Well done to Jhonattan Vegas on coming back from several injuries to secure his second PGA TOUR win last week in Toronto.
Once again RBC and Glen Abbey put on an amazing event, which certainly played like a major. The fans were also great and you can tell they love their golf. Congratulations also to RBC on the announcement last week of the extension of its title sponsorship of the RBC Canadian Open and the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head for a further six years, starting in 2018 and running through to 2023. RBC does a superb job at both of these tournaments and the company’s continued support to the game and to various charities is truly amazing. It makes me proud to be part of Team RBC.
The local weather has been very dry this summer and the course at Glen Abbey was playing very differently to when we played it in previous years. It’s a good test and with the firmness of the course it put ball striking at a premium. I played solidly with plenty of birdies, but I just need to remove the errors, which are really costing me both on the scorecard and also from a momentum perspective to the round.
With this being an Olympic golf year, the PGA Championship has been moved up in the schedule, which means we have the unusual experience of playing two majors in the space of three weeks. So here we are at Baltusrol, one of America’s most iconic venues having hosted seven US Opens, one PGA and many other prestigious professional and amateur championships. It’s a club with a genuinely fascinating history, not least Jack Nicklaus’ two US Open wins here, including in 1967 when he hit that famous 1-iron on the 72nd hole and broke Ben Hogan’s scoring record. There’s a plaque there still, which commemorates one of the all-time great shots in majors.
My own personal experience here is limited to the 1993 US Open, which was also my first ever US Open, and with a top-10 finish that week you could say it was love at first sight. In fact, I’d rate the Lower Course at Baltusrol as one of my favourite courses in the country. Sadly I wasn’t able to play the 2005 PGA Championship here, as I’d injured my knee that summer and was recovering from surgery. I remember it was tough missing that one, though, so I’m excited to be back now and already looking forward to teeing off in R1 & R2 with a really good pairing of Rickie Fowler and Zach Johnson. We’re off nice and early at 7.40am on Thursday and then at 12.55pm on Friday.
Baltusrol is one of those classic northeast American clubs established around the turn of the 20th century, with two courses designed by one of the legendary golf course architects AW Tillinghast. He introduced some pioneering new ideas when he created this layout and was also a strong believer in the concept of a golf course evolving and moving with the times, never standing still. I like that. As a golf course designer myself, and a lifelong student of the history of golf course architecture, I find characters like Tillinghast really fascinating. And having enjoyed Baltusrol and some of his other courses over the years, such as Winged Foot and Ridgewood Country Club among others, I count myself as definitely one of his admirers.
Anyway, with Tillinghast’s forward-thinking mentality I’m sure he wouldn’t have objected to the tweaks and improvements that have taken place at Baltusrol these past 20-odd years under the guidance of Rees Jones. The Lower Course is now a thoroughly modern challenge, with 21st century shot values, but one in which Tillinghast’s design genius remains intact and right there in front of your eyes. As I said, it’s a challenge that I’m looking forward to. I haven’t got it going in any of this year’s majors, which is obviously disappointing, but we can make up for that in a big way with a strong performance here. Teeing it up to win is, as always, my mindset this week.
One final note, some of the Els for Autism Golf Challenge teams were among the very last groups to play Baltusrol a couple of weeks ago, quite a special experience to play amongst the stands and under near-tournament conditions. Thanks to everyone at the Club for hosting what I hear was a very successful day. Hopefully, the Golf Challenge will return there again next year. In the meantime, we’re proud to say there are plenty of other top quality courses on the remainder of this year’s schedule. Please click here if you’d like to find out more and take part.
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