The often used mantra that we hear in golf these days of 'not mixing politics and sport' rings fairly hollow in regard to the second men’s major of the year - this week’s US PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma which has been severely affected by two separate doses of that potent cocktail.
The riots in Washington DC in the vicinity of the Capitol Building on January the 6th, 2021 set about a chain of events which effected a change of venue for the ’22 edition from it’s original ‘home’ of Trump Bedminster in New Jersey to a southern state where, somewhat ironically, all 77 counties voted for Trump at the last Presidential election.
Then there is the entirely unrelated matter of the reigning champion not defending his title – a collateral-damage-scenario relating to the controversial Saudi backed LIV Golf Tour and unflattering comments revealed last February about Saudi Arabia made by the man who won this title so remarkably a year ago, the now 51 year old Phil Mickelson.
Unsurprisingly, questions about the heavily funded upstart new tour and the absence of the 2021 champion from the field have dominated the preview press conference days but at some point, the talk will eventually turn to golf and when it does, the players may still find it difficult to grab the attention away from a golf course which has element of star quality and a pedigree to match.
Southern Hills, which has been the venue for four previous US PGA’s and three US Opens is vastly changed from the layout which last staged a ‘major’ in 2007.
More than 400 yards have since been added to the course originally designed by Perry Maxwell in 1936 and upgraded in 2019 by Gil Hanse – a golf architect known for designing the much lauded Olympic Course
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