2016 PGA Championship Preview

2016 PGA Championship Media Notes
(The 39th of 42 events in the PGA TOUR Season)

Dates: July 25-31, 2016
Where: Baltusrol Golf Club, Springfield, N.J.
Par/Yards: 34-36—70 (7,462)
Field: 156
Format: 72-hole stroke play
FedExCup Points: 600 (to the winner)
Purse: $10,000,000 ($1.8 million to the winner)
Defending Champion: Jason Day
Cut: Following the first 36 holes, the field of 156 players will be reduced to the low 70 scorers and ties.
Playoff: In the event of a tie for first place after 72 holes, there will be a three-hole aggregate-score playoff. If a tie remains, it becomes a hole-by-hole sudden death.

What the winner of the PGA Championship receives

• $1.8 million; 600 FedExCup points; replica of Wannamaker Trophy
• A lifetime exemption into the PGA Championship
• Five-year exemption on the PGA TOUR
• Five-year exemption into The Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship and PLAYERS Championship
• Points for every $1,000 earned toward berth on the 2016 Ryder Cup Team (provided American-born)

Additional Benefits for Finishers at the PGA Championship

• The top four scorers and ties are eligible to compete in the 2017 Masters.
• The top-30 scorers and ties are exempt from local qualifying for the 2017 U.S. Open.

PGA Championship and the FedExCup

With just two weeks remaining before the start of the FedExCup Playoffs, the PGA Championship will once again play a pivotal role in the shaping of the Playoffs fields. Seven of the eight members that have won the PGA Championship since the inception of the FedExCup in 2007 have qualified for the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.

• 2015 winner Jason Day overtook the No. 1 spot with his win at Whistling Straits and ended the season No. 3.
• 2014 winner Rory McIlroy moved from No. 3 to 1 in the standings and ended the season No. 3.
• 2013 winner Jason Dufner moved from No. 62 to 14 in the standings and qualified for all four Playoffs events
• 2012 winner Rory McIlroy moved from No. 8 to 2 in the standings and qualified for all four Playoffs events.
• 2011 winner Keegan Bradley moved from No. 24 to No. 4 and qualified for all four Playoffs events.
• 2010 winner Martin Kaymer (non-member)
• 2009 winner Y.E. Yang moved from No. 21 to No. 7 and qualified for all four Playoff events.
• 2008 winner Padraig Harrington moved from No. 10 to No. 4 and qualified for three Playoff events.
• 2007 winner Tiger Woods remained No. 1 and ultimately won the FedExCup.

Additional FedExCup Notes

• Forty-nine of the top 50 in the FedExCup standings are in the PGA Championship field. Charles Howell III is not scheduled to appear in this year’s PGA Championship, having recently undergone an undisclosed medical procedure.
• Eleven players aged 30 and under are currently in the top 30 in the FedExCup standings.
• The lead in the FedExCup has changed hands nine times this season. Currently, Dustin Johnson leads by 141 points over Jason Day.
• Defending FedExCup champion Jordan Spieth is fourth in FedExCup points, with 1,904.

How the PGA Championship was won in 2015

• With scores of 68-67-66-67—268 (-20), Jason Day won the 97th PGA Championship by three strokes over Jordan Spieth.
• After rounds one through three, Day was T3 (-4), 2nd (-9) and 1st (-15), respectively.
• On Whistling Straits’ tight, difficult layout, Day ranked inside the top five in Fairways in Regulation (41/56—T5) and Greens in Regulation (55/72—2nd).

More on Jason Day’s win at the 2015 PGA Championship

• With his win at the 2015 PGA Championship, Jason Day would move from No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking to third. Three starts later, following his BMW Championship victory, he would claim the world’s No. 1 spot.
• Day’s 3-stroke win at the 2015 PGA Championship became the largest margin of victory at the PGA Championship since Rory McIlroy won by eight strokes in 2012.
• Day’s 20-under 268 total supplants the previous 72-hole low total in a major of 19-under-par, set by Tiger Woods at the 2000 Open Championship.
• Day’s win at the 2015 PGA Championship marked his fifth career PGA TOUR title, and first major championship crown, at the age of 27 years, 9 months and 4 days in his 167th TOUR start
•  Day’s win at Whistling Straits came in a nine-hole stretch of events where he won four times and finished inside the top 10 in three others; T9/U.S. Open, T4/Open Championship, 1st/RBC Canadian Open, T12 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, 1st/PGA Championship, 1st/The Barclays, T12/Deutsche bank Championship, 1st/BMW Championship and T10/TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola. In that stretch, Day was 103-under-par, an average of 11.4 strokes per event.

