‘Valhalla’ is an old Viking word which translates to “hall of the slain”.
The word also represents the brutal test awaiting the world’s best when they take on Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky for the 106th PGA Championship starting tomorrow night (AEST).
The greens will be crispy (weather dependent), the fairways will be tight, and the rough will be thick and dense.
Although challenging and penal – and there will be players signing off on scores of 80-plus – there will be scoring opportunities for the men who decide to play the waiting game. Keep it on the short grass, you’re a chance. Miss your target and your score can add up.
Adam Scott summed it up perfectly before the 2014 PGA Championship: “It’s generous off the tee and quite demanding into the greens. If you can hit good, solid shots in the right areas on the greens, you’re going to have a good chance at making some birdies this week, possibly some eagles out there, too, with reachable 5s. That’s going to be exciting for everyone to watch and for us to play.”
Recent PGA Championship venues have all produced the kind of viewing that sees players who can make a string of birdies rocket up the leaderboard. Just as brilliant viewing is seeing someone get to the front and press the ejector seat button … looking at you, Mito Pereira.
The Jack Nicklaus-designed Valhalla has been the site of some famous victories and moments over the past 25 years and is set to add to its storied history this week. The question is: what storylines will emerge?
THE BIG GUNS
There have been surprises, but as a general rule, you can put a line through most of the field at a major championship. And if you’re a gambling person, you can put your eggs in the basket of ‘the big guns’, and give yourself the best shot at a cash-out option late on Sunday.
You weren’t expecting Wyndham Clark to win last year’s U.S Open. I know you didn’t have Ricky Ponting’s doppelganger Brian Harman on your bet slips at Royal Liverpool.
But recently, the PGA Championship has been for the big-time ballers. Let’s just rattle off the last five: Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Collin Morikawa and Koepka again.
That is some heavy artillery, your honour.
Why?
There is always the notion the U.S Open is the toughest test in golf. Historically, yes, that is true. However, this writer thinks the players who have won the last handful of PGA Championships boast the same mental fortitude and resilience as the U.S Open Champions of the past.
It’s a bloody hard golf tournament.
You would typically lead with the World No.1 when discussing the main chances at a major championship.
But not when it’s a PGA Championship and Brooks Koepka has a tee time.
Last year, Koepka hoisted his third Wanamaker Trophy, and he has every chance to lift a fourth. Time and time again, this major championship beast shows he is made for the occasion. He’s a serious player.
Koepka knows what to do at these things, and although he is a big strapping man who hits it a mile – the five-time major champion wouldn’t look out of place spitting tobacco on a baseball field. He has the ball speed, strength and power to bully most golf courses.
RIGHT: Brooks Koepka will be aiming for a fourth PGA title this week at Valhalla. PHOTO: Getty Images.
He doesn’t do that when he arrives at a major. He is probably the best in the world at playing defence on the course, which is why he has been so successful.
After he claimed Wanamaker number three at Oak Hill last year, there was a lot of chat about his ‘boring’ style of play.
I wouldn’t call it boring; I would call it clinical. It was like watching a surgeon go to work; methodical, detached emotionally, laser-focused.
Normally when discussing Koepka, you can’t consider his form leading into a major. The guy only gives a brass razoo about the big ones. But a win in his last start at LIV Singapore certainly won’t hinder his chances. He will be right up for a trip around Valhalla – where he was tied for 15th in 2014 – and if it is a tight contest, I know who I am putting my chips on.
I would describe Scottie Scheffler as dominant, ruthless, and utterly brilliant.
Here is a hypothetical question: if everyone in the field is playing their best, could anyone keep up with the Texan?
Rory, Tiger, Rahmbo possibly and the lad we have already discussed, Koepka. But if they are truly playing their best, this writer is still to determine if anyone can match what Scheffler has been doing of late. It is incredible.
All it took was subbing in a new putter, and he separated himself from the masses.
The Masters and the Players are just two of Scheffler’s four wins in his last five starts. The only knock you could possibly find on Scheffler – and it is a stretch – is that he hasn’t got it done in a major anywhere other than Augusta National.
Early days? For sure.
Scheffler has only finished outside the top-10 once at the PGA Championship, a missed cut at Southern Hills in 2022. He was tied for second last year, and by his standards, he wasn’t playing as well as he could.
It is hard to see a world where the biggest of all the guns, the missile launcher of professional golfers, doesn’t feature.
You can’t find a ball-striking stat where he isn’t ranked No.1, and he has found a method on the greens.
Coming into the tournament in some of the best form we have seen, the rest of the field will undoubtedly be looking over their shoulders.
The last man to win a major at Valhalla was Rory McIlroy, so you could argue the Northern Irishman is the best equipped out of the lot to add to his major tally.
“Valhalla, I think it always seems to provide a very exciting finish in these championships. I watched the 2000 PGA here when Tiger won against Bob May, and I was sitting at home watching The Ryder Cup (in 2008), as well. It seems like it always provides a great finish,” McIlroy said after his 2014 win.
“I had a great time here, and hopefully, I’m going to come back one day and come back to Valhalla and try and win this thing again,” he added.
You have your wish, Rory. You’re back in Kentucky.
As has been the case with Rory over the past decade, he will be a big story heading into the PGA Championship. He will get the same questions; it is the same story every year.
His form had been scratchy to start the year. He would show signs of life and look like the best player on the planet for 18 holes, and then the substantial left miss off the tee would show up. Or if it wasn’t that, it would be a shaky putter. If it was both, look out.
