The PGA Championship is euphemistically called “Glory’s Last Shot” – the final major of the season. The tournament is the final chance of the year for players to reach their goals or establish themselves as one of the game’s best. On the eve of the tournament’s 88th edition, some of the participants took some time to chat about what the PGA has meant to them.
THE SURPRISE CHAMPION
Rich Beem
In 2002, the previously unheralded Rich Beem won The International, then two weeks later held off Tiger Woods to win the PGA at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota.
“I was really just thinking about enjoying the week out there. I knew I was playing well, but I never had any delusions of grandeur about winning the thing. I was excited about playing a major championship, but I never thought my game was in good working order.
“I had only played in three majors up until then, so I didn’t really think I knew how to prepare for them. I just thought I’d go out and try to figure out the golf course and go from there. I didn’t have any concept of winning, I was still coming off the high from The International.
“But as the week went on, I realized I was having a lot of fun. By then, I thought I was playing well enough to win, but in a major championship, playing against the best players in the world, you never know what’s gonna happen, how you’re gonna react to things, how they’re gonna react.
“I was fortunate to be playing so well and putting so well that everything was just easy and I never got caught up in what was happening.”
THE ALSO-RAN
Colin Montgomerie
Colin Montgomerie lost in a playoff to Steve Elkington in the 1995 championship at Riviera Golf Club in Los Angeles and has never won a major.
“I played brilliantly from tee-to-green the whole week. I hit 69-of-73 greens in regulation that week, which I believe is a record for the tournament. I played brilliantly, I just didn’t putt well. I think Steve had 16 fewer putts than I did for the week, which was an amazing number.
“He holed a putt from off the green at the last. I made a four in the playoffs; sometimes in these playoffs, a four is good enough, sometimes it isn’t – and on this occasion, it wasn’t. There was nothing I could do. I did my job and I feel like I was just beaten, as opposed to beating myself.
“There have been a few of those for me but you just play, you know. The door opens or it just closes and you just have to accept it. Greg Norman should have won 12 majors and didn’t. He only won two, which is amazing.
“Hopefully, before the end of my career, the door will open for me and I’ll walk through it, as opposed to it being shut in the proverbial face.”
THE FIRST TIME
Jay Haas
Months after playing in his first major championship, the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, 21-year-old Jay Haas teed it up the following year at Medinah in the 1975 PGA.
“It doesn’t seem like 31 years ago that this all went down. I had played in the Open and coming here, I’m not saying I felt like I belonged, but I think I was a little more relaxed, a little more comfortable. But still, I knew I was way out of my element. I didn’t think that I had any kind of game that could hang with these guys. But I did make the cut, and played with Jack Nicklaus in the third round. I’ll never forget that, because in ’75, he was the man and had been the man for a long time.
“I was very nervous, but proud of the fact that I’d had the same score as Jack Nicklaus through 36 holes. I got my pairing and saw that I was with Jack. I was very intimidated that next day, I was just trying not to get in his way. Neither one of us played very well that day. I think I may have had a better score than him, but I was impressed with how he carried himself, how professional he was.
“It was my first real look at him, of course it was the first time I had played with him. That’s always stuck with me the most, how he handled himself on the course, just his presence on the course.”
THE HOMEBODY
Jeff Sluman
Chicago area resident Jeff Sluman talks about the pressures and challenges of playing at home during a major championship.
“The hardest part of it is putting what I would call very good distractions – that you don’t have when you’re out on the road – out of your mind. You want to accommodate as many friends and family as you can with tickets and stuff like that, but they also understand that this is a different kind of tournament than the regular weekly tour event.
“You certainly see a lot more friendly faces in the crowd. If you’re playing well, it’s great. If you’re playing poorly, you see friends there who haven’t been to a tournament in two or three years and they want to give you high-fives and are yelling ‘Go, go, go!’
“I seem to fall into that ‘trying too hard’ trap, making something happen. I feel like if I don’t play well, everyone will be disappointed, but they’re just here to cheer you on. The more I can relax and play the way I want to play, the better off I am, but I haven’t been able to do that before the home folks.
“I was here in the 1999 PGA. I made the cut, which is about all I could say about my performance (a tie for 54th).
“I live here year-round instead of someplace like Florida or Arizona because I think you need to take time off from golf. It’s one of those things where, mentally and physically it’s better for you. I did it when I was single and now, with a wonderful, precocious 8-year-old daughter, I want to spend as much time with her as I can – and in this game, you’re gone far too long.”
