PGA Championship 2015: The Top 10 Storylines Heading into Whistling Straits
The 2015 PGA Championship returns to Whistling Straits along the fresh-water coast of Lake Michigan.
It brings with it Jordan Spieth’s—with his straight-back and tight haircut—hopes of winning three majors in one year. Tiger Woods pulled that off in 2000 en route to the Tiger Slam subsequently completed at Augusta National Golf Club in 2001.
Spieth would be in possession of the top storyline were it not for the most famous ankle this side of Achilles. That, of course, belongs to Rory McIlroy.
The final major of the year brings to a close the most impactful and historic chapter of the year-long season. From April to August, what matters most are majors, and the PGA Championship stands as the last great summit these players will climb.
Will it be one of our household names (Spieth, McIlroy), once-heavy favorites (Woods, Phil Mickelson) or a relatively obscure golfer (Steven Bowditch, Marc Leishman) holding the trophy?
Read on for the top storylines heading to Whistling Straits.
10. Will We See a First-Time Major Winner at Whistling Straits?
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If you draw a line through both of McIlroy’s two wins in the PGA Championship (2012, 2014), here is a list of players who have won this event since Tiger Woods went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007: Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer, Y.E. Yang and Padraig Harrington.
This tournament has a way of producing an obscure, long-shot winner. Who can that be in 2015? Try Steven Bowditch or Marc Leishman. They make up the other two of the Australian Fantastic Four (Adam Scott and Jason Day round out this quartet.).
Bowditch won on the tour earlier this year, going wire-to-wire at the Byron Nelson. Scoring two top 15s since and posting a 63 in the third round at the Bridgestone Invitational shows he can go low on the weekend of a big event. He finished in a tie for 12th at Firestone Country Club.
As for Leishman, he dueled with Louis Oosthuizen and Zach Johnson in a playoff at The Open Championship. Leishman lowered the boom with a round of six under par in Round 4 at St. Andrews. That’s a big-small number on a huge stage.
Bowditch’s weakness lies with his accuracy off the tee. He only hits 54.29 percent of his fairways, putting all the pressure on his ability to scramble. Leishman ranks second and sixth, respectively, in putting from eight feet and from 10-15 feet, which are key stats for a major championship.
9. Will This Be Jason Day's Day?
2 of 10You hear over and over again how Sergio Garcia is the BGTNWAM: best golfer to never win a major. You could make an argument for Henrik Stenson, but the best golfer devoid of a major is Jason Day. And, boy, is he close.
Day missed two straight cuts at the Players Championship and the Memorial. He then carded a tied-for-ninth performance in the U.S. Open while experiencing vertigo. He didn’t play until The Open Championship and finished in a tie for fourth.
A week after that top five, he won the RBC Canadian Open with a flurry of birdies to close out the win.
"This must feel like what Tiger (Woods) did for so many times, and it feels good," Day said, per the Associated Press (via PGATour.com). "I'm going to try to do as much as I can and keep it the same and try and win."
He ranks third on the tour in driving distance and second in birdie average. He performed well at the PGA Championship a year ago and could be ready to join the growing list of 20-somethings with major championships.
Add to this his tied-for-12th finish at the Bridgestone Invitational, and this is the kind of momentum that Day can—and likely—will carry to Whistling Straits.
8. Can Martin Kaymer Reclaim Past Glory?
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Martin Kaymer, the free-swinging German, won this tournament back in 2010 at Whistling Straits in a playoff with Bubba Watson.
Kaymer, the 2014 U.S. Open runaway winner, has had a rough season with his only top 10 coming in the 2014-15 wrap season back in December. His game could be turning around with his tied-for-12th performance in The Open Championship.
For Kaymer, a two-time major winner, anything short of victory feels somehow enttäuschend.1
Prior to this year’s U.S. Open, he drew the line between people who win and those who merely are content to cash checks. He said, according to ASAP Sports (h/t GolfDigest.com):
"So [few] players actually play for the win... And that gives you more confidence in yourself. Because you're not there to finish second or 10th. You want to win. And knowing that they don't want to win, so you see how they play the last few holes. They are not that aggressive anymore or they leave their putts short or you see it in their body language. And you kind of like feed from it.
"
That’s called “blood in the water.” So as Kaymer returns to the site of his first major win, he could be a sleeper pick to contend given the way he played at St. Andrews.
1: Disappointing
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7. Bubba Watson Shoots for Major No. 3
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Bubba Watson was in that playoff with Martin Kaymer in 2010 before the German bested him late.
This season, Watson has two wins and three runners-up. However, his trips around the majors have been dismal.
At the Masters, a tournament he has won twice, he finished in a tie for 38th. He parlayed that effort into missed cuts at the jigsaw greens of Chambers Bay and the wind-swept landscape of St. Andrews.
Despite some inconsistencies, he’s No. 2 in the FedExCup standings and No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking. If he can overcome his mediocre scrambling, as outlined by PGATour.com, he can use his superior game from tee to green to climb up this leaderboard.
6. Justin Rose Will Threaten for Career Major No. 2
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Part of what handicaps Justin Rose’s game is the putter. He ranks 87th in strokes gained-putting and averages close to 30 putts per round.
But something changed at The Open Championship.
He finished in a tie for sixth and said he feels far more confident in his putter heading into the last quarter of the season.
“I changed putters this week,” Rose said (via Mirror) at St. Andrews, “so that was a bit of an unknown coming into the week, and that felt really good. I holed out really well from inside six feet this week, and I think that’s something I can really build on for the rest of the year.”
Rose had a strong showing at the Bridgestone Invitational (T3), the kind of performance that a man of his talents can build on.
