The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island will be the host for the 103rd PGA Championship which commences tomorrow. The defending PGA Champion is Collin Morikawa, who shot 13 under at Harding Park in San Francisco to win by 2 shots over Paul Casey and Dustin Johnson. Morikawa hit a tee shot for the ages on the 298 yard par 4 16th, driving the green and ending up 7 feet from the cup where he sank the eagle putt that pretty much clinched the major championship for him. He shot 64 on Sunday on what was an easier major venue than normal. PGA Championship Courses lead to lower scores, so maybe kind of a standard, but the course seemed to be playing a lot easier for the pros than it should have been. That shouldn’t be the case this week on the Ocean Course.

Rory won on the Ocean Course in 2012 with a round of 13 under for the 4 days and an 8 shot victory over second place finisher Englishman David Lynn, who finished at -5. I remember Rory playing very well, but can’t say I remember Lynn at all. It was the largest margin of victory in a PGA Championship. Rory is in good form heading into this week as he was victorious at the Wells Fargo Championship 2 weeks ago at Quail Hollow. His overall game is solid and interestingly he has been working with sports psychologist Bob Rotella, who has advised a combined 74 major champions and has written many definitive books on golf on how to be a successful player, specifically the mental approach that it takes. One of his best, if not the best, is Golf is Not a Game of Perfect. Total classic. I’ve read it before tournaments I’ve entered in. Spike Me Up is a fan as well. Rory is in a really solid place in his life at 32 years old. He’s married with a young daughter, and his golf game is flourishing. Brandel Chamblee of the Golf Channel compared it favorably to Jack Nicklaus, when he was winning all his majors and he had his wife Barbara and his kids to go home to. So, Rory looks very interesting this week.

Jordan Spieth has been excelling lately. In his last 8 starts since the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, he has finished 4th at the Waste Management Phoenix, 3rd at the AT&T Pebble Beach, 15th at the Genesis Invitational, 4th at the Arnie, 48th at the Players, not that great, but he came back and won the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. He finished 3rd at the Masters and 9th at the Byron Nelson. Interestingly, Spieth is trying to capture the career Grand Slam this week, that is winning the Masters, which he did in 2015, the U.S. Open, which he also did in 2015, the Open Championship, which he did in 2017, and now he aims to complete the career GS with a victory this week at Kiawah. He would be only the 6th golfer to do it. Gene Sarazaen did it first at the 1935 Masters. Ben Hogan won the 1953 Open Championship to complete his. Gary Player did it at the 1965 U.S. Open. Jack Nicklaus did it at the 1960 Open Championship at Cherry Hills. Jack actually completed the career Grand Slam 3 times. Eldrick Woods did it at the 2000 Open Championship at St. Andrews. Spieth says he’s not feeling any more pressure than he did for any Masters, U.S. or Open Championship. He takes the same mentality for each one. Every major is important, but this would be a milestone for Spieth if he could prevail.

Justin Thomas is in good shape heading into this week. He captured his 14th PGA tour victory at the Players Championship back in March. He was 27 years old, he’s now 28, he turned 28 in April, and became the 4th youngest player to win 14 titles before the age of 28. Jack won his 14th at age 25 at the Fed Ex St. Jude. Johnny Miller won his 14th at 27 at the 1975 American Express. And Tiger won his 14th at 23 years old in 1999. When he turned 28, Tiger had already won 39 times. That’s magnificent.

Morikawa won the WGC Workday this year, so he’s a factor. Can’t count out Dustin, DeChambeau or 4 time major winner Brooks Koepka. Here are the odds for the key players and their tee times tomorrow.

Rory, 11/1, teeing off at 7:33 AM CT with Justin (14/1) and Brooks (37/1).

Jon Rahm (14/1) teeing off at 12;25 PM CT with Tommy Fleetwood (55/1) and Patrick Reed (36/1).

Spieth (14/1) teeing off at 12:58 PM CT with Webb Simpson (37/1) and second place finisher at the Masters and young stud Will Zalatoris (60/1).

DeChambeau (17/1) is teeing off at 7;44 AM CT with Morikawa (28/1) and Masters Champion Hideki Matsuyama (33/1).

Dustin Johnson (20/1) is teeing off at 1:09 PM CT with 2019 Open Championship champion Shane Lowry (75/1) and 2017 Masters Champion Sergio Garcia (110/1).

