Course is the star at PGA Championship
GOLF
There's no Tiger Woods, but there is Oakland Hills, which is hosting its ninth major championship.
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Sometimes the stage can be as mesmerizing as any of the stars who cross it.
Tiger Woods may not be here to tee it up in today's start of the 90th PGA Championship, but Oakland Hills is a star to behold onto itself.
This historic Donald Ross design promises to be a force in this week's competition.
"It's a beast," said Rocco Mediate, runner-up to Woods in the U.S. Open.
The South Course, which opened in 1918, is an aristocratic, blue-blooded member of the major championship rotation. It's as indomitable as was its first head pro, Walter Hagen. The course is hosting its third PGA Championship, to go with six U.S. Opens. It is, most of all, a mercurial test, all about deciphering the puzzle on its confounding greens.
"I love the golf course," said Kenny Perry, a three-time winner this year. "The greens are a little crazy. There's a lot of swales out there that you have to figure out and not short side yourself. You've got to think a lot."
Woods, recovering from season-ending knee surgery, is the first PGA champion unable to defend his title since Ben Hogan couldn't in 1949 as he recovered from a near fatal crash.
"I probably won't watch any of this one," Woods told ESPN Radio this week. "This one's a little more frustrating for me. I'm two-time defending champ and not being able to get out there and defend something I've already defended once and can't do it twice, it's a little bit frustrating."
With Woods gone, Phil Mickelson is the official favorite by virtually every bookmaker. Ladbrokes.com has him at 10-1, with British Open champion Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Vijay Singh next at 20-1.
The PGA Championship, however, feels wide open after Mickelson squandered a chance to win the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday, making bogeys at three of the final four holes. He hasn't contended in a major since he knocked that shot off the hospitality tent on the last hole of the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot and declared himself an "idiot."
"I would have loved to have won last week, there's no arguing that point," said Mickelson, whose three major championship titles include the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. "But I really needed to be there [in contention] like I was. I needed to feel the pressure, and I needed to play well on a tough golf course heading into this week. I've taken a lot of positives out of last week."
