By Christian Peterson
Senior Editor
August 6, 2007
Date: August 9 ? 12, 2007
Location: Southern Hills Country Club ? Tulsa, OK
2006 Champion: Tiger Woods
2007 Purse: TBD
2006 Recap
Tiger Woods made it an even dozen, earning his 12th career major by destroying the field at Medinah Country Club. He defeated 2003 PGA champ Shaun Micheel by five strokes to become the fifth player in history to host the Wanamaker Trophy three times. He also became the first person ever to win the PGA twice at the same venue, having also won the 1999 edition held at Medinah. Some other players also played in the event, although all but Luke Donald were essentially forgotten by the end of Saturday. Donald entered round four tied for the lead, but dropped six shots on Sunday to finish tied for third with Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott.
2005 Recap
Phil Mickelson held on to a tenuous final-round lead with a deft chip shot from the deep rough next to the 18th green, then calmly rolled in a three-foot birdie putt to earn his second major championship in as many years. Several rain delays caused the final groups ? including runners-up Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington - to come back to Baltusrol to finish up on Monday, but that didn't dampen Mickelson's accomplishment. "It was a week where things didn't go perfectly the whole time," Mickelson told pgatour.com after the win. "The first couple of days, the ball was going in the hole, thereafter it was not. Yet, I had to gut it out?I'm just ecstatic that I was able to get it done."
The Course
Southern Hills is widely regarded as one of the best courses in the country, not to mention one of its stiffest tests. The tree-lined fairways and dramatic greens are accented by numerous doglegs as well as undulating fairways that often slant in the opposite direction of the doglegs. "I always thought it was a wonderful golf course," Tiger Woods told PGA.com. "It really tests your ability to shape shots. To keep the ball in the fairway you have to shape it correctly on a couple holes, hit the ball against the hills."
At just over 7,100 yards, the terrain and strategic use of bunkers and doglegs serves to minimize the advantages held by today's long bombers, but course officials have lengthened the track by about 150 yards since the 2001 U.S. Open ? the last major event held at Southern Hills. The biggest difference is at No. 16, which is now a 515 yard long beast of a par four that could make or break more than one player this week. The greens at Nos. 9 and 18 have also been modified; in this case each putting area was made less severe, as the previous dramatically sloping surfaces were too harsh for modern green speeds. This week's greens are expected to run at 11.5 on the Stimpmeter. Yeah, that's right, we said "stimpmeter." Such speeds are roughly like trying to putt on the linoleum floors in your kitchen.
The Field
It wouldn't do fantasy golfers much good to play their top draft pick when he doesn't plan on teeing it up, which is why fantasy owners have to be very cognizant of who is playing each week. As a courtesy, we've provided this link to the official field as provided by PGATOUR.com.
Note: It's a good idea to check this list for the official field of players again on Wednesday, as it is not unusual for golfers to drop out of tournaments in the days leading up the first round.
**PGA Championship Official Field.
Leaderboards
PGA Championship (2006 Top 20)
Player Scores Total To Par Earnings
Win Tiger Woods 69-68-65-68 270 -18 $1,224,000
2 Shaun Micheel 69-70-67-69 275 -13 $734,400
T-3 Luke Donald 68-68-66-74 276 -12 $354,600
T-3 Sergio Garcia 69-70-67-70 276 -12 $354,600
