Blind Shot

PHOTOGRAPH COUTRESY SOUTHERN HILLS COUNTRY CLUB

The Star Next Door

This month, Southern Hills will again test the best in the 104th PGA Championship.

Of the seven states that border Colorado, only one has hosted what we now know as golf’s four majors. It’s not Kansas, which has hosted three U.S. Women’s Opens and a U.S. Senior Open. Nor is it Nebraska, which staged its second U.S. Senior Open last year as well as the U.S. Amateur in 1941, when that event was considered a major.

The only neighboring state to welcome a major championship is Oklahoma, where Tulsa’s Southern Hills Country Club will host its record fifth PGA Championship May 19-22. Coupled with its three U.S. Opens (1958,’77 and 2001), Southern Hills alone has hosted three more majors than the entire state of Colorado. Factor in the 1935 and 1988 PGA Championships at, respectively, Twin Hills at Oak Tree, and Oklahoma’s tally of modern-day majors grows to 10.

That’s one fewer than the state of New Jersey, the home of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, which was scheduled to host this year’s PGA Championship until the events of January 6, 2021, prompted the PGA of America to terminate its agreement with the thenpresident’s course four days later.

The PGA gave the event to Southern Hills. Designed during the Depression by Perry Maxwell and his son, Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Press Maxwell, the 7,481yard, par-71 layout underwent a 2019 restoration by University of Denver alumnus Gil Hanse that sharpened the teeth of an already formidable layout.

So what will this year’s PGA Championship bring? Will Tiger Woods, who won the event here in 2007, make another “game-day decision”? Will besmirched defending champion Phil Mickelson also pass on this event as he did the Masters? Can Scottie Scheffler, who calls himself “a huge fan of Southern Hills,” continue his torrid play? What about Cameron Smith, or the former Cowboys and Sooners like Viktor Hovland, Abraham Ancer, Rickie Fowler, Talor Gooch, Alex Noren and Matthew Wolff?

Whoever hoists the Wanamaker Trophy will have earned it. Defined by bending fairways, rough-edged bunkering and devilish greens featuring the “Maxwell rolls,” the refurbished Southern Hills defended par with distinction in last year’s Senior PGA Championship. At 3-under for the four-day tournament, winner Alex Čejka was the only player to finish with a red number. pgachampionship.com

TAKE IT BACK TO TULSA:

Steep, deep bunkers, devilish greens and slyly placed streams make Southern Hills a perpetual major championship venue.

Denver

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