5. Dustin Johnson Back to the Course with the Infamous 'DJ' Bunker
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Dustin Johnson has come so close to winning his first major. These brushes with almost-ness started in 2010 when he famously bladed his club in a stealth bunker on the final hole of regulation at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
According to the Associated Press' Doug Ferguson (via Kyle Porter of CBS Sports), PGA of America championship director Kerry Haigh said:
"Part of the changes we have made to improve the spectator experience for the championship is to bring and build more grandstands and viewing areas on the course that can view golf holes or the lake. That includes viewing areas to the right hole 18 which does cover over part of the bunker that Dustin was in.
"
Johnson's rearview mirror is fast filling up with meltdowns. It’s a veritable Sistine Chapel fresco of trauma and lost leads.
Early on at The Open Championship, it looked as if he had put his depressing three-putt on No. 18 in the U.S. Open behind him. But after shooting 65-69 at St. Andrews, he skunked back-to-back 75s and fell to a tie for 49th.
All signs point to Johnson having a great start at Whistling Straits. But, as you know, it’s not how you start, but how you finish.
4. Will Quicken Loans Tiger Woods Arrive?
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Tiger Woods’ wave crests have been promising: tied for 17th at the Masters, tied for 32nd at the Greenbrier Classic, tied for 18th at Quicken Loans National1.
Woods played his way into the top 10 after Friday’s round at the QLN and showed signs that his swing patterns are finally imprinted. At its best, it’s a winning, contending swing.
"It was nice to be able to struggle but score," Woods said (via Yahoo Sports). "Finally I can 'feel' my hands again which is nice. It's a process of putting one foot in front of the other and one day I'll get to the point where I'm in contention again."
His problem has been taking those positives and building on them. After the Masters, he finished in a tie for 69th at The Players Championship. After his Greenbrier Classic tied-for-32nd performance, he missed the cut at The Open Championship.
This pattern suggests a dud in the PGA Championship. A weekend with Woods in contention may be too much to ask, but a weekend with Woods will be a great coda to the season and perhaps a springboard that launches him toward the FedExCup Playoffs.
1: Amazing, or sad, that the crests to his waves are so low, but this is the state of Tiger Woods.
3. Can Phil Mickelson Find His Past PGA Championship Mojo?
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Phil Mickelson needs to summon the ghosts of Baltusrol, the site of his only PGA Championship win back in 2005.
Last year, Lefty didn’t have a single top 10 until he reached Valhalla for the PGA Championship. That’s when he turned up his game and threatened to win his sixth major. He flattened out, losing by a stroke, as Rory McIlroy surged like a tsunami.
This year, Mickelson has struggled, save for his surprising push to finish in a tie for second at the Masters. Most recently he finished in a tie for 61st at the Bridgestone Invitational, an effort that failed to trigger the kind of fireworks he launched a year ago at Valhalla.
“I don’t remember what clicked. I know I made some good putts,” Mickelson said, per Dave Shedloski of GolfDigest.com. “I putted well the following week at the PGA. But I don’t know what I did.”
At 45, Mickelson's likelihood of winning a tournament, let alone a major, is slim. He hasn’t won on the tour since 2013 (The Open Championship), but he has shown flashes of greatness that, when bottled, could vault him to the top of a leaderboard—maybe Whistling Straits’.
2. Jordan Spieth Guns for Three Majors in One Season
9 of 10Jordan Spieth’s greatest skill isn’t the tangible nature of his swing, but his performance when he needs to land a putt or stripe a drive. He’s clutch.
Now with the Grand Slam a goal for another year, Spieth will have one less weight on his Texan shoulders.
According to Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post, Spieth said:
"I have the exact same feeling. … I may feel better. I knew what was at stake [at St. Andrews], and there was an added element to that off the course. Those were the questions everyone was asking. That’s what the crowd was saying as you go hole to hole in the practice round: ‘The Grand Slam is alive.’ I wish they were still saying that. But since they aren’t, that might ease the burden as far as practice.
"
Spieth has to contend with a vicious Jason Day, a possibly resurgent Tiger Woods, a bipedal Rory McIlroy and the wild card, Dustin Johnson.
The great constant in 2015 is Spieth’s dominant and effervescent play. Expect nothing different at Whistling Straits.
1. Rory McIlroy to Defend PGA Championship Title
10 of 10Rory McIlroy’s ankle, the one he blew up in a European football match with his mates prior to The Open Championship, is a “non-issue,” according to Golf Channel's Todd Lewis (via CBS Sports' Kyle Porter).
The 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship winner is attempting to become the only other player since Tiger Woods to win back-to-back PGA Championships since it went to stroke play.1
"I've come a long way in five weeks,” McIlroy said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel's Gary D'Amato (via Porter of CBS Sports). “This has been the five-week mark today from when I did it. I think maybe there's just a little stiffness in the mornings, but it's good."
This is one of the more surprising developments given the severity of this injury, or the severity we were sold weeks ago. Now he’ll be paired with Jordan Spieth on Thursday and Friday.2
The New York Post’s Mark Cannizzaro wrote, "The presence of McIlroy, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, will ratchet up the intensity and interest in this PGA because the golf world is pining for McIlroy and Spieth to be pitted against each other—something the McIlroy injury stole from the fans last month at St. Andrews."
How will a post-injury McIlroy perform? Has it affected his mechanics? How will it hold up over two days, three days, four days?
No matter. Seeing McIlroy on the opening tee box along with Spieth will be great.
1: Woods did it twice in 1999-2000, 2006-2007.
2: And Zach Johnson, The Open Championship winner. He doesn’t quite have the moxie of the other two. Eight majors between the three of these cats. Nice.
Stats are courtesy of PGATour.com.
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