PGA Championship back to Kiawah in 2021

[Amol Yajnik]

Official announcement on Friday, but the local Charleston newspaper breaks the story: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150427/PC20/150429400

Here are the upcoming PGA Championship sites:
2015: Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wis.

2016: Baltusrol, Springfield, N.J.

2017: Quail Hollow, Charlotte

2018: Bellerive, St. Louis

2019: Bethpage, Farmingdale, N.Y.

2020: Harding Park, San Francisco

2021: Ocean Course, Kiawah Island

2022: Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, N.J.

[Joe Bausch]

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/OceanCourse/

[Mike Hendren]

Heard it from my caddie at the Ocean Course today.  Not sure I could break 150 from the tips. Good gosh almighty.

Bogey

[Rob Marshall]

Heard it from my caddie at the Ocean Course today.  Not sure I could break 150 from the tips. Good gosh almighty.

Bogey

How were  the greens? I have friends that were there about a week and a half ago and they said they were pitiful.

[Brent Hutto]

Heard it from my caddie at the Ocean Course today.  Not sure I could break 150 from the tips. Good gosh almighty.

Bogey

I'm guessing it was pretty blustery today, Bogey. Here in Columbia it was quite breezy especially later in the day. Usually can multiply that x2 at least for being right against the ocean.

[Mark Pritchett]

Glad to see the PGA coming back to Kiawah!  Wonder what changes (if any) will be made to the course?

[Jeremy Rudock]

Oh boy, can't wait for the media to whine about being housed an hour away from the course again.

[Mike Hendren]

Rob, greens were excellent.

Brother Brent, weather was sublime with little wind. 

Prevailing sentiment is that the course is not penal from the correct tees and the ground game is a legitimate option.  Still thinking about everything else.  It is humbling to look back at the championship tees. 

Year 3 of the 10 year plan wraps up tomorrow.

Cheers all.

Bogey

[Howard Riefs]

Oh boy, can't wait for the media to whine about being housed an hour away from the course again.

Your wait is over.

Via twitter...

Jay Busbee ‏@jaybusbee 
PGA Champ. returns to Kiawah in 2021. My kids grew up & had kids of their own as I sat on those shuttle buses in '12

Rex Hoggard ‏@RexHoggardGC   
The Post and Courier reporting ’21 PGA returning to Kiawah. Great course, terrible logistics.

Steve Elling ‏@EllingYelling 
For those who endured the logistics/transportation mess at Kiawah in '12, the PGA is going back anyway. Incredible.

Jim Moriarty ‏@GWMoriarty 
PGA Championship returning to Kiawah's Ocean Course in 2021 to rescue stragglers. #nospectatorleftbehind

[Michael Whitaker]

Well, that gives the state of SC a good five years to get a new bridge built out to the island! 

[Matt Bielawa]

Rob, greens were excellent.

Brother Brent, weather was sublime with little wind. 

Prevailing sentiment is that the course is not penal from the correct tees and the ground game is a legitimate option.  Still thinking about everything else.  It is humbling to look back at the championship tees. 

Year 3 of the 10 year plan wraps up tomorrow.

Cheers all.

Bogey

I like the Ocean Course a lot, but to say that the ground game is a legitimate option is a severe stretch.

[JLahrman]

I like the Ocean Course a lot, but to say that the ground game is a legitimate option is a severe stretch.

I have not played the course but I was really looking forward to watching it in the 2012 PGA. The course played a lot less linksy than I was hoping. It was not nearly as interesting to watch as I had hoped it would be.

[Mike Hendren]

Matt, unlike Will Rogers all I know is what I experienced first hand. Other than a total lack of talent I had no problems running shots into the greens and putting from across 20+ yards of fairway.

Poor journalists.  I'd hate for my job to entail being on someone else's tab for a week of dining and lodging in Charleston, not to mention a ride through the oak trees on a shuttle bus a couple of times daily.   I'm fairly confident I could come up with a list of 250 jobs more important than a golf journalist.  What a bunch of spoiled babies.

Bogey

[Matt Bielawa]

Matt, unlike Will Rogers all I know is what I experienced first hand. Other than a total lack of talent I had no problems running shots into the greens and putting from across 20+ yards of fairway.

Poor journalists.  I'd hate for my job to entail being on someone else's tab for a week of dining and lodging in Charleston, not to mention a ride through the oak trees on a shuttle bus a couple of times daily.   I'm fairly confident I could come up with a list of 250 jobs more important than a golf journalist.  What a bunch of spoiled babies.

Bogey

I guess...

With that said, there are spots on Sawgrass where you could putt across fairway from 20 yards out.  But I wouldn't say it's a course that suits the ground game.

Kiawah has a number of greens that are either elevated, or from the idea angle face carries over something (water, waste, sandy area, etc...)  Add to that the sticky paspalum surface and I'd argue it's much more suited for stick-and-stop that running a ball up.  There are holes that are exceptions (6, 7, 9, 12, 13, maybe 18), but otherwise, I'd say the aerial game is required on most of the remaining holes.

[Jerry Kluger]

The Ocean Course did not show all of its weapons at the previous PGA - when the wind blows no one will do what Rory did. 

[JC Jones]

The ocean course absolutely allows for the ground game. 

[Matt Kardash]

The Ocean Course did not show all of its weapons at the previous PGA - when the wind blows no one will do what Rory did. 

If I am not mistaken the scoring average was something like 79 in the 2nd round when the wind was blowing hard. It was the highest average round ever at the PGA Championship.

[Nigel Islam]

The Ocean Course did not show all of its weapons at the previous PGA - when the wind blows no one will do what Rory did. 

If I am not mistaken the scoring average was something like 79 in the 2nd round when the wind was blowing hard. It was the highest average round ever at the PGA Championship.

I think they played it more than 7600 yards that day as well. Which I found strange since the PGA professionals were playing that day. Usually they don't make the setup incredibly hard the first 2 days.

[Matt MacIver]

I was there Friday, a storm blew in and it was very gusty but they didn't stop play. We followed Rory for the front nine and he was bomb and gauging the course, he seems to win his Majors on wet target courses vs links.

I would agree that the ground game options are average but not what we would want given the linksy setting. 

[Scott Weersing]

This is the best news because the PGA will not be going back to some of these courses any time soon:

Valhalla- one too many times already
Medinah- we do not need another redesign again
Atlanta Athletic Club- we do not need to see another Keegan Bradley or David Toms win a major

I wish they would go back to Southern Hills or go to Texas because they need to spread it around and they can.

I am not sure that Harding Park is a great choice for the PGA Championship after watching the match play unless they keep the drivable par 4s.
And I don't think HP has enough history. Maybe it will if the right, historic person wins at HP.