After playing the Atlanta Athletic Club's Highlands Course – the site of this year's PGA Championship -- for the first time on Monday, Martin Kaymer predicts the winning score will be much lower than the last two times the course has hosted the major.
Kaymer, who won the tournament last year at Whistling Straits, said this year's winner will likely break par, but not by much.
"I'm expecting single-digit under-par," the German native said.
Playing the course as aggressively as he said he could in conditions that were tough but not tournament tough, Kaymer shot a 3-under par today, including four birdies and one bogey.
David Toms won with a 15-under par when the PGA Championship was held here in 2001. Larry Nelson shot a 7-under par in 1981. This year's tournament will begin Aug. 11.
The course underwent a redesign five years ago. Rees Jones, one of the architects of the changes that included redone bunkering around many of the greens, said he agrees withthat prediction, depending upon the placement of the pins and tee boxes. The course will stretch 7,467 yards across a par 70. That length is why Kaymer said scores won't match Toms', or even be as low as the 11-under that clinched the Wanamaker Trophy for him last year.
He said the Highlands Course couldn't be more different than Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. Kaymer compared that wide-open track to a British Open-style course without the poor weather. Whereas the Highlands Course, with its tight fairways and short, but thick rough, won't allow golfers just to bomb it off the tee.
"It's a long golf course, but you have to strike the ball well," he said. "I like the courses that you have to hit it straight. It's long and you have to be precise."
The course won't change much over the next three months from the one Kaymer played on Monday, according to Ken Mangum, the club's director of golf courses and grounds. The fairways were tight, but Kaymer liked that. He said the ball made a good sound when he hit it, which he liked.
The rough was tough enough to stop players from controlling the spin. The bunkers were soft and the greens were already fast, but not "Glory's last shot" – as the PGA Championship is called – quick.
The course will offer many varieties for the players, which should please the fans. The tee box on No. 6, a 425-yard par 4, may be moved up at least two days of the tournament to give the players the option of trying to drive the green. A pond was added as one of the renovations, punishing those who don't hit the target.
The last four holes, starting with the 260-yard par-3 15th, will likely determine the winner. No. 16 is a 476-yard par 4, No. 17 is a 207-yard par 3 and the finishing hole is the monstrously long 507-yard par 4, which features water down the left and in front of the green. Jones said a lot of things will happen on 18. Kaymer has already seen that.
"You need to give yourself chances and avoid the big number," Kaymer said. "The last four holes are very tough."
Though he hasn't won in the United Statessince his PGA Championship, Kaymer won three more times on the European Tour to give the 26-year-old nine wins in his blossoming career. The victories vaulted him briefly to the No. 1 player in the world rankings. He seems ready to defend his title and earn his second victory in the United States, the first of what he hopes are many more.
"I'm very excited to come to Atlanta," he said.
PGA Championship
When: Aug. 11-14
Where: Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek
Course: Highlands Course, par 70, 7,467 yards.
Tickets: On sale at www.pgachampionship.com
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