2020 PGA Championship: Last minute reads

The 2020 PGA championship tees off tomorrow (midnight tonight AEST) and with it, a stack of great golf writing from across the internet.

So if you need to get across the first major before it tees off, here are what we think are some of the best reads in the build-up to the 2020 PGA Championship.

Australian Golf Digest editor Brad Clifton reports that the PGA of Australia put a hand up to host the US PGA Championship when it looked unlikely to be held anywhere in the US earlier this year.

It’s not the first time Australia has had the Wanamaker Trophy in its sights. Years ago, before PGA of America chief executive Seth Waugh was calling the shots, discussions took place to move the PGA Championship around the world every four years. It sparked wild media speculation, particularly here in Australia, an obvious candidate and critically important market for the game globally.

Clifton also speculates about the idea of Barnbougle hosting a big golf tournament:

With big crowds still off limits, could this actually be Tasmania’s time to shine on the world stage? Boasting some of the most spectacular courses on the planet at Barnbougle and King Island, what an opportunity to broadcast them to the world. 

Martin Blake at Golf Australia discusses the return to form of Jason Day, five years after his victory at Whistling Straits and the urgency to capture more major titles.

Day won’t have a long career with a back like that. He’s 32 now and it would surprise to see him play too many more years, so his time is definitely now.

AAP’s Evin Priest chats to Adam Scott about his return to tournament golf at a major.

The US PGA Tour regular resumed in June with no fans and heavy COVID-19 restrictions. But that didn’t tempt Scott.

“There was very little atmosphere; that I haven’t missed,” he said. “But the chance to win a major championship? I’m wasn’t going to skip that.

“The hardest thing in Australia was thinking about majors getting played and I’m not there to try and win.”

Bob Harig at ESPN reports on Tiger Woods’ preparation for the tournament, specifically the effect the cold conditions will have on ball flight and the 15-time major champion’s golf swing:

And with temperatures hovering in the 50s in the mornings and likely to not reach 70 for most of the week, the ability to get loose will be part of the struggle for Woods.

“I think that for me when it’s cooler like this it’s just make sure that my core stays warm, layering up properly,” he said. “I know I won’t have the same range of motion as I would back home in Florida, where it’s 95 [degrees] every day. That’s just the way it is.

While Harding Park is no architectural masterpiece by any means, I do love the fact that a major is being held at a public golf course. At one stage though it was in a pretty poor state and was used as a parking lot for the during the 1998 US Open. As Adam Schupak reports at Golfweek:

The running joke in the lead-up to the PGA Championship now scheduled Aug. 6-9 at TPC Harding Park – at least before fans were barred from attending because of the global coronavirus pandemic – was that cars should be parked on Olympic’s fairways this time.