British Open 2012: Which Top Finishers Will Excel at PGA Championship?

With the British Open spectacularly fading into the past, all eyes are now fixed on the 94th PGA Championship.

With that being said, there is no better place to start discussing the final major than by discussing those that performed well in the last. 

Judging who will succeed in a major by looking at the previous event can be a risky and sometimes downright foolish proposition. However, there are a couple of reasons it makes sense in this case. 

The PGA Championship follows closely on the heels of the British Open. It will start on August 9, which means that guys in a groove at the British won't have to keep their hot hand long to play well. 

What's more, the PGA Championship will be played on a links-style course this year.

The Course

The home of this year's PGA Championship is the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. As you may have surmised from the name, this course is on the ocean. 

That means it is almost a certainty that there are going to be high winds for this tournament. As a result, a need for low trajectory blasts and pitch-and-run approach shots will be needed.

Hence, the links-style layout, and the reason we could see many of the same names atop the leaderboard of the next major that we saw on the last one.

Below are three you can expect to be a factor. 

Dustin Johnson

I didn't like Dustin Johnson's chances heading into the British Open. It was the need for driving accuracy at the course that bothered me. Johnson has the distance, but he can struggle with accuracy. 

He wound up at even par for the tournament and tied for ninth, and this was after he struggled to a three-over 73 in the first round. 

Johnson knows how to work his way around links-style courses—he was runner up in the 2011 British Open, and he is finding his groove. He will be a major factor on Sunday at this championship. 

Luke Donald

Donald is staggeringly consistent. He proved that again at this British Open. He finished at two-under and tied for fifth. He came in between 68 and 71 for all of his rounds. 

Donald is comfortable on links-style courses. Shoot, this guy is comfortable on any course. He hasn't had his first major breakthrough yet, but he is closing in on it. You can see his confidence and comfort improving at each major. 

He will acquit himself nicely at the PGA Championship.

Tiger Woods

It won't be until Tiger wins another major that we can all officially say he is back, but that is just back to Tiger level. It is already safe to say that he is back to being one of the best players on the planet. If you have to pick one guy to win any tournament, you'd be wise to go with Woods. 

Woods can't be happy with his tied-for-third finish at the British, but he has to be happy with the way he is playing. He struggled with his putter a bit, but the rest of his game is cruising to the point that it would be shocking if he wasn't a factor at the PGA Championship.