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    What Defines a P.G.A. Championship Golf Course? Excitement.

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    Unlike the other majors, the tournament has been moving around looking for compelling play for more than 100 years.The last time the P.G.A. Championship was held at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, Rory McIlroy entered the final round with a three-shot lead over the field, but the former P.G.A. champions Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods were giving chase.That week in August 2012 had been full of drama. Winds during Friday’s second round gusted to 30 miles per hour. A thunderstorm on Saturday had left about a third of the players having to finish their rounds on Sunday morning, including McIlroy.When the final round got underway, McIlroy shot a bogey-free round of six under par. Some players made a charge on Sunday that cut into his lead, but he won the tournament walking away.With an eight-shot buffer, McIlroy beat a stacked field that succumbed to the course. He also set a record for margin of victory, besting the one set by Jack Nicklaus when he won his fifth P.G.A. Championship in 1980.That is exactly the kind of excitement the P.G.A. of America seeks when it selects a course for its major championship. It wants a bunch of players to have a chance to win, but it’s also happy if one player puts on a master class and pulls away from everyone else.“Our philosophy is we want someone to win it, not lose it,” said Seth Waugh, chief executive of the P.G.A. of America, which holds the P.G.A. Championship and the Ryder Cup. “We want birdies and eagles and bogeys and others. We’re not trying to create a torture test. That’s not what we try to do.”The 16th hole at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina.Gary Kellner/The PGA of America, via Getty ImagesLooking back on the scores of courses that have hosted P.G.A. Championships, this tournament is more enigmatic than the other three majors when it comes to a defining template for its courses.The Masters is at Augusta National Golf Club every spring (not the fall, as it was in 2020), with all eyes on the back nine on Sunday. There players fall in and out of contention with dizzying speed as they did this year, when it looked as if the eventual winner, Hideki Matsuyama, was faltering as Xander Schauffele was surging, only to have everything flip again.The British Open is played at a fairly set rotation of courses, but the winning score is as dependent on the weather — particularly the wind — as it is on the course itself. Winning scores at the Old Course at St. Andrews, for example, have ranged widely. Woods won there in 2000 at 19 under par. Five years earlier, John Daly won at six under. The most recent Open at St. Andrews was won by Zach Johnson at 15 under par.And then there’s the golf course that hosts the United States Open. How the United States Golf Association, which administers the U.S. Open, sets up the course is often the subject of debate. Complaints are legendary: The greens at Shinnecock Hills in 2004 and 2018 were so fast and the pins were placed in such difficult locations that some of the best players in the world called the course unplayable. They included Phil Mickelson, who in 2018 hit a putt while it was still rolling to keep it on the green. (He incurred a two-shot penalty.)So what makes a course worthy of the P.G.A. Championship? It’s easy to say what the courses are not — overly tight, unforgiving or predictable — but it’s harder to say what they share in common.A look at the courses that have hosted the championship doesn’t, on its face, paint the same picture of consistency as the other major championships.A relatively short Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y., hosted the first P.G.A. Championship in 1916. Oakmont Country Club, considered by the sport to be the toughest course in America and synonymous with the U.S. Open, hosted a P.G.A. Championship in 1922, five years before its first of nine U.S. Opens. Classic courses like Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J.; Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.; and Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., have hosted P.G.A. Championships and U.S. Opens.Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., and Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., have hosted regular PGA Tour events as well as the P.G.A. Championships. And some now obscure courses have also held the tournament, including Seaview Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., and Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.“The list of P.G.A. Championship courses is kind of uneven, but in a cool and fun way,” said Tom Coyne, who played golf in all 50 states, including at every U.S. Open venue, for his new book “A Course Called America: Fifty States, Five Thousand Fairways, and the Search for the Great American Golf Course.”“There are those mainstays that go back and forth between the U.S. Open and the P.G.A. like Baltusrol, Oakland Hills and Southern Hills,” he said. “Then there are those you wouldn’t even know hosted a P.G.A. Championship, like Llanerch Country Club. I had no idea it hosted the 1958 championship, and I grew up playing at a club 10 miles down the road.”Coyne said one distinguishing factor in course selection might be the history of the organizations themselves. Both the U.S.G.A. and the R&A, which puts on the British Open, are the official arbitrators of the rules of golf. Rodman Wanamaker, whose wealth came from owning department stores, was one of the founders of the P.G.A. of America, which began in 1916 as a trade organization for professional golfers.“The P.G.A. is less bound by the history of golf. You’re going to have people saying this isn’t a U.S. Open course,” Coyne said about clubs chosen to host the event, “but they’re not going to say this isn’t a P.G.A. course.”One thing that stands out is the P.G.A. of America’s having embraced Pete and Alice Dye, among the 20th century’s most important golf architects, whose courses illicit strong emotions. While some players enjoy them as a stern test of golf, others find that the courses seem to punish even good shots.Vijay Singh hits out of a bunker during the 2004 P.G.A. Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis.Jeff Gross/Getty ImagesWhistling Straits, a Dye-designed course in Kohler, Wis., got its first P.G.A. Championship in 2004. M.G. Orender was the president of the P.G.A. of America at the time. He said the selection might have seemed like a departure for the organization, but it was really a recognition of the historical standing of the Dyes.“Dye built courses that have stood the test of time,” Orender said of Whistling Straits and Kiawah. “He’s no different than Donald Ross, Seth Raynor or A.W. Tillinghast.” Those last three are considered among the best golden age architects, with courses that regularly host championships.The first P.G.A. Championship at a Dye course was Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., in 1991 — won by John Daly.If there’s one other thing that drives the location of a P.G.A. Championship, it’s the desire to share the courses among the P.G.A. of America’s 41 governing areas, which represent club and teaching pros.“When we pick golf courses, because we’re the P.G.A. of America, we represent golf at every level,” Waugh said. “Each of our sections also takes enormous pride in hosting a championship.”Several of the P.G.A. Championship courses have been at clubs that hold regular tour events, but the PGA Tour — a different entity from the P.G.A. of America — sets them up. For the P.G.A. Championship, the course can be set up however Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer at the P.G.A., wants it to be.“The reason we’re going to these venues is they’re already great golf courses,” he said before the 2019 championship at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y.His job in setting up the championship is to make “minor tweaks and suggestions,” Haigh said. “We try to bring out the great features of any golf course.”Still, Waugh stressed that the connective tissues among the courses is an exciting finish. “I can’t tell you if the winning score is going to be five under or five over or 20 under,” he said about this year’s tournament. “But the course will be fair, and it will be fun, and we hope there’s a playoff at the end.” More

