The Course Is Easy, but Field Is Tough

Golf’s last major championship of the year begins today in rural Kentucky at cozy Valhalla Golf Club. Need directions? Turn left at the first cornfield and you’re here.

Welcome to the 78th PGA Championship, where it’s as hot and humid as a steamed vegetable platter, the course is like rolling golf balls into open manholes and the winner gets to carry off $430,000 or run in the Kentucky Derby, whichever he chooses.

This is the situation facing Steve Elkington, the defending champion, who won his first major title in 10 years on the tour at last year’s PGA event.

That was at Riviera Country Club, where the greens probably weren’t as good as they are at Valhalla, but there wasn’t as much hay lying around either.

If Elkington wants to repeat, his task is a mighty one. All he needs to do is finish ahead of 149 other professional golfers in the strongest field of the year--81 of the top 100 golfers in the SONY rankings.

So far this year, Elkington has been a minor factor in the majors. He missed the cut at the Masters, tied for 40th at the U.S. Open and missed the cut at the British Open.

Elkington tied for 60th last week at the Buick Open in Michigan, but closed with a 66 and that made him feel much better about having to spend a week tromping around in a field in Kentucky, trying to avoid hay fever.

“I left there feeling like a winner,” Elkington said. “I feel as relaxed as I can be about my game at the moment. I’m not anxious about anything.”

It’s probably a good time to start worrying about the heat, though. Tom Watson, who said several players quit their practice rounds after nine holes, plans a three-glove rotation system so one of them is always dry.

Elkington said his plan to beat the heat is to drink a lot of water. Besides, Houston is good practice if you are either a golfer or a tropical plant.

Since he underwent sinus surgery two years ago and began taking injections for an allergy problem, Elkington’s health problems have settled down.

Elkington still is susceptible to sinus problems because he is allergic to grass. This is no small drawback for a professional golfer, who as you might imagine spends a great deal of time working in grassy areas.

Maybe it won’t matter. Chances are that many players are going to get off the course quickly this week. That’s because Valhalla is not exactly putting up much of a fight right now.

If Valhalla were any easier, they’d probably put some windmills or dragons out there in front of the greens. The scores may be low, really low.

“It might get pretty ridiculous,” Fred Couples said.

Elkington tried to be slightly more diplomatic.

“This is an extremely playable course,” he said. “Everybody’s anxious to find out whether or not this course is going to be eaten up by the pros. We don’t really care if we play in a cow pasture, but I don’t want that to be taken the wrong way. I don’t think it matters what score wins, to be honest.”

That’s the best way to be, all right. The 33-year-old transplanted Australian who lives in Houston has made a very pleasant career out of a very sweet golf swing.

He has six PGA Tour victories, including the Mercedes Championship at La Costa and the PGA at Riviera last year. His earnings are close to $5 million, which can buy a lot of his beloved roses for his garden back home.

Elkington didn’t know what to expect last year, basically because he was recovering from a sinus infection and felt lousy.

But he put together rounds of 68-67-68-64 for a 17-under par total of 267, the lowest score in PGA Championship history. It was the lowest score in a U.S. major championship and matched Greg Norman’s all-time scoring mark for a major, set in the 1993 British Open.

Colin Montgomerie, who also lost in a playoff in the 1994 U.S. Open, watched Elkington roll in a 25-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Riviera. Montgomerie needed to make a 20-foot birdie putt of his own to stay in it, but the ball slid just past the hole.

Montgomerie said he still sees that ball rolling and rolling and not going in.

Elkington said he still can’t believe it didn’t go in.

“When I left Riviera last year, I realized that my life has changed forever,” he said. “To be a major championship winner was certainly something that I only dreamed of as a child.

“If I had known the excitement and hoopla that it created, I may not have even been able to do it.”

Now he has the chance to do it again. It’s probably going to be a sprint to the finish line, a dash for the cash, a whole lot of players reaching the 605-yard par-five seventh hole in two and even more running for cover in the air-conditioned locker room.

“At the end, you hope it’s just you and Faldo like it was for Lehman at the British, or Lehman and Ernie Els. You hope it’s like that. You hope it doesn’t come down to 25 guys the last day.”

If the scores are as low as people think, it may come down to 25 guys on the last hole.