PGA Championship 2016: Complete Guide to This Year's Tournament at Baltusrol
No, you didn't read the calendar incorrectly.
It's still July. There have been no NFL preseason games played.
And yet it's still time for the final golf major of 2016, the PGA Championship.
Thanks to the scheduling issues prompted by the imminent Olympics in Brazil, the fourth Grand Slam jewel was moved up from its normal month to accommodate.
So there's been just one week of downtime since the classic final-round duel between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson at the Open Championship, and now those two and several dozen others will make their way to Baltusrol in Springfield Township, New Jersey—the site, incidentally, of Lefty's second major win back in 2005.
Aussie Jason Day walked away from Whistling Straits with the Wanamaker Trophy last year, amid a stretch of seven wins in 17 tournaments that elevated him to the top player in the world status.
Here's everything you need to know to prepare for the final week of major golf in 2016.
About Baltusrol
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It's the ninth major played at the 121-year-old facility that sits fewer than 25 miles from New York City, and the second PGA Championship—11 years after Mickelson won there in 2005—following seven U.S. Opens.
And in reality, it's now two courses.
Several of Baltusrol's majors were played in the early decades of the 20th century, before an Upper and Lower course were each built on top of the original track. The Upper Course hosted a U.S. Open in the 1930s, but each major played there since has been on the Lower layout.
The front nine has two par-3 holes and seven par-4s, followed by two par-3s and two par-5s on the back nine along with five par-4s for a total of 70. The two par-5s just happen to be the final two holes on the course, which could mean some tense moments down the stretch on Championship Sunday.
Aside from Mickelson, no player who's ever won a major at Baltusrol will be in the 2016 field.
Where to Watch
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Here is the television schedule for daily coverage on TNT and CBS (all times Eastern), as well as the live-streaming schedule for PGA.com.
Thursday, July 28
TV: 1 to 7 p.m., TNT
Streaming (featured groups, holes): 1 to 7 p.m., PGA.com
Friday, July 29
TV: 1 to 7 p.m., TNT
Streaming (featured groups, holes): 1 to 7 p.m., PGA.com
Saturday, July 30
TV: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., TNT; 2 to 7 p.m., CBS
Streaming (featured groups, holes): 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., PGA.com
Sunday, July 31
TV: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., TNT; 2 to 7 p.m., CBS
Streaming (featured groups, holes): 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., PGA.com
The Top Groupings
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Tee times were announced for Rounds 1 and 2 at Baltusrol.
There are some notable groupings for Thursday and Friday. Here are just a few (all tee times are Eastern).
7:40 a.m. Thursday/12:55 p.m. Friday: Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson, Ernie Els
Fowler looked ready to remove himself from the "best to never win a major" list after contending at all four in 2014, but he's been a non-factor in seven straight since. Meanwhile, Johnson is just a year and a few days removed from winning the Open Championship, while the ageless Els is a Baltusrol veteran after initially playing there in the 1993 U.S. Open—when Fowler was 4 and Johnson was 17.
8:30 a.m. Thursday/1:45 p.m. Friday: Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy
The defending PGA champion, Day, will play alongside the last man to win a major at Baltusrol in Phil Mickelson (2005) and some guy named Rory McIlroy, who's got a chance to pick up his third Wanamaker Trophy since 2012.
1:45 p.m. Thursday/8:30 a.m. Friday: Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Danny Willett
It's a time-honored grouping of the year's three reigning major winners. And three times in the last 10 years—2006 (Tiger Woods), 2008 (Padraig Harrington) and 2014 (McIlroy)—one of the trio has posted a second major victory to cap off a magical season.
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Biggest Storylines
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Who's ready to make history?
With a field like this, there's a significant chance that the guy atop the leaderboard on Sunday will be accomplishing something special.
For example, Steve Stricker, at age 49, finished fourth at the Open Championship and would become the oldest major winner in history if he strings together four great rounds. He's made the cut at 21 straight majors and has been in the PGA's top 10 twice in the last four years.
Phil Mickelson, who was second at the Open Championship, could pull off a Baltusrol double with PGA wins 11 years apart, and a victory this week would make him the second-oldest, at 46, to ever take the Wanamaker.
Among the youngsters, Sergio Garcia and Fowler are prominent players looking for first majors, a McIlroy win would make him the fourth player with five majors before age 40, and wins by Willett, Dustin Johnson or Stenson would give them multiple majors in the same season.
Will there be a new man at the top?
Speaking of Johnson, the world's reigning No. 2 player can move up to the top rung on the ladder this week.
The father of Wayne Gretzky's grandson got to his current perch thanks to a win at the U.S. Open last month, and he can skip past No. 1 Jason Day with either an outright PGA win—provided Day fares worse than a two-way tie for second—or an outright second, if Day is worse off than 28th place.
Is the PGA still a haven for first-timers?
Of the last half-dozen men to win the PGA Championship, five had never won a major before.
So, for Fowler, Garcia and others, this may be the week to break through.
