Long Medinah Is Now Even Longer

Medinah Country Club, “The Monster of the Midwest,” began the decade hosting a memorable major golf championship and now it is the venue for the last major of the 1990s, this week’s PGA Championship.

Medinah’s famed No. 3 course has been modified since it staged the 1990 U.S. Open, which Hale Irwin won in a 19-hole playoff.

Several of its treacherous greens have been rebuilt, a new one has been added at the 17th hole and every hole has been lengthened.

In 1990, Medinah, at 7,192 yards, was the longest course to host an Open. Now, stretched to 7,401 yards, it is considered the longest layout ever used for any of golf’s four Grand Slam events.

While most holes were lengthened by moving the tee back, a new green was built at the pivotal 17th, making the watery par-three not only longer but more challenging. It is now a 206-yard hole.

Conditions are expected to be hard and fast at the golf complex just west of Chicago, which has been baking in a severe heat wave most of the summer. Some of the putting surfaces were already discolored from heat stress when players began arriving on Monday.

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John Daly has missed other majors during his ongoing battle with alcoholism, but this is the first PGA Championship he has missed since his stunning victory at Crooked Stick in 1991.

According to Callaway tour rep Mike Galeski, Daly told him last week his game simply wasn’t ready. Daly was replaced by Mike Reid, whose bogey-double bogey-par finish cost him the 1989 PGA Championship at nearby Kemper Lakes.

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In the confusing weekly world rankings, David Duval replaced Tiger Woods as No. 1 even though neither played in the Buick Open over the weekend.

Duval’s points average rose from 13.92 to 14.20; Woods’s increased from 14.04 to 14.13.

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A few spots remain for the Jim Murray Inaugural Golf Classic, which will be held at Riviera Country Club in Palisades on Monday. Proceeds benefit the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation. Details: Juli Filkoff at (818) 344-6195, Ext. 101.

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81st PGA Championship

* When--Thursday-Sunday

* Where--Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Ill.

* The Course--Medinah was a 1920s project of Chicago’s Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and named after the home of the Mohammedan religion, a city in Saudi Arabia. The No. 3 course, which will be used for the PGA Championship, was completed in 1928 and originally designed for the women members. It since has been redesigned four times.

* Length--7,401 yards. * Par--36-36--72.

* TV--Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., TNT. Saturday-Sunday, 7:30-10 a.m., TNT. 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., CBS.