Southern Hills: The “Radiant Slab” Course That Challenges the World’s Greatest Golfers

It is possible that by the time you read this column, the 104th edition of the PGA Championship has already started. They may even be watching it on television.

The first time I got to cover a PGA Championship was almost 30 years ago for the fabulous FM Horizon. It was in 1994 and at that time I was just beginning to tour the world, dazzling myself by seeing the best up close and discovering fabulous golf courses. Southern Hills is one of those jewels in the Midwest of the United States, much less known than the renowned ones, but which has nothing to envy to the best routes in the world.. It is true that Tulsa, Oklahoma is not a very touristic place, and that this is a very private club, but for fans of golf courses this is one that they cannot stop trying to play. There will always be an acquaintance of a friend who knows someone who is a partner. It’s worth it.

The financial crash of 1929 was followed by the closure of banks and businesses that generated a high degree of unemployment. By 1934 things had begun to fall into place and a group of people in Tulsa were beginning to plan for the future. In those days business people ate at The Tulsa Club and played golf at Tulsa Country Club, but it was located in a very small place and something much larger was needed to accommodate families.

One of those businessmen from the city had about 300 hectares on the outskirts of the city. Waite Phillips thought that a golf course and all the activities necessary to create a great club could be built on this well-moving land. He found a group of people willing to do the development who presented him with a plan and Phillips offered to donate just under half of the land to the club on one condition: in two weeks they had to get the 150 thousand dollars to develop the idea. It was not an easy task to raise that money in those days, but one day before the deadline, Phillips received a letter confirming that 140 shares had been sold at $1,000 each. It was not what was agreed, but Phillips accepted the deal seeing the effort that the development group had put in.

The design of the golf course fell to Perry Maxwell, a renowned designer of those days, and who also knew the terrain perfectly. Standing at the top of the terrain, Maxwell located the greens of 9 and 18 to design the rest of the golf course from there. While the field was taking shape, the swimming pools, polo field, stables and tennis courts were inaugurated in 1935. On May 23, 1936 it was golf’s turn and 29 members inaugurated the Southern Hills Country Club.

The course has received major championships, including the US Open (1958, 1977, 2001) and the PGA Championship (1970, 1982, 1994, 2007), always producing great champions.

One of those had a story worth telling. There were only 4 holes left to play at the 1977 US Open when the organization received a phone call saying that they were going to make an attempt on the life of Hubert Green, who was the championship leader at the time. The officials immediately moved to 15, stopped the game and informed the player of what had happened. They offered to suspend the game and finish the US Open the next day without an audience. After a few moments Green decided that it would not be fair to the rest of the competitors and said that he wanted to continue. Just under an hour later Hubert Green ended up winning by a single stroke.

Southern Hills is one of those tree-lined courses where putting the ball on the fairway is of great importance, but by the time the 2007 PGA Championship was over, it had become clear that he needed more distance. Tiger Woods was the winner on that occasion, and although the score of 8 under par does not speak of an easy course, Tiger only needed his driver for a few holes of the course.

In 2018 Gil Hanse and his team began restoration work to return the court to its original character. The investment was 11 million dollars and the work consisted of building new tees, relocating bunkers, greens returned to their original design, and even streams that had been covered were brought back to life.

The big difference is the “underfloor heating” system installed under all the greens, something that ensures the maintenance manager can regulate the temperature of the ground. and thus achieve perfect surfaces regardless of the time of year. The result is a 7,400+ yard monster that will put the best in the world to the test, while respecting what has always characterized this course: putting the ball in play off the tee will be paramount.

This moment always comes and the question is inevitable: who do you think is going to win? The answer is always the same: I have no idea, but yes I think Jon Rahm is the favorite to win the title. The bookmakers also consider it that way and they do it because of the fabulous numbers that the Spaniard has with his tee shots.

In that 1994 I had to see an exhibition of Nick Price, at that time the best in the world, who ended up winning by 6 strokes. At that time nobody was better than Price off the tee. In 2007 Tiger clinched the title, and while accuracy off the tee wasn’t Woods’ forte, he hit a ton of irons off the tee that week to end up winning by two.

Only Nicklaus can compare to Woods in terms of golf strategy, and Tiger fully understood how Southern Hills was to be played.. Today she is back, with the same desire to win, she knows how to do it on this court and his mind is the same. It will only be necessary to see if her body responds to what her mind asks of her.

Time is up and the best in the world are already on the court. Don’t be surprised when players celebrate a pair. That’s how difficult this edition of the PGA Championship will be.

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