US PGA: Southern Thrills!

Southern Hills' formidable 18th hole

If two or more players are in contention for the US PGA Championship coming up the finishing hole at Southern Hills next Sunday, expect another thrilling climax to a major. The 18th hole - a 465-yard dogleg par-4 - is one of the most demanding on the championship rota, even rivalling Carnoustie. And we all know what happened there last month!

Since Retief Goosen won his first US Open at this Tulsa sweatbox of a course in 2001, the 9th and 18th greens have been re-modelled following a complaints from the pros who reckoned the fast, back to front sloping greens were making a mockery of their approach shots.

Said one leading contender: "You'd play your uphill approach to what you felt was the correct area of the green and then watch as the ball rolled 40 yards back down the fairway."

The approach to the 9th hole

Every bunker has also been renovated and re-filled with new sand and the some sloping fairways have been re-modelled to bring more the fairway bunkers in to play.

With a handful of new tees it has been lengthened to account for new club and ball technology from 6,973-yards to 7,121 yards - more than 300 yards longer than when Nick Price won his US PGA title here by six shots in 1994.

The fourth hole

Over 20 yards has been added to the eighth hole stretching it to 245 yards which Southern Hills' club pro Dave Bryan claims to be 'tough and demanding'.

"It will need long irons and it will be better to be short than over the embankment at the back. Expect very few birdies and a bunch of bogies," he says.

The 16th - 507 yards - is the longest par-4 on the course and the shorter hitters will be hitting blind to a small green.

Shifting winds are crucial at the 6th

"No.4 is a picturesque short par-4 with a rolling fairway leading to a heavily bunkered , elevated greens that makes the approach difficult and No.6 is a 200-yard par-3 where shifting wind can cause club selection problems. There's also a creek on the left and out of bounds behind the fast green."

He also picks out the 14th as a key hole.

"It's another great-looking par-3 (223 yards) with six bunkers and out of bounds on the left towards which the wind is usually blowing."

With the greens running at almost Augusta pace at 11.5 on the stimpmeter, Southern Hills will prove an inhospitable place for many in the field, but Tiger Woods, the defending PGA champion, is looking forward to the challenge, despite finishing 12th here in 2001.

14th - wind blows towards the bunkers and OB

"It certainly a course where you have to manoeuvre the ball both ways - you just can't go there and hit it one way. You also have to hit different trajectories which is great."

So who has the game to conquer Southern Hills?

The PGA has a reputation for throwing up journeymen winners (Mark Brooks, Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel) but more recently Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and Tiger have risen, like the cream, to the top. Could this time be the turn of another major pretender like Luke Donald, Paul Casey or Sergio Garcia, hopefully recovered from his play-off defeat at Carnoustie.