He Says: Major Season
We decided to start out trip across Canada by diving into the states for one reason – major championship golf. The PGA Championship, one of the four grand slam events in the golfing calendar was in New York in May and I didn’t want to miss a chance to see my heroes in action.
We made the trip to Scotland in 2018 to catch the British Open at Carnoustie, and the PGA Championship in New York couldn’t have been more different – think polite understanding fans who love the game vs. raucous New Yorkers juiced up on $15 Michelob Ultras…a classic links course by the ocean baked out over the course of a long summer vs. a juicy brute with long rough, narrow fairways and tiny greens, a startling contrast for sure.
We bought tickets for a practice round on Wednesday and the second round on Friday. A full day as a spectator typically entails a very early start, 20,000 steps or so, and 12 hours in the sun…I learned my lesson from the Open when I tried to go two days in a row and made sure to add a day in between to recover. Practice rounds are great because tickets cost as third as much, and it is much easier to get around the course and take whatever pictures you want. Things definitely step up on the competition days however, and it is easy to see the difference in the players when there are millions of dollars on the line.
The venue for this years PGA Championship was the Black course at Bethpage State Park on Long Island. Unusually for professional golf, which are typically played on exclusive private courses (don’t get too close to the gate!), the Black course is a municipal course, which means it is state owned and open to the public to play. There are 5 courses at Bethpage State Park of varying degrees of difficulty, with the Black being the most difficult – so difficult it even has a famous warning sign next to the first tee to ward off any pretenders. Despite its difficulty the Black course is famous for its lines outside the gate that start at 3am to get a tee time, even with the $200 green fee. For most golfers it is one of the few opportunities to play the same course as the pros.
Tiger-mania was back in full swing, with the Big Cat fresh off his Masters victory a month earlier. Crowds to see him were at least eight rows deep, and the only way to even get close was to stake out a hole an hour ahead and watch the groups come through. The guys I really feel for are the ones who had to play right after him, stuck behind a crowd of 20,000 people who are all there to see one guy!
To summarise the experience in one word – intense. Watching tournament golf in the USA is a completely different animal to anywhere else in the world. Getting to see the pros play up close is always a fun and humbling experience especially when they are making one of the hardest courses in the world look so easy! A great few days with some great people before we headed off up the East coast to carry on our adventure.