T-3 Adam Scott 71-69-69-67 276 -12 $354,600
6 Mike Weir 72-67-65-73 277 -11 $245,800
T-7 K.J. Choi 73-67-67-71 278 -10 $208,788
T-7 Steve Stricker 72-67-70-69 278 -10 $208,788
T-9 Geoff Ogilvy 69-68-68-74 279 -9 $165,000
T-9 Ian Poulter 70-70-68-71 279 -9 $165,000
T-9 Ryan Moore 71-72-67-69 279 -9 $165,000
T-12 Chris DiMarco 71-70-67-72 280 -8 $135,500
T-12 Sean O'Hair 72-70-70-68 280 -8 $135,500
T-14 Tim Herron 69-67-72-73 281 -7 $115,000
T-14 Henrik Stenson 68-68-73-72 281 -7 $115,000
T-16 Phil Mickelson 69-71-68-74 282 -6 $94,000
T-16 David Toms 71-67-71-73 282 -6 $94,000
T-16 Woody Austin 71-69-69-73 282 -6 $94,000
T-16 Ernie Els 71-70-72-69 282 -6 $94,000
T-20 Harrison Frazar 69-72-69-73 283 -5 $71,250
T-20 Fred Funk 69-69-74-71 283 -5 $71,250
T-20 Robert Allenby 68-74-71-70 283 -5 $71,250
T-20 Jonathan Byrd 69-72-74-68 283 -5 $71,250
PGA Championship (2005 Top 20)
Player Scores Total To Par Earnings
Win Phil Mickelson 67-65-72-72 276 -4 $1,170,000
T-2 Thomas Bjorn 71-71-63-72 277 -3 $572,000
T-2 Steve Elkington 68-70-68-71 277 -3 $572,000
T-4 Davis Love III 68-68-68-74 278 -2 $286,000
T-4 Tiger Woods 75-69-66-68 278 -2 $286,000
T-6 Pat Perez 68-71-67-73 279 -1 $202,500
T-6 Retief Goosen 68-70-69-72 279 -1 $202,500
T-6 Geoff Ogilvy 69-69-72-69 279 -1 $202,500
T-6 Michael Campbell 73-68-69-69 279 -1 $202,500
T-10 Vijay Singh 70-67-69-74 280 Even $132,800
T-10 Dudley Hart 70-73-66-71 280 Even $132,800
T-10 Steve Flesch 70-71-69-70 280 Even $132,800
T-10 David Toms 71-72-69-68 280 Even $132,800
T-10 Ted Purdy 69-75-70-66 280 Even $132,800
T-15 Stuart Appleby 67-70-69-75 281 1 $103,500
T-15 Charles Howell III 70-71-68-72 281 1 $103,500
T-17 Lee Westwood 68-68-71-75 282 2 $83,500
T-17 Bo Van Pelt 70-70-68-74 282 2 $83,500
T-17 Trevor Immelman 67-72-72-71 282 2 $83,500
T-17 Joe Ogilvie 74-68-69-71 282 2 $83,500
T-17 Zach Johnson 70-70-73-69 282 2 $83,500
T-17 Tim Clark 71-73-70-68 282 2 $83,500
The most recent major to be held at Southern Hills was the 2001 U.S. Open. Those results are shown below.
2001 U.S. Open (Southern Hills)
Player Scores Total To Par Earnings
Win Retief Goosen 66-70-69-71 276 -4 $900,000
2 Mark Brooks 72-64-70-70 276 -4 $530,000
3 Stewart Cink 69-69-67-72 277 -3 $325,310
4 Rocco Mediate 71-68-67-72 278 -2 $227,777
T-5 Tom Kite 73-72-72-64 281 1 $173,912
T-5 Paul Azinger 74-67-69-71 281 1 $173,912
T-7 Angel Cabrera 70-71-72-69 282 2 $125,172
T-7 Davis Love III 72-69-71-70 282 2 $125,172
T-7 Kirk Triplett 72-69-71-70 282 2 $125,172
T-7 Vijay Singh 74-70-74-64 282 2 $125,172
T-7 Phil Mickelson 70-69-68-75 282 2 $125,172
T-12 Matt Gogel 70-69-74-70 283 3 $92,734
T-12 Tiger Woods 74-71-69-69 283 3 $92,734
T-12 Sergio Garcia 70-68-68-77 283 3 $92,734
T-12 Michael Allen 77-68-67-71 283 3 $92,734
T-16 Chris DiMarco 69-73-70-72 284 4 $75,337
T-16 Scott Hoch 73-73-69-69 284 4 $75,337
T-16 David Duval 70-69-71-74 284 4 $75,337
T-19 Chris Perry 72-71-73-69 285 5 $63,426
T-19 Corey Pavin 70-75-68-72 285 5 $63,426
T-19 Mike Weir 67-76-68-74 285 5 $63,426
Recent History
Year Champion Runner Up
2004 Vijay Singh Justin Leonard / Chris DiMarco
2003 Shaun Micheel Chad Campbell
2002 Rich Beem Tiger Woods
2001 David Toms Phil Mickelson
2000 Tiger Woods Bob May
World Rankings
The following are the top-ranked players from the current Official World Golf Rankings entered into this event:
1. Tiger Woods
2. Jim Furyk
3. Phil Mickelson
4. Ernie Els
5. Adam Scott
6. Padraig Harrington
7. Vijay Singh
8. Sergio Garcia
9. Henrik Stenson
10. Geoff Ogilvy
11. Rory Sabbatini
12. Luke Donald
13. K.J. Choi
14. Steve Stricker
15. Zach Johnson
16. Justin Rose
17. Retief Goosen
18. Angel Cabrera
19. Paul Casey
20. Trevor Immelman
