Friday
Nov102017
2024 PGA Championship: Valhalla Is Back!
The Louisville Courier-Journal's Tim Sullivan reports that the PGA of America has completed negotiations with the PGA of America and will return their championship to their Valhalla Golf Club.
An announcement is expected next Thursday.
The event will likely be scheduled Preakness Stakes weekend, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby is run in Louisville.
Friday, November 10, 2017 at 04:03 PM
Reader Comments (16)
1996: Went to a playoff. This, along with the 2009 Masters, were the ones that got away from Kenny Perry. He infamously opted to join Jim Nantz and Ken Venturi up in the booth instead of being on the range, and when Mark Brooks forced a playoff, Brooks ultimately prevailed.
2000: The U.S. Open at Pebble could arguably be Tiger's magnum opus, though his trip to Louisville in August of 2000 provided the most entertaining tilts of the Tiger Slam, with dibs for the best sports photo (behind Ali gesturing to Liston to "get up") related to the Derby City -- Tiger "pointing at the cup" as he chased down his putt in the 4-hole playoff vs. Bob May.
What a lot of folks forget is Tiger's Hole No. 18 playoff tee-shot, where he (oddly?) opted for 3-wood instead of driver (a portion of golf fans love to say how well Woods drove the ball with Butch Harmon, but if you rewatch Tiger's 4-hole playoff on YouTube, and that Sunday in particular, he was all over the place off the tee. His putter and short game saved the day. Let's face it, he was never Greg Norman from the tee box, even with Butch. I think Tiger's strengths, even at his peaks, were his course management, approach shots, wedge game and putter.)
...But anyway, back to Hole No. 18, the playoff -- he totally yanked his drive O.B. Disclaimer, I'm a Tiger Woods fan, but having rewatched the telecast a few years ago, I had forgotten how far left it was. Tiger's face says it all, he stays perched on the tee box, ready to re-tee. The ball disappears, then reappears later, rolling in a direction back toward the tee box. Venturi is perplexed. If we had had shot tracer back then, you'd see the ball over in the lumbar yard. HOWEVER, it should be noted, even with that fortunate break (that was not Tiger's fault, the guy can't control the gallery), even if he had hit that OB, he could've still likely tied May that hole, because the both CHOPPED that final playoff hole to pieces. Tiger's second and third shots were bad, too. May butchered his way up to the horseshoe green. Kudos for Jack for ending the Derby City's course with a horseshoe green, btw.
2008 Ryder Cup: Paul Azinger and his pods with the arguably the loudest Ryder Cup I've attended. Anthony Kim (remember that guy?) was so stoked playing Sergio Garcia that he stormed off the green not realizing he had won the match.
2014: This was another dramatic finish, with the game's top player (at the time) again claiming the prize -- it's a shame the way it ended though. I thought Phil was trying to be too nice. He should've just said, "no way, not finishing in this darkness." It was really dark. TV didn't do it justice. I mean, not pitch dark, but darker than anyone would even play golf at at their local muni. It also made Phil rush. Had it continued to Monday, Rory was playing so good that week, he likely may have won anyway, but it may have cost Phil a chance at having six majors.
Also what I remember from that week was how bad Tiger was -- it was the culmination of being Foley-ized. Don't read that as a shot at Sean Foley. Nothing personal, I just don't think that Foley's swing was ever the right one for Woods. Had Eldrick never ditched a swing he had won 7 times with in 2009, and won more than 1 out of every 3 starts he played in with, he likely would've been adding to his major tally that week, because Valhalla (as seen in 2000) was, like Murfield in Columbus, a Nicklaus course well-suited for his overall game.
But it is a very good tournament venue for professionals and the fans
Great American Championship course perhaps, but was it, be honest now, based upon sound golfing criteria – I fear not, in fact it seems far from it, by missing that unique touch so well defined by the following “The chief object of every golf course architect or greenkeeper worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of Nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from Nature itself”
Super smooth Fairways and Greens does not make for a good design, it’s just allows the poor professionals the opportunity to show themselves better than they actually are - today aids have to assist the modern players, culminating in these super smooth courses that are as far away from golf as it’s possible to go. Perhaps there is a lesson in studying golf course architecture and more so it history and development. Perhaps the sheep could teach some a valuable lesson.