There’s a compelling and simple reason why earning a berth in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf might be the hardest feat in golf to accomplish. And the final major championship of the 2010 season provides what may be the tallest hurdle to scale in search of that elusive berth.
The 92nd PGA Championship will be held at Whistling Straits Golf Club in Kohler, Wis., one of the most demanding courses to host any major championship. Architect Pete Dye, known for designing some of the hardest, trickiest courses on the planet, found his unforgiving, links-style template hard on the western shore of Lake Michigan.
The course, which played host to the 2004 PGA Championship won in a playoff by Vijay Singh, features three par 5s longer than 590 yards and four par 4s longer than 493 yards, including the 500-yard 18th. Players then called it the most testing course to ever host a major championship and with deceptive sightlines that conceal targets and bailout areas, it lives up every bit to the term “Dye-abolical.”
As if winning a major championship isn’t difficult enough, Whistling Straits – once nicknamed “the Pebble Beach of the Midwest” – demands length and accuracy of its players to a degree heretofore unseen this season. Even at Pebble, which played host to the U.S. Open two months ago.
To the player who best navigates the Straits awaits that elusive berth in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, which once again returns to the Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. Last year, Lucas Glover earned the coveted title of “Champion of Champions” by outlasting Angel Cabrera, Stewart Cink and 2009 PGA Championship winner Y.E. Yang.
Already, Masters Champion Phil Mickelson, U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell and Open Championship winner Louis Oosthuizen have secured their berths in that foursome.
Should a player win more than one major Championship this season, the foursome will be completed through the Major Champions Points List composed of past major Champions who compete in the current year’s majors.
Past PGA Grand Slam of Golf Champions include: Mickelson, Glover, Cabrera, Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Tom Lehman, Ben Crenshaw, Greg Norman, Nick Price and Ian Woosnam.
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