By Joel Beall
Southern Hills was awarded a future PGA Championship in 2017, although the date was not specified. On Tuesday, the PGA of America cleared up the ambiguity, as the Wanamaker Trophy will visit the Oklahoma venue in 2030.

It will be the fifth PGA conducted at Southern Hills, the first since 2007. The course has also hosted three U.S. Opens and two U.S. Amateurs, and will serve as home to the 2021 Senior PGA next May.

During the summer of 2018, architect Gil Hanse and crew rebuilt much of the course, in the process re-establishing Perry Maxwell’s distinctive, gnarly edged bunkering. It is ranked No. 34 in the Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest list.

With Southern Hills entrenched in the lineup, the PGA Championship has now lined up its venues for 11 of the next 12 years, with the lone open spot 2025. The upcoming slate is highlighted by Kiawah Island Ocean Course in 2021, Trump Bedminster in 2022 and Oak Hill in 2023.

This year’s PGA Championship is set to begin at TPC Harding Park on Aug. 6. Brooks Koepka is the defending champ.

The post Southern Hills to host 2030 PGA Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
ST. LOUIS — Brooks Koepka does not have the profile of one that coughs up 54-hole leads. That we even mentioned his name in the same sentence as “coughs up” probably earns us a spot on his Donzo List, and he’ll undoubtedly use this non-existent slight to fuel his fire Sunday afternoon.

However—and let us do a quick glance in each direction to make sure Brooks is not around to hear—golf has a habit of embarrassing the seemingly invincible. A notion evidenced, albeit briefly, on Saturday, when back-to-back bogeys kept the reigning U.S. Open champ from running away with the PGA Championship.

So, keeping in mind that Koepka seems very much the master of this Bellerive domain at the moment, let’s entertain—theoretically, of course, Mr. Koepka, sir—that the 28-year-old goes south, or merely finds himself stuck in neutral. Who would take home the Wanamaker Trophy?

That’s a question Will Hunting can’t solve, because the answers are infinite.

Well, at least many. Let’s begin with Koepka’s nearest competitor, Adam Scott. The Aussie has a major to his credit, is a former World No. 1. We do emphasize former, for Scott’s game has looked anything but as of late. Scott hasn’t recorded a top-five finish, anywhere, in two years. He had to go to qualifying to keep his major streak afloat at the U.S. Open, and is only in the field this week thanks to an exemption from the PGA of America.

Not that you would know it by his work in St. Louis. Following an uneven round on Day 1, Scott has turned in consecutive 65s, the latter the low round of Saturday to earn a spot in the final pairing.

“It’s been quite awhile since I was really in contention,” Scott said. “Which is, has been quite frustrating, but I’m glad I got a dose of it today because I want a whole lot tomorrow.”

His short game, which has been debilitating the past few years, including this one (192nd in strokes gained/putting), has been steady through three rounds, allowing his iron prowess (seventh in sg/approach) to shine. Scott will start two back of Koepka and seeking his first win since 2016, and if Scott’s flat stick doesn’t rear its ugly head, he’s more than capable of dropping some haymakers.

Behind Scott is a trio at nine under: Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm. Woodland, who set the tournament’s 36-hole scoring record, never looked comfortable on his first nine Saturday, and a triple at the 10th appeared to put the kibosh on his title aspirations. But Woodland answered with two birdies down the stretch, and—subscribing to the thought that events aren’t won on Saturdays, but can certainly be lost—managed not to deep-six himself. Though he’s quickly dismissed in favour of marquee names on the score board, Woodland’s feats on Thursday and Friday beg to differ.

David Cannon

Two of those marquee names are Rahm and Fowler. They’re both looking for their first major, albeit in different lights. For Rahm, a win on Sunday is a royal proclamation, transforming the Spaniard from fledgling to formal star. For Fowler, it would be validation, proving he has cache not just outside the ropes but in. An opportunity both welcome.

“It’s just how comfortable and how confident I’ll feel tomorrow versus maybe when you look at three, four, five years ago,” Fowler says. Adds Rahm: “I dare to dream in the face of accomplishing one of my goals this year, which is having a chance on a Sunday in a major.”

Despite their 20-something ages, they have demons to slay and baggage to jettison. They also have the tools—Rahm with power and touch, Fowler a second-shot savant—to put the pressure on those above. That they won’t be short on support from the St. Louis crowds should help.

