The fourth and final major professional golf tournament of the year begins today in the western suburbs of Chicago as the PGA Championship returns to Medinah Country Club. Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte provides ten reasons why the PGA is not only the most improved major golf championship, but in some ways the best. Geoff Shackelford has the scoop on Medinah.
This year’s PGA Championship has the additional intrigue of the game within the game — the competition for a spot on the US Ryder Cup team — and that pairing for the first two rounds of Master’s champ Phil Mickelson, US Open champ Geoff Ogilvy and British Open champ Tiger Woods doesn’t hurt the marquee value of the tournament, either.
Finally, don’t miss this entertaining Boston Globe story on Houstonian and Champions Golf Club owner Jack Burke‘s victory at the 1956 PGA Championship. At that very different time and during a much less lucrative stage of professional golf, Burke played 155 holes over five days to beat seven opponents (the PGA Championship was match play back in those days) and win the 38th PGA Championship. For his trouble, Burke received a check for $5,000, which turned out to be hot. By the way, the article passes along Burke’s following analysis of why Woods is the top professional golfer in the world right now:

“He’s the only one who understands how to play the game, how to make shots. The other guys? They’re all out there plumb-bobbing the world, worrying about their launch angle and their ball speed. But Woods is like the great pool player — he doesn’t see the cue, doesn’t see the ball, he just sees the whole game.”