Could this become the best major in 2015?

The world was told yesterday that world golfer no 1 Rory McIlroy will actually participate in this year’s PGA Championship. 

McIlroy has injured his ankle not that long ago and it seems to me that this tournament comes a bit early for a full recovery. But he’s a grown-up and he and his medical team will know best if the time is right for him to come back to tournament play. 

For Rory the PGA Championship event is somewhat important as he’s the current champion after his stellar win at Valhalla. So he will feel a bit under pressure and for sure pros in general tend to do everything possible to participate in big events. It’s not only big money, it’s also a place in the golf history books they are after, and their name engraved in a huge and famous trophy. Who would disagree this is really a cool thing. 

So next week we’ll be watching the next episode of PGA Championship history. The venue couldn’t be better if you’d ask me, beautiful and interesting Whitling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. A superb course for a superb bunch of players, fingers crossed we’ll see great golf!

All the golf elite will be there, battling for the Wanamaker Trophy and when you have a look at the pairings, you realise how awesome next week will be!

So who is it you are routing for? No matter who’s your favourite player I’m sure we’ll see fantastic golf in one of the most fantastic locations imaginable. Rory’s group with Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson, or Jason Day with Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, and not to forget former winner Martin Kaymer with Tiger Woods and Keegan Bradley… if I were there I had no idea whom to follow around the course I have to admit. But that’s the tragic with majors, there are just too many good players out there – if that’s even possible!

I might put some money on my favourite… but this time I won’t say who it is.

6 reasons I totally disliked this year’s US PGA Championship tournament

Bringing this to the 2013 US PGA Championship there were many factors that lead to the fact I really hated this weekend. But let’s just stick to the most important ones:

1. Duties in the office hindered me to follow the major action already on Thursday and Friday. Hence I missed half of the tournament. There are worse things in life but in a major, I’d really love to be more close to the action.

2. Contrary to my assumption the BBC was not broadcasting the tournament in free-TV, therefore only SKY subscribers could follow the game comfortably on telly and enjoy the hours of golf. On top of that the PGATOUR website wasn’t streaming to the UK. So I had to find one of these legal grey zone live streams, with weird ads to click away, strange files getting automatically downloaded and dozens of new windows opening and presenting bare naked women offering their services.
Needless to say that the stream quality was total rubbish! As a consequence I gave up searching and frustrating and decided not to watch the golf – which is quite a decision for a weekend that was in the beginning totally dedicated to this event!

3. Points 1 and 2 led to the situation that I had to rely on my lovely iPad and the PGA Championship app. To cut a long story short, I was very underwhelmed to see the range of functions and possibilities with this tool. Very few videos, very little information flow and faulty alerts which resulted in very little trustworthiness throughout the entire tournament.

4. Leaving the technical and broadcasting issues behind, let’s discuss the golf and the players. I know it’s the the character of the game but watching players like Nicolas Colsaerts, Bubba Watson, Luke Donald and Ernie Els missing the cut is tough, really tough! From what I was able to see, the course looked fair; tricky rough, tough hole locations, bunkers in play but fair overall.

5. I would have appreciated if one of my favourite players was in contention to win. Saturday, the classic moving day, already showed that my golf heroes wouldn’t have anything to do with winning the Wanamaker Trophy whatsoever. Guys like Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker, or others never really had a chance to make the way up in the leaderboard. A shame.

6. Instead there were some guys on top who I either dislike or at least would have appreciated that they plummeted on Sunday. It sounds very harsh and I’m a bit sorry to write all this but I don’t want to see guys like Dufner and Furyk all day, neither do I want them to lift the trophy in the end!
Dufner is a weird little robot, no enthusiasm, no human reaction, no passion, no sight of sympathy or emotion. Just a bellied clown with a pretty pathetic pre-shot routine and 50kg too much on the hips.
Then Jim Furyk, not really much more likable with the–by far–ugliest golf swing in the world… In that regard the tournament really had the worst outcome I could have wished for: a fat guy who is the opposite of a perfect promotion for the game of golf and a guy who’s swing might be effective but makes people dizzy and ill just watching it on telly.
I would have cheered for Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott or Dustin Johnson… but life is unfair–and nobody is asking me anyway!

I guess I’m looking forward to next year’s major tournaments. #SoLong #NotDufnering

In an earlier version of this post, there were pictures displayed which apparently infringed copyrights issues. They were taken down.

Sprinkler heads can show more emotion than Jason Dufner

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“Sprinkler heads can show more emotion that Jason Dufner on a golf course.” This sentence, quoted from the LA Times, really made my day! The current leader of the PGA Championship, Jason Dufner, is the usual ice block. No reaction to anything whatsoever. Even in this comfortable situation in the last major tournament of the year.

With -9 he’s the halfway clubhouse leader with 2 shots ahead Kuchar, Scott and Furyk. We’ll see today and tomorrow whether Dufner’s behaviour really is total calmness or just perfect acting/pretending.

And I’m looking forward to a new wave of #dufnering in case he would win the pot.

Time’s flying by: it’s already PGA Championship week!

Is it just me? Seems just like yesterday since the Open Championship staged in Muirfield, Scotland. But it’s majors week again! The PGA Championship is about to kick off in just couple of hours at Oak Hill Country Club, in Rochester, NY.

Rory McIlroy won last year’s tournament but I wouldn’t put my money on him to be honest. Neither on Keegan Bradley or Martin Kaymer, the winners from the years before. Oak Hill has a big history with major tournaments and the last time the PGA Championship was hosted here was in 2003 when Shaun Micheel won the famous and beautiful 27-pounds heavy Wanamaker Trophy and went off with a big check and a first big win on his belt – and who on earth did see that happen?!

This pgatour.com coverage on the tournament is to bring you in the right mood and up-to-date with pairings and stuff. Hope you guys have a lovely and exciting golf weekend!

Check this site as well for more updates: http://www.majorschampionships.com/pga-championship.html

For many reasons I can’t wait for the weekend. My girlfriend and the last major of 2013 are two of the most important ones…