2020 PGA Championship Preview

nickcouling
Aug 6, 2020
3 min read

Willie Anderson, Peter Thomson, Bob Ferguson, Jamie Anderson and Walter Hagen, you may recognize some of these names even though they played far long before many of us were even born. Looking back at their accomplishments we see an astonishing combined 167 professional victories including 58 on the PGA Tour. These men together have won 26 major championships and leading into this weekends PGA Championship the one accolade that only these men all share could add one more name to that list; Brooks Koepka.

Since the first ever Open Championship held in 1860, these 5 men are the only golfers who have successfully defended a major championship in consecutive years. Thomson, Fergusson, and J. Anderson all held 3 consecutive Open Championship titles from the mid 1860’s through the mid 1950’ Whereas Willie Anderson won the US Open from 1903 to 1905, and Walter Hagen the PGA Championship from 1923-1927 being the only golfers to ever hold these major championships for 3 consecutive years. After 64 years since Thomson recorded his last of three, we see Koepka coming into the PGA Championship with his opportunity to join this short this. Wins in 2018 at Bellerive CC and in 2019 at Bethpage Black Course have given Koepka the chance to head to TPC Harding Park and place his name among these true legends of the sport.

With a combined minus 24 in his last 8 rounds at The PGA championship Koepka has shown composure and a sense of comfort playing for this prestigious championship. In his last 6 starts at the PGA championship Koepka has successfully made the cut each year and tallied an impressive 2-Top 20 and 4-Top 5 Finishes while going a combined minus 55 which just goes to show this late season major really seems to be when he is in his prime. When we take a look at the hosting venue TPC Harding Park Koepka has limited success. Only competing in the 2015 WGC- Cadillac Match Play Event, he managed to go 2-1 and finish second in his pool unfortunately not enough to move on to the elimination bracket rounds. With only 2 top 10 finishes in his 10 starts this year some people may be underestimating his ability to pull of a third consecutive PGA Championship, but with his runner up in last week’s St. Jude Invitational we might be seeing that late season form that he has shown in the past. This feat will not be an easy task for Koepka with hot players like Justin Thomas in the field this weekend, along with a young golfer by the name of Jordan Spieth eager to finally finish his career grand slam. Koepka will be teeing it up with current reigning US Open Champion Gary Woodland and Current Open Champion Shane Lowry at 8:11am on Thursday. We should be prepared for a competitive weekend of golf, with career grand slams, playoff spots and a rare Major 3-peat all in the works; the only major championship on the calendar this year should be a good one.

Before we sit back and watch these players battle it out we have a couple predictions of our own, with strong performances coming back from the break we expect to see Jon Rahm out front and leading this one by the end of the weekend. Rahm battled through a tough Memorial Tournament a couple weeks ago to come out on top, coming up short his first few attempts at a major has us thinking this is the one. Another player we will be watching this weekend that might not be on everyone’s radar is Cameron Champ. Maybe he has not answered the call since his win back in the early season but let’s not count out this youngster, he hits a long, controlled ball which can be very crucial on this course.