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      Omar Uresti’s Second Act

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      The golfer is the definition of a journeyman, playing off and on for decades. This is his fifth time playing the P.G.A. Championship.Omar Uresti, 52, is 5 feet 6 inches tall with a slight belly and signature sideburns. Last month, he punched his ticket to this year’s P.G.A. Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina by winning the P.G.A. Professional Championship. Uresti beat a field of 312 of the best club pros, teaching pros and life members in the P.G.A. of America — some half his age — to be one of 20 non-Tour pros to gain entry to the major.Call it his second act. As a touring pro for 20 years, Uresti was the definition of a journeyman. He never won a PGA Tour event, but he won enough money to stick around.“When I was on Tour in the ’90s and early 2000s, I never qualified for the P.G.A. Championship,” Uresti said. “I played in six U.S. Opens, but I never qualified for any other majors.”This week marks his fifth P.G.A. Championship. At the 2017 event he had his best showing. While he finished 21 shots behind Justin Thomas, who won that year, he beat Jim Furyk and Padraig Harrington — both major champions — and young stars like Matthew Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele.Uresti’s days of elite competition seemed over in 2012. In his mid-40s, he no longer had playing privileges on the PGA Tour, and he was too young for the P.G.A. Tour Champions senior circuit. “I went into a little bit of a depression,” he said. “I didn’t play that much golf. I put on 20 pounds.”Omar Uresti during a practice round at the 2018 P.G.A. Championship. His best showing came in 2017, when he finished 21 shots back.Brynn Anderson/Associated PressHe called a friend in the P.G.A.’s Texas office and learned he could reclassify himself as a P.G.A. Life Member. In doing that, he could enter local tournaments. “It saved me, to be able to keep competing,” he said.His success has not been without controversy. Some club pros complain that he doesn’t have the work responsibilities, like running tournaments and giving lessons, that they do. But Uresti shakes it off.The following interview has been edited and condensed.How did you beat a field of young club pros?I worked really hard for a few weeks to get my swing a little better. I’d gotten really out of whack over the past four years. So I watched some old footage from Bay Hill in 1997, when I was leading going into the last day, and I saw how good my swing was. [Phil Mickelson shot seven under par in the final round to win- the Bay Hill Invitational.]How do you hang in there with the long hitters?At the 2017 P.G.A. Championship, I got paired with Rory McIlroy on Saturday. I average about 275 yards off the tee. Rory was hitting it 60 to 80 yards by me, cutting corners. On one hole, it was 285 to a fairway bunker. I barely got to it and had 220 yards to the green. Rory flew it over the bunker and had 100 yards left. But we both made par. That’s when I came up with my mantra: I’m going to straight them to death. I’m going to hit the fairway and hit the green and give myself some chances.What are your plans for Kiawah?I’ve never played it. I’m not sure what to do. It’s tight and windy.What’s your day-to-day life like in Texas?I grew up here at the Onion Creek Club in Austin, Texas. My dad worked three jobs at the time so we could become members and move out here. We joined in 1975 and moved here in 1976, when I was 7. My mom is 83. She lives with me. We take care of each other. When I’m in town, I get to see my kids. Omar Jr. is 16. My daughter, Izzie, is 14.Why do you get so much criticism from other P.G.A. members?I’m not affiliated with a club like they are. But I’m in talks with [Austin courses] Butler Park Pitch and Putt and Lions Municipal Golf Course. I’m talking to them about helping out and making some clinics for kids.What does it take for a pro who is not grinding it out week after week to play at the highest level?It takes a good frame of mind. I try to get out there every day and put in a couple of hours to keep working on my game. More

