PGA Championship Preview
Logic says Rory or Martin, but …
David Newbery
[email protected]
O
FTENTIMES logic goes out the
window when trying to pick a winner
of the year’s final major – the US PGA
Championship.
Still, if you listen to logic then Germany’s
Martin Kaymer and Northern Irishman Rory
McIlroy are the players of choice.
In June, Kaymer captured the US Open and a
month earlier won the Players’ Championship.
Rory, well, he’s a class act. This year he won
the BMW PGA Championship as well as The
Open Championship, missing just one cut in
21 starts on the US and European tours.
More importantly, both players are former
world number ones and have already lifted
the Wanamaker Trophy – Kaymer in 2010 and
McIlroy in 2012.
Kaymer this year has missed just three cuts
playing in the US and Europe and, at the time
of writing, was fourth on the US PGA Tour
money list with more than $4m and €1.6 on
the European Tour.
So, logic points to Kaymer or McIlroy
winning the 98-year-old US PGA
Championship at Valhalla GC, Louisville from
August 7-10.
If Kaymer does win, he’ll become only the
fifth player to win the US Open and the PGA
in the same year joining Gene Sarazen (1922),
Ben Hogan (1948), Jack Nicklaus (1980) and
Tiger Woods (2000).
Will it happen? Probably not.
The US PGA Championship has developed
a trend of producing first-time winners and
many one-only major winners.
Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem, David Toms,
Davis Love III, Mark Brooks, Steve Elkington,
Wayne Grady, Paul Azinger, Jeff Sluman
and Bob Tway all broke the major barrier by
winning the US PGA Championship and no
other major.
Look for it to happen again at Valhalla, site
of Tiger’s second PGA title (2000) and Mark
Brooks’ one and only major (1996).
Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer have both lifted the Wanamaker Trophy in the past...
can they do it again at Valhalla? (Photos: Montana Pritchard)
Will the Jack Nicklaus-designed Valhalla
layout favour some players and not others?
The golf course is long (7458 yards or 6820
metres) and suits right-handed players who
play a high fade.
So forget lefties Phil and Bubba.
They say if you are good enough, you’re
old enough so perhaps the talented Jordan
Spieth, at 21, could triumph.
He has the talent and all the attributes to
conquer Valhalla, but look for an established
player who has been around the traps.
Sergio Garcia, still trying to shed the “best
player not to have won a major”, comes to
mind, but despite a solid finish at The Open
Championship, he’s still not as logical as
Kaymer or Rory or Adam Scott or Justin Rose
or even Tiger.
If not Sergio, perhaps 35-year-old American
Jimmy Walker, who has won three times this
season and is atop the Fed-Ex standings and
US PGA money list.
He’s had eight top-10s in 21 starts and has
banked more than $5m.
Perhaps more logical than the Spaniard.
Matt Kuchar (Inside Golf editor Richard
Fellner’s perennial favourite) must come into
calculation.
He has had top-10s in all the majors in recent
times (barring The Open) and has won 11
times on tour banking more than $30m. The
man’s a walking ATM.
He’s had nine top-10s this year including a
win at the RBC Heritage, but he’s ranked 147th
in driving distance so draw a line through his
name (sorry Richard).
Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson are
much more logical choices.
Johnson has played in five US PGAs with
three top-10s and Stenson, third last year, has
three top-5s in nine appearances.
But consider Garcia’s record compared to
others seeking their first major.
Sergio is long enough off the tee, is sixth
on tour in greens hit in regulation and first
in scoring averages. In 11 events on tour this
year, he has had seven top-10s including two
seconds and two third place finishes.
And he’s in fine form after the Open
Championship, where he gave Rory a run for
his money.
So if you go with the logic, it’ll be Spain’s
Sergio García Fernández who lifts the
Wanamaker Trophy, but not before he beats
Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson in the
playoff.