Among the golfers gathered this week on the Kiawah Island course, off the coast of South Carolina, are 99 of the 100 best in the world ready to conquer the second big of the year, the Championship of the Association of Golf Professionals of the United States (PGA Championship).
Kiawah, home to the historic 1991 Ryder Cup, the biennial competition between the United States and Europe, in which the American team claimed victory after three consecutive defeats, and the 2012 PGA Championship, in which the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy achieved an overwhelming victory, he has received the players with strong gusts of wind.
From the veterans to the recent winner of the 2020 edition, the American Collin Morikawa, agree on the beauty, quality and hardness of the route that the wind can stretch beyond 7.2 kilometers (7,800 yards) scheduled for the competition, the longest distance from a major field to date.
In addition to the distance, this edition of the PGA Championship marks a milestone for the resumption of a certain normality in major sporting events in the United States after the coronavirus pandemic. The championship has returned to its usual date of May, after the delay to August in 2020, and has opened its doors to around ten thousand spectators without a mask.
They will not yet be able to request autographs or high-five with their idols, such as the world’s number one American Dustin Johnson or his compatriot and top puncher of the moment, Bryson Dechambeau, who start among the favorites this week.
In a Ryder Cup year, facing the Americans are the assets of Rory McIlroy, champion of two PGA Championships, who has just recovered the winning streak on the PGA Tour, and the Spanish Jon Rahm, world number three and aspiring to his first big.
In addition to the flaming Augusta Masters winner, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, and the great hope of Mexican golf, Abraham Ancer, most bets focus on those with a near-guaranteed spot at the September Ryder Cup in Wisconsin, such as Americans Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas, and Norwegian Viktor Hovland and English veteran Lee Westwood.
The PGA championship is the most American of all the greats in terms of both personality and track record. In the last decade, golfers in the United States have won the PGA Wannamaker Cup eight times, the others corresponding to the two feats of Rory McIlroy in Kiawah (2012) and Valhalla (2014).
A victory by a European this week on the same scene as the 1991 “Battle by the Sea” would bode well for the Michigan “Battle by the Lake” to be played in September in Wisconsin under the captaincy of the American Steve Stricker. and Padraig Harrington of Ireland, also competing this week in the 103rd edition of the PGA Championship.