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      Rory McIlroy Wants A Second P.G.A. Championship on Kiawah Island

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      His world ranking dropped to as low as 13th this spring. But coming off a victory, McIlroy has returned to the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, where he ran away with the P.G.A. Championship in 2012.KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Returning to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs, Rory McIlroy played a practice round Tuesday at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, where in 2012 he won the P.G.A. Championship by a staggering eight strokes.It is the largest margin of victory in the tournament, which was first contested in 1916. McIlroy was only 23.Standing about 100 yards from the 18th green, where he sank a 20-foot putt to close out his 2012 performance, McIlroy was asked Tuesday if that victory — the second of four major championships he won from 2011 to 2014 — felt like nine years ago.“It seems longer,” said McIlroy, one of the PGA Tour’s most candid, reflective members. “I feel like a different person and a different player.”At the conclusion of the 2012 P.G.A. Championship, which came 14 months after McIlroy won the United States Open — also by eight strokes — there was a growing consensus that men’s golf was at the dawn of a new era, one that would be dominated by McIlroy. Tiger Woods had not won a major since the United States Open in 2008.McIlroy has indeed cast a long shadow over golf. He has spent 106 weeks as the world’s top-ranked golfer, holding that spot for more than five months last year.But McIlroy, 32, has also been transformed from the floppy-haired 20-something of his last appearance at Kiawah Island. He is now married and a new father, and he endured a rare decline for much of 2020 and 2021, finishing 30th or worse in nine tournaments. At the Masters tournament, where McIlroy has been in the top 10 six times, he missed the cut this spring. His world ranking, now at No. 7, dropped as low as 13th.But taking the advice of a new swing coach, Pete Cowen, who has known McIlroy for many years, he has rebounded, winning the Wells Fargo Championship — his first PGA Tour appearance since the Masters — on May 9.McIlroy’s down period was never long enough to cast the Wells Fargo victory as a comeback, but his return to Kiawah Island, where he will seek his first major championship in nearly seven years, has allowed him to take some measure of what has changed in his life since 2012.McIlroy won the event at the Ocean Course in 2012 by eight strokes.Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images“I’m in a completely different place in life,” he said. “Yeah, everything has changed, really.”He continued: “I think a lot has changed for the better. I’m standing up here probably more confident in myself, happier with where I am in my life, and yeah, just sort of enjoying everything, enjoying life, enjoying everything a bit more.”McIlroy paused and smiled.“Yeah, it’s all good.”Adam Scott — the 2013 Masters champion, who is now 40 — has watched McIlroy’s entire professional career. He was unsurprised by the Wells Fargo victory, and he mostly recalls McIlroy’s soaring heights, including the 2012 P.G.A. Championship. On Tuesday, Scott was asked if that performance had called to mind Woods in his prime, when he made golf seem patently easy.“Yeah, Rory was giving off that vibe at the time,” Scott said. “That was his second major win, and he’d won both majors by eight. That sounds pretty Tiger-esque to me. That was the early Tiger kind of moves.“I mean, it looked free-flow, and he was driving it much longer than most others that week, and straight, and rolling putts in. When talented guys like a Tiger or a Rory start doing that, it does make the game look easy, even on a really tough course.”Wherever McIlroy’s golf game stands as he enters his 49th major championship, he has a more upbeat, energized approach than he did last year, amid the pandemic. McIlroy, more than any other top golfer, admitted that his stumbles in 2020 were in part related to the lack of fans at events.He felt listless without the reaction of an enthusiastic gallery after a good shot and conceded that it had an effect on his ability to play his best. On Tuesday, McIlroy said he had been boosted by the return of fans at events where attendance is at about 25 percent of capacity, or roughly 10,000 spectators.“It’s funny, ever since I was 16 years old I’ve had thousands of people watch me play golf pretty much every time I teed it up,” he said. “Even going back to amateur golf, that was true. So then, not having that last year after playing in that environment for 14 or 15 years, it was so completely opposite.“As I said at the time, it was like playing practice rounds. It’s easy to lose concentration. Everyone is used to a certain environment, whatever work you do.”McIlroy said he had watched the Champions League soccer semifinals and realized that the players had to be performing in front of an empty stadium for the first time in their careers.“That just must be terrible,” he said. “You want to play in front of people and you want to feel that atmosphere. It’s unfortunate that in these times a lot of people don’t have that experience, but I am glad that we’re getting back to some sort of normalcy.”Even the silly remarks that fans are prone to shout after a golfer’s shot — mostly to be heard on the television broadcast — no longer annoy McIlroy.“Yeah, love the mashed potatoes guys again,” he said, smiling. “I don’t even care about the stupid comments. I’m just glad that everyone is back here.” More