Baltusrol Goes Long for the PGA

There is nothing like a 650-yard, uphill par five to get your attention, so that’s how the PGA of America altered the 17th hole at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., where the PGA Championship begins in two weeks.

Vijay Singh, the defending champion after withstanding Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., last August, played a practice round this week at Baltusrol and got a first-hand look at what promises to be a lengthy challenge at the fourth and final major of the year.

Singh hit a driver and a three-wood at the 17th and was still 70 yards short of the green.

“You can’t really say it’s a reachable or birdie opportunity,” he said. “I mean, you have to lay up and if you miss the fairway off the tee, then it’s a really difficult par five.”

The 17th will play 20 yards longer than it did at the 1993 U.S. Open, when John Daly reached the green in two in the second round.

Baltusrol, a par-70 layout, has been stretched to 7,392 yards -- about 100 yards shorter than Whistling Straits, which was a par 72, and the place where Singh won despite finishing with a 76. He beat Chris DiMarco and Justin Leonard in a playoff. Tiger Woods was six shots back.

Baltusrol’s par-four third hole has been lengthened 35 yards, to 503 yards, and it’s no simple task either.

“The tee box has gone back way left and it’s very tight up there,” Singh said. “The fairway kind of doglegs to the left. I saw the width of the fairway and I did mention this is one hole that they could have made a little wider, but that’s me ... 503 yards, that’s a par-five length, so that’s going to play long.”

Singh predicts length will be the difference at Baltusrol.

“A lot of five-irons and four-irons and three-irons [into the green] and if you’re Corey Pavin, you need a lot of woods, I guess. It’s going to play really long.”

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The LPGA’s last major starts today at Royal Birkdale at Southport, England, where teen sensations Paula Creamer and Michelle Wie are both on hand, while Annika Sorenstam probably wishes she could have shown up under vastly different circumstances.

Sorenstam, who won the first two majors, the Kraft Nabisco and the LPGA Championship, by a combined 11 shots, tried to make it three straight at the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills in Colorado and flopped miserably. She tied for 23rd -- her worst finish of the year.

So instead of having a shot at the Grand Slam, Sorenstam is in something of a different role lately, watching 18-year-old Creamer and 15-year-old amateur Wie hog the spotlight. Creamer won the Evian Masters last week (beating Sorenstam by 10 shots the last two rounds) while Wie placed second, her third runner-up finish this year.

After beginning the year by winning six of her first eight tournaments, Sorenstam is 0 for 3.

“It would be great to bounce back after the U.S. Open with another major,” she said.

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It might have been a wipeout, but the seventh and probably last prime-time golf event -- the Battle at the Bridges -- didn’t sink in the ratings. In fact, it got the same as last year for ABC -- a 3.6 rating. That’s a steep drop from the 7.6 rating that the same made-for-TV exercise drew in 2000, but it’s probably not too surprising since the show seemed to have run its course long before this finale.

Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson defeated Woods and Daly, 5 and 3, in the most lopsided of the series that began in 1999 with Woods against David Duval at Sherwood Country Club and in all likelihood ended Monday night at Rancho Santa Fe.

The reason? Woods wants a break.

Woods, by the way, is back at it this week when he plays the Buick Open at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Mich., a tournament he won in 2002. Woods has five top 10s in six appearances at the Buick Open, but Singh is the defending champion with a wire-to-wire victory a year ago. He then won the PGA Championship two weeks later.

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Anyone who watched the British Open telecast on ABC might have noticed the six-story red stone building behind the 18th green and the grandstands next to the familiar Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews’ building. It’s called Hamilton Hall, but not for long.

Work will begin next July to remodel the place into an exclusive enclave of 23 luxury residences and be renamed the St. Andrews Grand. The building, built in 1895, will have a concierge, a spa, a grocery service, golf valets, bellmen, personal drivers and a chef upon request.

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The round of the week was by Joe Inman at the Senior British Open at Royal Aberdeen at Aberdeen, Scotland. In the first round, Inman had a 51 on the front and a 34 on the back for an 85, but he still made the cut and wound up tied for 46th.

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On his path to winning the U.S. Bank Championship last week at Milwaukee, Ben Crane made exactly 400 feet of putts, needing 107 shots -- the fewest of anyone in the field -- to reach that number.

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Elgin Baylor, Sam Cassell, Ron Cey, Denny Crum, Eric Dickerson, Mike Dunleavy, Steve Garvey, Jim Harrick, Deacon Jones, David Justice, Brent Musberger, Rudy Tomjanovich and Mark Spitz are among those scheduled to play in the Harold Pump Memorial celebrity tournament Wednesday at Los Canyons Golf Course in Simi Valley. The event benefits the Northridge Hospital cancer center.