's circle has had a profound effect on golf, but he wasn't gonna win the last 12 majors even if he never got chased out of the house by the club-wielding wife.  You can call it parity, others would suggest that the game is in a bit of a mess because the Dominant One is out of pocket and those who used to chase him can't beat the rash of one-time winners and the episodic old timers who get it done.  I would just argue that the game is more boring without a dominant golfer and without guys who are regularly in contention on the back nine on Sunday.  This group of professional golfers give one the impression that they're more interested in their bank account than their trophy case.

Hopefully one of them, maybe the anointed one, Rory McIlroy, will rise to the top.  And stay there for a while.  Which would be a good thing, IMHO, for the professional game.

[John Kavanaugh]

It is difficult to win twice in the age of social media. I was one of the first 1000 followers of Cink on Twitter and unfollowed him after his win at the Open. He became a writer instead of a golfer and a poor one at both.  He has done for Twitter what Hemingway did for suicide.

[Mark Bourgeois]

How's this for a World PGA Championship rota -- staying away from courses that recently have hosted or will host PGAT major championships but trying to factor in at least a little whether the course could match Tour pros and has infrastructure:

1. Kennemer
2. Woodhall Spa
3. Loch Lomond
4. Hirono
5. Kasumagaseki
6. Tokyo
7. Royal Melbourne
8. The National (Aus)
9. St. George's
10. RCP (shameless bid to build a quick base for this scheme)
11. Chantilly (been 20 years since it hosted the Open de France, so might not work in current equipment era)
12. Sunningdale Old
13. Royal Montreal
13. Royal Portrush -- screw you, R&A, we'll take the PGA there in a heartbeat

We can salt into this list all the great US courses.

Substitutions?

[Bill Brightly]

Terry summed up the majors very well.

But I say so what if the PGA Championship has become an event only for the most ardent golf fan? Maybe it is like the NHL Stanley Cup: unless your "team" is in it, only diehards watch it. Both events can still be a superb example of the sport played at the highest level, even if few watch.

I am certainly one of those diehard fans and I thought it was great to watch. (I always DVR golf, so I missed the ridiculous number of commercials.)  I loved watching those two guys execute great shots all week, then struggle on the back nine on an incredibly hard golf course. I had little desire to play the course but I accept that it is the kind of parkland set up that is needed to really challenge the best.

[Michael Whitaker]

I knowit was an exciting finish because everyone says so and it went to a play off but I was bored to tears.  What with Dufner's waggle and unfortunate bearing  and Bradley's long putter this was a competition played out by two guys I didn't want to win over a course I wouldn't want to see, let alone play.

Somehow appropriate, though, that the US PGA has the dishonour to be the first major won by a long putter.

Mark,

Why "appropriate"?

Why a "dishonor" ?

[Mark Pearce]

Mike,

Appropriate because the PGA is, by a distance, the least of the Majors. 

Dishonour because long putters aren't real golf clubs and should have been banned about the same time the ball was rolled back.

[PGertner]

Congratulations to Ken Mangum, his staff and volunteers! Golf course conditioning was phenominal at AAC.  

The Superintendents are also killing off the club pros as the search for budget dollars is a fight for your own job.  Pros are killing themselves by allowing the supers full run of the course on when and how members are allowed to play.  I don't even know on a weekend morning why the pro is behind the counter when it is the super running the show.  Like most old men, I miss the old days when the pro was the master of his domain.

Wow.  Something different!  More Superintendent bashing from JK.

John, many clubs have figured it out. In 2011, if you don't have a golf course in perfect condition, golf facilities in the US won't survive, membership and revenues plunge especially where competition is steep.

Let's see that golf pro buddy of yours, the shirt seller and lesson giver, keep that golf course in the condition that is demanded these days during a summer like 2010 or 2011 and see your club survive and prosper.

We Superintendents have earned our stripes with this business, despite the negativity that is so common on GCA.

Patrick Gertner
Potowomut Golf Club
East Greenwich, RI