Of course, of those who did use the PGA to add the label "major winner" to their names—Y.E. Yang (2009), Martin Kaymer (2010), Keegan Bradley (2011), Jason Dufner (2013) and Day (2015)—only one, Kaymer at the 2014 U.S. Open, has managed to add a second.
The only other winner since 2009, McIlroy in 2012 and 2014, already had the 2011 U.S. Open on his resume but has not added another since his most recent PGA triumph.
The Dark Horses
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Justin Rose
Will the real Justin Rose—PGA version—please stand up?
He burst onto the Wanamaker-pursuing scene with a tie for ninth in his fourth try in 2008. But he has since mixed three missed cuts and two also-ran finishes around a pair of top-fives—including a fourth in 2015.
He'll aim to boost that a few spots this time around before jetting to South America to represent England at the Summer Olympics.
“I don’t think you can compare the two,” Rose said, per Bill Pennington of the New York Times. “I think if I were to fast forward 10 years, I’d like my career to read, ‘Justin Rose, multiple major champion and Olympic gold medalist.’ ”
Sergio Garcia
Go figure. Sergio Garcia has 22 top-10 finishes at major championships—including four at the PGA Championship—but no trophies.
Garcia surely remains in the hunt for major No. 1.
He's tied for fifth in three consecutive events since his most recent win—at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May—and his 12 top-fives in majors are the most all-time without a victory. He's due.
Phil Mickelson
Go ahead, you tell Phil Mickelson he's not ready to win another major.
The 46-year-old turned in a second-place finish for the ages two weeks ago at the Open Championship, and to say that he's qualified to bump the result up one notch this year at the PGA is an understatement.
He was a winner the last time the Wanamaker Trophy was presented at Baltusrol in 2005, going wire to wire with rounds of 67, 65, 72, and 72 to triumph by one stroke over Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington, and two over Davis Love III and Woods.
“I am playing the best golf of my life,” Mickelson said, per Dave Shedoski of Golf Digest. “I truly believe that I still have some big wins in me if I keep playing like I have been.”
The Challengers
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Henrik Stenson
Given the events of two weeks ago, Stenson's days as a golfing dark horse may be over.
The oddsmakers at Odds Shark say he's 14-to-1 this week, putting him alongside a guy who had two major victories before his 22nd birthday in Jordan Spieth.
The Swede turned 40 in April, had been as high as No. 2 in the world rankings earlier in his career and was No. 6 in the world to start the month in which he won his first major, the Open Championship.
He's since stepped up to No. 5, has another victory this season in the BMW International Open and eight top-10 finishes between the PGA Tour and European Tour.
Jordan Spieth
Speaking of that guy with two trophies as a 21-year-old, it's a little different this year.
Twelve months ago, Spieth was coming off wins at the Masters and the U.S. Open and a near-miss at the Open Championship, setting the golf world ablaze with the possibility of three majors in a season.
This year, after a collapse at the Masters, a tie for 37th at the U.S. Open and a tie for 30th at the Open Championship, he's among the challengers by resume. But his mojo has certainly been dealt a blow, as he told the Associated Press (h/t USA Today):
"I think it's been a solid year, and I think had last year not happened I'd be having a lot of positive questions. Instead, most of the questions I get are comparing to last year and, therefore, negative because it's not to the same standard. So that's almost tough to then convince myself that you're having a good year ... when the questions I get make me feel like it's not.
"
The Favorites
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Dustin Johnson
One major removed from his career breakthrough, Johnson is still in prime position.
He only managed a tie for ninth at the Open Championship after his U.S. Open triumph, but the enormity of his 2016 performance has him arriving to Baltusrol with a chance to become the No. 1 player in the world—and as the tournament's outright favorite at 8-to-1 according to Odds Shark.
Two weeks after the U.S. Open, he went to the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and picked up another trophy, so he'll enter the PGA as both the world's hottest player and its second-ranked one, trailing only Day.
Four top-10 finishes in six trips to the PGA set him up nicely for a second big trophy.
Rory McIlroy
Given his track record at the PGA Championship, it's no wonder McIlroy enters this week with a swagger.
He's got two ties for third and two victories in his last seven quests for the Wanamaker Trophy. And though his tie for fifth at the Open Championship earlier this month was far off the winning pace, it nonetheless indicates the Northern Irishman is in a form that could produce yet another stateside major win.
"I definitely think one of the criticisms I have of myself this year is maybe not being aggressive enough and committing and trusting myself," McIlroy said, per Tod Leonard of the Los Angeles Times. "But I feel like the things I've been working with on my swing hopefully will get to me that point."
Jason Day
After three wins and four other top-10 finishes in 15 PGA Tour starts already this season, it's no surprise that a Day march to a second straight Wanamaker Trophy would hardly be a shocker to the golf world.
A tie for 22nd at the Open Championship ended a stretch of five consecutive top-10 finishes in majors, including the career-defining win at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
Day, who's the PGA Tour leader in strokes gained from putting, per PGATour.com, and is No. 4 in scoring average, is justifiably among the favorites on the eve of the season's final major.
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