But just in the nick of time Rory put together a complete performance.
At last week’s Wells Fargo Championship on a firm Quail Hollow Club, Rory looked like ‘the guy’ again. He slammed the door shut on his competitors, a final round 65 – with a double bogey at the last – to win by five, and more importantly, he looked like he had that ‘Rory swagger’ back, bouncing along the fairways. He looks ready to end this drought.
He has become one of the majors’ great ‘nearly’ men over the last decade. And I don’t care what he says. It has weighed him down.
Valhalla obviously suits him, but we need to remember when he last won a major there, he had a bag full of Nike golf clubs, Fancy by Iggy Izalea was No.1 on the Billboard charts, and the iPhone 6 was yet to be released. So, Rory fans might need to temper their expectations, because a decade is a good long while.
RIGHT: Rory hoists the Wanamaker Trophy at Valhalla in 2014. PHOTO: Getty Images.
That said, he certainly can do it again. Since 2021, he has been a regular feature on Sundays in major championships. Combine that with his return to form and he is every chance of holding another major trophy again soon. Could it be at Valhalla? Let’s wait and see.
It was a shock when Jon Rahm defected to LIV earlier this year. One of the PGA Tour’s staunchest defenders was gone.
Everybody does have a price.
But when discussing major championships and the potential LIV contenders, the list is small in the grand scheme of things.
Rahm need not worry. He sits atop of the pile alongside Koepka.
The Spaniard has an impeccable record in the majors. In the 30 trips he’s made to golf’s main events, he has only missed four cuts, all of which came before 2020. On top of his two victories, he has a further nine top-10 finishes. Two of these have come at the PGA Championship, statistically Rahm’s worst out of the four. Not that this matters. Rahm has won on all different types of golf courses. He will be fine in Louisville.
The 29-year-old has won at Augusta National and Torrey Pines (U.S Open). If he were to hoist a Wanamaker Trophy, he would join the likes of Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, sitting on three out of the four major championships. He would just need a Claret Jug to seal the deal before his counterparts, and he will get that opportunity two months after the PGA.
Like the men discussed, the layout certainly won’t be an issue for Rahm. Competitive reps also will not be a factor; he will have plenty of tournament golf under his belt, so I don’t think the “lack of golf” excuse linked to LIV players stands up in Rahm’s case.
THE AUSSIE CHANCES
Heading into major championships, when it comes to assessing which Aussies have the best chance, the three guys who have done it before rightfully dominate the conversation.
Cam Smith, Jason Day and Adam Scott all have a considerable sniff, and, in this writer’s opinion, the venue is tailor-made for a J-Day run at the title.
Cam Davis and Min Woo Lee are the two young blokes climbing the ranks. Both of whom had fantastic finishes at last year’s PGA.
Davis is a quiet achiever. If he was a footy player, he would be the guy who gains a lot of metres and makes all of his tackles; if he was a cricketer, he would be a line and length bowler with a fantastic economy rate. He goes under the radar and isn’t necessarily the most exciting guy on tour to watch, but he has a different kind of brilliance to his charismatic countryman, Lee.
Davis hits it a mile and is as clean as they come on the ball-striking front. The putter has been an issue but continually improving.
Last year’s PGA Championship was a massive breakthrough for the Sydneysider. A Sunday 65 spring-boarded him into a tie for fourth, his best finish at a major championship.
He started with a bogey and kept a clean card for his next 17 holes. The finish wasn’t the best aspect of the 29-year-old’s trip to Oak Hill. It was how he reacted. He was satisfied with how he played, but he wanted more.
“I was hoping more for like a 60 or 59, to be honest. It’s a little different story going out there and making it happen on a really hard golf course. You’re hoping for a perfect day where everything goes magically well so you can have a chance to win,” Davis said after his final round.
Setting high standards and lofty goals is something all great athletes do. The fantastic finish was just a stepping stone towards what he wants to achieve.
“I can do this even when it’s difficult, even when the rough is really deep and the pins are tight and firming up quick, and you can still play really good golf and make a score, especially toward the end of a major. That’s where I want to be. I’d love to win one or more of these for sure. You know, this is just one more step towards that goal for me,” Davis added.
RIGHT: Cam Davis has the type of game that could really shine at Valhalla. PHOTO: Getty Images.
Davis’ length will be a crucial strength at Valhalla. There are plenty of holes where taking the headcover off the driver is a prerequisite, and with his ever-improving short game, decent form line and attitude to match, this will be his best chance at winning a major in 2024.
Lee is charismatic and, unlike Davis, garners a host of media attention. He has been in the limelight since his run at last year’s Players Championship. The West Australian plays a brand of golf that is addictive to watch.
The 25-year-old is a creative player, which we saw in action when he won the Australian PGA Championship. Valhalla is, however, very different to Royal Queensland.
But last year, at the two most challenging events of the year – the U.S Open and PGA Championship – Lee finished T5 and T18, respectively. It proves he doesn’t just show up when it is a birdie saloon; he can roll his sleeves up on a big occasion and do the really hard stuff.
Which makes him a great fit at Valhalla. There will be times when you have to do both of the above. If he has to start pressing, he will make scores. A weapon that could come in handy for Lee is the absolute missile 2-iron he has in the bag. He just crushes that thing.
One thing is for sure, if Lee is in contention, it will be fun.
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