A crash course in difficult golf
Oak Hill could level playing field
By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The PGA Championship may not share the charisma and mystique of golf's other three majors, but that's all it lacks.
With 96 of the world's best 100 players competing on one of creation's most demanding courses, a true classic, it can be argued that the 2003 PGA Championship may, indeed, be the most compelling test of this season.
The Masters has its charm, forged on some of the most beautiful landscape in golf at Augusta National. Still, it doesn't necessarily bring together all of the greatest players. The U.S. Open is always a muscular event, but this year's venue, Olympia Fields, was an unmemorable layout. And the British Open has its tradition and style, but Royal St. George's was a quirky place that probably failed to identify the best player, only the luckiest.
Which brings us to the 102-year-old Oak Hill Country Club in the Rochester suburb of Pitsford. So far this year, the majors have been won by first-timers -- Canadian Mike Weir at the Masters; Jim Furyk at the U.S. Open; and rank outsider Ben Curtis at the British Open.
Now, as the first round of the PGA Championship begins this morning, there is a sense of anticipation that this tournament, occasionally referred to as the poor cousin to the other three, will provide some true definition for the 2003 season.
"This is probably the best golf course we have played in, I don't know, quite a long time," thoughtful Dane Thomas Bjorn said. "It's just magnificent. It's a big golf course, one of the finest I've ever seen.
"A lot of players are coming here with very good games at the moment. The PGA Tour has experienced something this year that has not been seen in a while: The best players, the strongest players, winning a lot of times. You've got Ernie (Els), Tiger (Woods), Mike Weir, Davis Love, Vijay Singh, all playing well, all winning a lot and then you get a difficult golf course. You're not going to get away with anything here. There's no way around this golf course and the guy who plays the best is going to win. That's what this golf course is all about."
Bjorn may still be stinging a bit from the ugly way he coughed up the British Open in the late stages of the final round, needing three shots to get out of a bunker at the 16th hole, allowing Curtis to win. In the past, the PGA has had some oddball winners, like John Daly and last year, Rich Beem.
Bjorn believes that this year's champion will be, like the golf course, tried and true.
"They are not surprises," he said. "They are the top four or five guys in the game right now."
Oak Hill has been host to some great championships, most recently the 1995 Ryder Cup and the 1998 U.S. Amateur. Going back further, Lee Trevino won his first U.S. Open here in 1968. Jack Nicklaus ran roughshod over the field to win the 1980 PGA and Curtis Strange captured the 1989 Open.
In recent years, Oak Hill has added length to combat the technology boom, defending itself against the young bombers. It plays now at 7,134 yards, over hills and through valleys, a stunningly beautiful tree-lined layout with narrow, pristine fairways guarded by some of the most unforgiving rough this field will ever face.
"I cannot get the ball from the rough to the green," said Tom Watson, who will be playing his ninth major championship of the year (five on the Champions Tour). "I doubt that one time this week when I hit it into the rough that I can ever get the ball to the green. But Tiger and those other stronger hitters can. The rest of us simply have to drive the ball in the fairway."
Weir is grouped for the first two rounds with the other two major winners of 2003, Furyk and Curtis. They're on the tee at 8:50 a.m. this morning.
Tiger Woods, Beem and David Toms, the past three PGA winners, are off at 9 a.m. on the back nine.
"I love golf courses that have been around for a while," Woods said. "They are not tricked up, no hidden agenda. It's all right in front of you and the golf course says to you, 'Come and get me, if you can.' "
Not everybody has the weapons to wage that battle, but one thing is certain: Oak Hill most certainly will come out of the weekend with its reputation intact.