Xander Schauffele (20/1), who has come painstakingly close in majors, the triple bogey on 16 at Augusta was painful to watch as he fell from 1 shot back to collapsing down the stretch, tees off at 7:22 AM CT with 47 year old Lee Westwood (120/1), talk about heartbreak at majors, and young stud Viktor Hovland (22/1).

Daniel “What a” Berger is at 30/1 and I expect him to be a factor. Cameron Smith, the Aussie who has played well this year, is at 37/1. Patrick Cantlay, who seems due, is at 40/1.

The Ocean Course is a beast playing at 7,876 yards and a par 72. It will be the longest course in major championship history surpassing Erin Hills which was 7,700 yards back in 2017, which Brooks Koepka won starting his tear of 4 majors in 3 years. Numbers 14 and 17 are 220+ par 3’s that will test the player’s nerves. 17 is over water and could be a game changer on Sunday with the wind. 16 is a 600 yard par 5. 18 is a 501 yard par 4. 13 is the No.1 ranked hole for difficulty at 497 yards and a par 4.

There’s a premium on hitting fairways and scrambling. Of course, you have to putt well. The greens are Paspalum, not Bermuda. They are better in the windy, sandy conditions and don’t have grain in them which would make for bumpier, sandy surfaces. The Paspalum roll smoothly. They’ll be Stimping at 12 1/2 or 13, so plenty quick.

Weather

It looks nice this weekend. Thursday, 77, Sunny, winds East at 10 MPH. Friday, 78, Sunny but windy with winds from the ENE at 16 to 20. Saturday, 79 Sunny, winds E 9 MPH. Sunday 85, winds WSW at 12 MPH. The easterly winds will be in the players faces, so that’ll make the course even longer. Tony Finau, one of the longer hitters on tour, said yesterday, he’ll hit a driver, 3 wood on 18 if the wind is in his face. And it could get more interesting as these ocean courses can get even windier at the drop of a bucket. So these players will be severely tested.

TV

Thursday-Friday, 6 AM-12 PM CT on ESPN+ on Smart TV, Iphone or Ipad. 12-7 PM CT, ESPN. Saturday-Sunday, 7 AM-9 AM CT, ESPN+, 9 AM-12 PM CT, ESPN, 12-6 PM CT CBS.

Winner

The PGA is renowned for crowning first time major winners. Morikawa is one. Davis Love III in 1997. Paul Azinger in 1993. Shaun Micheel won it in 2003. He was never heard from again. Unknown Bob May took Tiger to the wire in 2000. David Toms won his only major at the PGA in 2001. So, it’s a mecca for first time major champions. So I’ll take a young stud, the 23 year old from Oslo Norway by way of Oklahoma State, to kickstart his major bucket list. He has ranked 3rd in strokes gained off the tee in his past 24 rounds, he has 2 third place finishes in his last 2 starts at the Valspar in early May, where he shot 65 on Sunday to finish at -13 and 4 shots back of Sam Burns, another contender this week. Burns is 45/1, and has played well recenlty. At the Wells Fargo 2 weeks ago, he shot 67 on Sunday. to finish at -8, 2 back of Rory. His 2 victories are on courses that featured Paspalum greens, this is a Pete-Alice Dye design by the way, so difficult. He won the February 2020 Puerto Rico Open and the December 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic on these same greens. So I’m liking all of that. I’ll take a young first time winner at Kiawah Island. Give me,

Viktor Hovland

Pete Dye, a renowned golf architect, passed away in January of this year. But his legacy lives on. He designed TPC Sawgrass, where the Players is contested among many of his masterpieces. His courses have water and are extremely tough.

Sleeper

I’m going to kind of have fun with this and go out on a limb a little bit. I had a friend who was an SAE in college when I was a Phi Delta Theta. He was very smart, and such a character you wouldn’t know he was smart. His name was Randy Hicks and we called him “Mistuh Hicks.” He skipped a grade because he was so bright. He was a total classic. It was like, “I want to party with this guy.” Amazing sense of humor. In honor of “Mistuh Hicks,” I’m going to take the 22 year old from Johannesburg, South Africa. He’s won 3 times on the European Tour already and just won the Canary Islands Championship on May 9th. He’s got good lineage in South Africa with the players who come out of there. Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, and before them, Retief Goosen and 9 time major winner Gary Player. So I’ll take “Mistuh Higgio.” for my under the radar pick.

Garrick Higgio