Then there are six souls at eight under. Making up four shots will be a struggle, and in most events this group would not garner much attention. Except five of these players own a major, one of whom is the PGA defending champ. That would be Justin Thomas, who entered Missouri off a runaway victory in Akron. The World No. 2 has arguably been golf’s top player over the last two years; a win at Bellerive can subtract “arguably” from that statement. Thomas was a little off on Saturday: he wasn’t talking to his putter, and he had a handful of mistakes on the greens.

That he’s still in the standing he’s in is a testament to his game. If he can right those wrongs tomorrow, his is a name leaders don’t want to see crawling up the board.

Joining Thomas at eight are Jason Day, he of two wins this year and winner of the 2015 PGA, blast-from-the-past Stewart Cink, Shane Lowry, Charl Schwartzel and…

(Thinking)

And…

(Looks at leader board)

Oh, Tiger Woods.

James Squire

Not much to say, really, only the 42-year-old is 18 holes away from completing one of the most stupefying comebacks in sports history. He’ll be attempting to accomplish that against a group he inspired, that have come to know him not just as a hero but mentor. To capture something he hasn’t had in a decade, and to do something—come from behind to win a major—he’s never done. If any of that interests you.

“A long way to go before that happens,” Woods said on the prospect of major No. 15. “I got to shoot a low round tomorrow and hopefully it will be enough.”

This could all be moot. Koepka could take one scowl at the field, decide he’s had enough and kidnap this bad boy.

Or he could fall apart, and Scott or Rahm or Rickie or JT could string together some red numbers. Or, maybe, a 14-time major winner reaches deep in the closet and pulls off one for the ages.

“It’s going to take a solid round of golf from whoever’s going to win tomorrow because there are a lot of guys,” Fowler said. “It should be fun.”

There are. And it will be.

The post From Rahm to Rickie to, yes, Tiger, there’s a crowd chasing Brooks Koepka at Bellerive appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

On Friday afternoon the PGA of America announced that the 14-time major winner will be joined by Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas for the first two rounds of the season’s final major. The group has combined for seven Wanamaker Trophies, with Thomas serving as the reigning champion. Woods will be making his first PGA appearance since 2015, where he had a swift exit at Whistling Straits.

If that trio sounds familiar, it is: Woods, McIlroy and Thomas played together on Thursday and Friday at the Genesis Open. It was this grouping at Riviera that prompted McIlroy to remark on the chaos that surrounds, and hurts, Woods when he competes.

“I swear, playing in front of all that, he gives up half a shot a day on the field,” McIlroy said at the time. “Like it’s two shots a tournament he has to give to the field because of all that that goes on around him.”

Woods, McIlroy and Thomas will tee off at 9:23 a.m. local time on Thursday.

The PGA of America also announced the supergroup of Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Jon Rahm will play together during the first two rounds. A win at Bellerive will give Spieth the career Grand Slam, while Rose, who dropped out of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational with a bad back. Per tradition, the year’s first three major winners in Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka and Francesco Molinari find themselves in the same tee time.

The 100th PGA Championship begins on August 9. Bellerive last hosted a PGA in 1992, when Nick Price won his first major.

The post Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas paired together for 2018 PGA Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
Justin Thomas isn’t inclined to reveal his goals for the upcoming PGA Tour season, but the mere fact that he intends to hit up Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and his good pal Jordan Spieth for advice on setting them is an indication that he’s thinking of bigger things.

Bigger will be immensely challenging.

Thomas, 24, today was announced as the recipient of the Jack Nicklaus Award for PGA Tour Player of the Year for a season that included five wins, one of them his first major at the PGA Championship, and the FedEx Cup title. The Kentucky native also won the Arnold Palmer Award as the leading money winner.

“It’s a huge honor. Any time you can win an award with someone like Jack Nicklaus’s name on the award, it definitely means a lot, and it’s something that I’ll cherish for a while for sure,” said Thomas, who beat Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama in a vote of their peers. “It’s kind of crazy, especially for someone with the expectations I’ve always had for myself. It never really entered my mind winning it.”

Thomas achieved nearly all of his goals in the 2016-17 season, and enjoyed other highlights, too, including a 59 in his wire-to-wire victory in the Sony Open in Hawaii, and a nine-under-par 63 in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills, setting the championship record for scoring in relation to par. He finished the season ranked fourth in the world behind the three players previously mentioned: Johnson, Spieth and Matsuyama, respectively.