Other Field Highlights

Dustin Johnson

• World No. 2 Dustin Johnson will be making his seventh start in this week’s PGA Championship. In six previous starts, he has finished outside the top 10 just twice; 2015/T7, 2013/T8, 2012/T48, 2011/MC, 2010/T5 and 2009/T10.
• Johnson will be making his 31st major championship start this week, having amassed a collective 13 top-10 finishes; Masters/2, U.S. Open/4, Open Championship/3, PGA Championship/4
• An 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR, Johnson is looking to join Jason Day as a three-time winner this season. His U.S. Open win at Oakmont extended his streak of winning at least once a year to nine straight, the current PGA TOUR record.
• At last week’s RBC Canadian Open, Johnson posted a final-round, 3-under 69 at Glen Abbey Golf Club to claim a share of second place with Jon Rahm and Martin Laird. In doing so, he has now finished inside the top 10 12 times and no worse than ninth in his last six starts; 3rd/the Memorial, 5th/FedEx St. Jude Classic, 1st/U.S. Open, 1st/World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, T9/The Open Championship and T2/RBC Canadian Open.
• When Johnson won the U.S. Open last month, he extended his streak of winning at least once a season on TOUR to nine straight seasons, the current best streak on TOUR.

Jordan Spieth

• World No. 3 Jordan Spieth will be making his fourth start in the PGA Championship this week, where he missed the cut in his first two starts of 2013 and 2014. Spieth finished second in last year’s Championship at Whistling Straits.
• Spieth will be making his 16th major championship start this week. In his previous 15 starts, he has collected six top-10 finishes, including top-5 finishes in each of last year’s majors; Masters/1st, U.S. Open/1st, The Open Championship/T4, PGA Championship/2nd.
• Spieth will be making his 17th start of the 2015-16 PGA TOUR Season this week, having collected six top-10 finishes. Of those, Spieth claimed his seventh and eighth TOUR titles at the Tournament of Champions and DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, respectively.
• Spieth comes into the week having broken par in just five of his last 16 competitive rounds. In the 18 rounds prior to that, he posted just five scores over par.

Rory McIlroy

• World No. 4 Rory McIlroy is poised to make his 32nd major championship start, where he has collected 14 top-10 finishes.
• Of the last 36 major championships, McIlroy owns the most titles (4), followed by two-time winners Jordan Spieth, Martin Kaymer, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson.
• So far this season, McIlroy has collected six top-10 finishes in 13 starts, four of which were top-5 showings (T3/WGC-Cadillac Championship, 4th/WGC-Dell Match Play, T4/ Wells Fargo Championship, T4/Memorial Tournament and T5/The Open Championship).

Henrik Stenson

• World No. 5 Henrik Stenson will be making his 43rd major championship start this week and 10th at the PGA Championship. He owns 10 top-10 finishes in the majors, four of which came at the PGA Championship (T3/2014, 3rd/2013, T6/2009, T4/2008).
• Stenson finished T47 in his first start in the PGA Championship when it was last held at Baltusrol in 2005.
• In the three starts that preceded his near-flawless performance at The Open Championship two weeks ago, Stenson missed two cuts and withdrew from the U.S. Open.
•  Stenson, the 2013 FedExCup champion, is in search of his sixth career win on the PGA TOUR this week (2007 WGC-Dell Match Play, 2009 PLAYERS Championship, 2013 Deutsche Bank Championship and 2013 TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.

Phil Mickelson

• The 2005 PGA Championship winner at Baltusrol, Phil Mickelson will be making his 24th start in the PGA Championship this week and 97th start in a major championship. In his major championship history, he has missed just 10 missed cuts (just six since 2000). In 23 previous PGA Championship starts, he has collected nine top 10s, including his win in 2005 and runner-up showings in 2001 (Atlanta Athletic Club) and 2014 (Valhalla Golf Club).
• Mickelson will be making his 18th start of the 2015-16 PGA TOUR, is coming off a solo-second at The Open Championship two weeks ago.
• Mickelson has collected six top-5 finishes in 17 starts this season, including three second-place showings (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, FedEx St. Jude Classic and The Open Championship). His six top-5 finishes in 17 starts this season is four more than the number of top 10s he collected in 19 starts in the 2014-15 PGA TOUR Season. Despite not recording a win in 2015-16, Mickelson is fifth in the FedExCup standings and in a strong position to qualify for the season-ending TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola for the eighth time in his career and the first time since 2013.

Sergio Garcia

• Coming off T5 finishes in the last two major championships, the U.S. Open and Open Championship, Sergio Garcia is poised to make his 73rd start in a major championship this week and 18th in the PGA Championship. Garcia owns a pair of runner-up finishes in the season’s final major (1999/Medinah CC, 2008/Oakland Hills CC).
• When the PGA Championship was last contested at Baltusrol in 2005, Garcia posted par-or-higher scores of 72-70-71-70—283 (+3/T23).
• Garcia owns 22 top-10 finishes in 72 major championship starts without a win.
• Garcia owns 93 top-10 finishes in 303 career starts on the PGA TOUR.
• In last three starts, Garcia finished 1st/AT&T Byron Nelson, T5/U.S. Open and T5/Open Championship.
• Garcia has collected nine career PGA TOUR titles, most recently the 2012 Wyndham Championship.

