Oakland Hills has starring role

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 on three of the final four holes.

The PGA's history of players breaking through adds to the wide-open feel -- 15 of the last 25 winners of the PGA were first-time major winners.

Oakland Hills, though, won't yield easily to anyone.

"This golf course is set up more like what a U.S. Open was set up like three or four years ago, where missing a fairway by a couple yards is like missing it by 10 yards," Harrington said. "This is a tougher test in those terms, a more intimidating test and more punishing in that sense."

This marks the ninth time Oakland Hills will be host to a major, the first time since Steve Jones won the U.S. Open here in 1996.