Encores, of course, are nettlesome. He can merely ask Spieth, who followed up his five-win season in 2015, which included two majors and the FedEx Cup title, with a less-than-satisfying two-win campaign.

“I know how hard it is to do because of how deep the tour is right now and how many great players there are and how guys are winning three, four, five times a year every year, and it’s something that’s going to be tough to continue or tough to replicate,” Thomas said. “But I’m definitely going to give it my best.

“I’ll just continue to do what I have,” he added. “I don’t know who I heard it from back in college or whenever it was, but you just have to break it up. You have to have two to four goals that are very achievable, two to four goals that are in grasp but will be tough, and two to four goals that are maybe a little bit out of the realm and are going to be very difficult to do, but are somewhat achievable if you have a great year like I did this year.

“That’s something I’ll probably spend some time talking to Mr. Nicklaus about or Tiger because those are guys — those are the only people — or even Jordan, those are the only people I know that have had such success in one season multiple times, and they’ve had to deal with resetting their goals and reevaluating.””

RELATED: 15 things you need to know about Justin Thomas

After winning just once in his first 70 starts on tour, Thomas enjoyed a breakout season in which he trailed only Spieth and Rickie Fowler in scoring with a 69.359 adjusted average and tied Spieth with a tour-leading 12 top-10 finishes in his 25 starts.

The secret to his success lies in his ability to light up the scoreboard blended with the maturity to manage his explosive game. OK, it was mostly about blasting away, attacking courses with a power game emanating from his relatively slight 5-foot-10, 145-pound frame.

“I love going low. I love making birdies. It’s something I honestly, as crazy as it is, I really think it speaks a lot to the courses that we played in college at Alabama,” Thomas said. “They weren’t exactly the hardest golf courses, but they were pretty good courses, but you could really score on them, and that’s something that Coach [Jay] Seawell would preach to us. … When you go out and play professional golf, you need to know how to make birdies, and you need to know what you’re doing when you’re six-under through nine or have a chance at 59, because you can’t let up one bit.

“I felt like I’ve always had the firepower to do so, but it was just about keeping the pedal down and keeping that aggressive mind frame when you’re playing that well,” he added. “That was something I was able to do, and Jimmy [Johnson, his caddie] did a great job, as well, helping me not change my mind frame and our game plan when we’re playing really well and just continue to attack, and yeah, I posted a lot of low numbers over the last couple years, but especially this year.”

Nevertheless, it’s not all about birdies, he agrees. “You could look at me now versus me probably in my rookie year, and I’d say that’s the difference – it’s just experience,” he said. “You have to pick your spots. That’s something I’ve learned, and probably the biggest difference in my game now is just learning when to be aggressive and learning when my game is good enough that I can do so.”

Thomas has little time to celebrate the award or revel in his role in a runaway USA victory in the Presidents Cup that concluded Sunday at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey. Next week he will attempt to win his third straight CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

“I still am having a hard time grasping and understanding that I leave for another event in a couple days,” he admitted.

But it’s a good problem to have, as is the trouble he encounters when trying to single out one or two highlights in a season full of them. “I really don’t know. It’s tough, but for good reason. I’m obviously fortunate to have a lot of great moments and a lot of — just a lot of different scenarios or instances that I’ve really never experienced before. But that shot I hit on 17 at the PGA was probably the best shot I’ve ever hit in my life under those circumstances.”

That would be the 7-iron from 221 yards on the par-3 17th at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. The clutch shot set up a 15-foot birdie that enabled him to finish off a closing three-under 68 and a two-stroke victory in the 99th PGA.

After stowing away his Wanamaker Trophy in Rickie Fowler’s home safe during Hurricane Irma, Thomas has retrieved the prize and has it displayed on his fireplace mantle in his home in Jupiter, Fla.

“It doesn’t quite fit in my office in terms of I have a little book case, and it’s a little bit bigger than the other trophies I have,” he explained. “There’s kind of a nice little ledge above the fireplace in my living room that it just fits perfectly, right when you walk in the front door, and I think I’m going to leave it there.”

If he realises more of his goals in the coming season, that spot won’t be big enough, either.

The post Justin Thomas named PGA Tour Player of the Year, hints at setting higher goals appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.