One of Jack Nicklaus’ happiest hunting grounds, Baltusrol Golf Club will host the 98^th PGA Championship. The presence of the ‘Golden Bear’ looms largely over the course in Springfield, New Jersey. The all-time major record holder won two of his 18 major titles at Baltusrol. His 238-yard uphill, into-the-wind, 1-iron approach is commemorated with a plaque on the final hole.

“I’ve gone back with that 1-iron and tried to hit it to the green from that spot 238 yards away and couldn’t do it again,” Nicklaus said. “I first tried to hit some 1-irons up there and was short. Then I tried to hit 3-wood and still couldn’t reach. Finally, I teed up a driver and finally got there.”

That shot was very much in the mind of Phil Mickelson during the last staging of the PGA Championship here in 2005 as he played the final hole. “To win here where Jack Nicklaus has won a couple of times makes it a very special week.” Mickelson said. “I touched his plaque there on 18 just to get some good karma.” ‘Lefty’ would end up birdieing the hole to win his second of five majors by one stroke.

Baltusrol is one of the oldest courses still in rotation for American major championships, having been founded in 1895. The original course hosted its first U.S. Open in 1903. A.W. Tillinghast, also the architect of other famous New York/New Jersey golf courses such as Winged Foot and Bethpage Black, was tasked with coming up a top-quality dual-course club.

Baltusrol has hosted 15 USGA-sponsored championships and one PGA tournament since and is the only two-course club to ever host both the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Opens on both of its courses. In 1954, the first U.S. Open to broadcast on television was filmed at Baltusrol ias Ed Furgol beat the favourite Ben Hogan.

This PGA Championship will be held on the Lower course, which is a 7,392-yard par 70 layout. Interestingly, there are no par 5s for the first 16 holes, and with only two par 4s under 400 yards, a wise strategy for an aspiring champion might be to bide his time before striking at the end of the round. Although, the final two holes are no walk in the park either.

The 17^th hole is a massive 650 yards uphill, which only Tiger Woods and John Daly have gotten to greenside in two shots in Championship play. The legend of the 17^th hole for many years was that nobody could reach it in two shots. This was not the sort of challenge that the ‘Wild Thing’ John Daly shied away from, and in 1993 the big-hitter hit a 320+ yard drive followed by a 287-yard 1 iron to make the green in two. It was a remarkable display of power back in the days of persimmon woods and balata golf balls. Given the power in the game today, it will be interesting to see if the likes of U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson go for the green this time around.

 

The double par 5 finish does make for an exciting major Sunday setting and that was the case in 1980 when Nicklaus won the U.S. Open. Jack was level with Japanese player Isao Aoki with the final two holes remaining. Nicklaus had not won for well over a year and many had been writing him off as a spent force at age 40. When the American birdied the final two holes on Sunday, holing putts from 22 feet and 10 feet to win by one stroke, the tagline for the event became “Jack is Back!” He would also win the PGA Championship that year.

In 2005, it was not a famous 1-iron or a famous putt that would win the title for Phil Mickelson. It was fitting though that Mickelson’s trusty wedge play would save the day for him. A superb chip from deep rough to stone dead would secure a birdie on the last and a one shot victory over Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington. “This win is going to make it easier and easier for him to win more majors and he deserves greatness,” runner-up Bjorn said in the aftermath of Phil’s second major win. The American now has five majors.

Open runner-up Mickelson will be in the field again as he looks for his sixth major title, as well as numerous other past champions, as the PGA Championship temporarily takes place from July 28-31 to avoid a clash with the Olympics. It means two majors in three weeks and no time to rest after the Open in Troon for the elite golfers in an unusual year. Two such past champions are Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington, who will tee up in New Jersey with fellow Irishmen Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke.

McIlroy has won two PGA Championships (2012, 2014) and two tied third finishes from seven attempts, making it his most successful major to date. Perhaps the key to his success there has been the fact that the PGA is set up most like a regular PGA Tour event, while the Masters and U.S. Open are generally played on treacherous greens and the Open in windy conditions – conditions that McIlroy has sometimes struggled on.

It has been a relatively quiet year for Graeme McDowell so far, with some solid finishes but no consistency – nine missed cuts this year so far. McDowell may not have been set to play in this event if it was at the usual date in mid-August. His wife Kristin is pregnant and due then, which was cited as a decision to withdraw from the Olympics. Given that he will be missing a few weeks in August, McDowell must make hay then when the sun shines if he wants to make the Ryder Cup team and a good showing in the PGA Championship would go a long way there.

 

Harrington will play in Baltusrol, which will also work as a warm-up for his Olympic bid. The withdrawals of Lowry, McIlroy and McDowell will give the 44-year-old Dubliner a chance he must have thought had passed in Rio. There is every chance that the Olympic boost will give his game renewed focus after various struggles over the past number of years. Harrington missed the cut by a considerable distance in 2005 at Baltusrol, one of three missed cuts in majors that year. Little did he know then that three majors in two years was just around the corner.

That must be of some solace to Shane Lowry, who continues to battle for his first major title. He missed a great opportunity in Oakmont to close the deal in the U.S. Open, leading by four strokes going into the final round before finishing tied second behind Dustin Johnson.  Having also finished second in majors 19 times, not to mention his nine thirds, Jack Nicklaus knows as much about losing as winning. He said about Lowry in a corporate event at Royal Dublin, the day after the U.S. Open loss: “It isn’t a question that he doesn’t know how to win. It’s just how you apply what happened to you. How do you apply it for the next time you are in a similar situation?”

Lowry must learn a lesson from his U.S. Open disappointment because he has showed he has the game for long, challenging courses, which Baltusrol is also. If he is going to defeat the endless list of world-class contenders – including Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth – for the 2016 PGA Championship, then he should look no further than heeding the advice of ‘Golden Bear’, on a course that helped secure Nicklaus’ legacy as the greatest.