Jhonattan Vegas

• A week after posting a career-low, 11-under 60 in round two of the Barbasol Championship, where he finished T4, Jhonattan reeled off five straight birdies early in the final round of last week’s RBC Canadian Open to claim his second career TOUR title and earn the last spot into this week’s PGA Championship. Vegas also birdied his last three holes Sunday to post an 8-under 64 and claim the one-stroke win over Martin Laird, Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson.
• Vegas will be making his second start in this week’s PGA Championship. At Atlanta Athletic Club in 2011, he finished T51.

Lee Westwood

• Dating to a T23 at the 2009 U.S. Open, Lee Westwood has finished inside the top 25 in 18 of his last 29 majors, including 12 top 10s.
• Westwood finished T2 at the Masters Tournament earlier this season, good for the distinction of having the most top-three finishes in a major championship without a win since 1934.
• Westwood will be making his 74th major championship start and 19th in the PGA Championship.
• Westwood has collected 18 top-10 finishes in 72 major championship starts (6/Masters, 5/U.S. Open, 5/Open Championship and 2/PGA Championship).
• Westwood is one of seven players in this week’s PGA Championship field to have finished inside the top 20 in the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol (T17).
• Westwood has collected one PGA TOUR win (2010 FedEx St. Jude Classic) in 219 TOUR starts.

Major Championship Trends

• International players have won six of the last eight PGA Championships (Padraig Harrington/2008, Y.E. Yang/2009, Martin Kaymer/2010 and Rory McIlroy/2012, 2014 and Jason Day/2015). Keegan Bradley (2011) and Jason Dufner (2013) are the exceptions.
• Most major starts without a victory:
  • Lee Westwood 74
  • Sergio Garcia 72
  • Miguel Angel Jimenez 71
  • Steve Stricker 66
• Since 2000, 11 of 16 54-hole leaders/co-leaders of the PGA Championship have held on for the win, including the past two champions (Jason Day/2015, Rory McIlroy/2014). When the PGA Championship was last held at Baltusrol, Phil Mickelson held a share of the 54-hole lead at 6-under 204, before his final-round, 2-over 72 proved good enough for a one-stroke win at 4-under 276 over Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington.

PGA Championship winners in the field

• Defending Champion Jason Day headlines a list of 13 PGA Championship winners in the field.
• The others: Rich Beem (2002), Keegan Bradley (2011), John Daly (1991), Jason Dufner (2013), Padraig Harrington (2008), Martin Kaymer (2010), Rory McIlroy (2012), Shaun Micheel (2003), Phil Mickelson (2005), Vijay Singh (1998, 2004), David Toms (2001) and Y.E. Yang (2009).

Baltusrol Golf Club

• The par-70 Baltusrol Golf Club will host the PGA Championship for the second time (2005) and play to 7,462 yards (compared to 7,392 yards in 2005).
• In addition to the 2005 PGA Championship, seven U.S. Opens have been contested at Baltusrol Golf Club
  • 1993 – Lee Janzen
  • 1980 – Jack Nicklaus
  • 1967 – Jack Nicklaus
  • 1954 – Ed Furgol
  • 1936 – Tony Manero
  • 1915 – Jerry Travers
  • 1903 – Willie Anderson

Final Leaderboard from the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club (T10 and ties):

• Phil Mickelson 67-65-72-72—276
• Thomas Bjorn 71-71-63-72—277
• Steve Elkington 68-70-68-71—277
• Davis Love III 68-68-68-74—278Tiger Woods 75-69-66-68—278
• Michael Campbell 73-68-69-69—279
• Retief Goosen 68-70-69-72—279
• Geoff Ogilvy 69-69-72-69—279
• Pat Perez 68-71-67-73—27
• Steve Flesch 70-71-69-70—280
• Dudley Hart 70-73-66-71—280Ted Purdy 69-75-70-66—280
• Vijay Singh 70-67-69-74—280
• David Toms 71-72-69-68—280

There are 24 players in the field this week who participated in the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club, including six of the top-25 finishers; Phil Mickelson/1st, Vijay Singh/T10, David Toms/T10, Zach Johnson/T17, Lee Westwood/T17 and Sergio Garcia/T23..

Multiple Hosts of the PGA Championship

The previous 96 PGA Championships have been played on 72 different courses in 26 states. The following 15 courses have hosted multiple PGA Championships:

• Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Okla. 1970, ’82, ’94, 2007
• Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, Ga. 1981, 2001, 2011
• Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Township, Mich. 1972, ’79, 2008
• Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club 1922, ’51, ’7
•  Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio 1960, ’66, ’75
• Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, N.Y. 1980, 2003, ’13
• Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minn. 2002, ’09
• Whistling Straits (Straits), Kohler, Wis. 2004, ’10
• Medinah (Ill.) Country Club 1999, 2006
• Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Ky. 1996, 2000
•  Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club 1925, ’61
• Keller Golf Club, St. Paul, Minn. 1932, ’54
• Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, Calif. 1983, ’95
•  Shoal Creek Country Club, Birmingham, Ala. 1984, ’90
• Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio 1986, ’93

Future Sites of the PGA Championship

• 99th PGA Championship (August 2017; Quail Hollow Club
• 100th PGA Championship (August 2018; Bellerive Country Club)
• 101st PGA Championship (August 2019; Bethpage Black)