The 2022 PGA Championship is the 104th PGA Championship, to be held from May 19–22 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is not the first time this prestigious event was held at Southern Hills and I am confident it will not be the last. As the play at this Major continues, I stumbled across this video of the challenges faced by PGA professionals at Southern Hills. Many amateurs can relate to this video because we have experienced some of their challenges.
When I wrote this video, Rory McIlroy was leading. I wonder if he will have the 36 hole lead on Saturday. Regardless, I am planning to watch a bit of the action this weekend, but in the meantime I am off to the course.
Have a great weekend.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
Most courses I’ve played have greens that are nowhere near that tough. But the greens in that video do remind me of the pain we endured the past two weeks at Chi Chi’s. The guys and I have talked about it and I found this:
“The hole location should have at least 3′ around the hole (holing-out area) that is consistent in slope. In no case should holes be located in tricky places or on sharp slopes where a ball can gather speed. A player above the hole should be able to putt with a reasonable degree of boldness and not purely defensively.”
Taken from a Sid Martin blog explaining PGA guidelines for pin placements. The word reasonable might make some think it’s subjective, but the real consideration is it doesn’t mention that expectation has to be from 360 degrees around the hole. So any slope your course decides to set a hole location on is pretty much going to be within the confines of the guidelines because you can make a reasonably bold attempt from under the hole on most any slope. The trick for us is being in that spot and not where it feels like we’re 4 feet above the hole on the top tier looking down where we’re forced to go defensive.
Greens like that just amplify the need to know exactly where to place your ball. You have to be far more precise than usual and more analytical. Because failure as they say is not an option. At least not one we want on those kinds of greens where big numbers can and will bite us.
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Kevin,
I agree completely. I have played many golf holes where the pin is in an unfair location. Just last week I played a hole that if you missed within inches to the hole, it was not staying there. It would roll back to five feet. I fortunately make my first putt, but my playing partners did not. Totally an unfair pin location.
Cheers Jim
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