Sports

Golf's 4th Major Coming to Suwanee Area

The PGA Championship will be played at the Atlanta Athletic Club in August.

For golf enthusiasts it doesn't get any better -- in just two months, 156 of the top professional players will be teeing it up near Suwanee to compete in theΒ PGA Championship, golf's fourth and final major of the year.

It will be the third time that the Atlanta Athletic Club, now in the Johns Creek area, will hosts the professional tournament, set for Aug. 11-14. The club is one of only five to host the PGA Championship three or more times.

The defending champion, Martin Kaymer from Germany, played the Highlands course for the first time on Monday. And as expected, he found the championship course has been set up to test the best golfers in the world.

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Winning on this course, said Kaymer, will require precision and sometimes keeping the driver in the bag.

"I think it's a big advantage if you hit fairways," said Kaymer. "It's a long golf course, but still, you have to strike the ball well, and I like those golf courses when you have to hit it straight and it's not only a putting competition, that you can boom it down there and then chip it on the green. Here it's long and you have to be precise because it will be a very difficult challenge."

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Kaymer, who won his first major at the tender age of 25, said he likes his chances in defending his title but predicts higher scores than the 15-under par that David Toms posted in 2001 when he captured the title by one stroke, beating out a hard charging Phil Mickelson that year.

"Well, obviously I don't know how the golf course was 10 years ago," said the German. "I know that they've changed it a little bit, but I can see why David Toms won here, for example. He's not one of the longest hitters on Tour, but he's very straight, and that is what I said earlier, which is very important.

"But I don't see a guy winning here with 15-, 16- or 18-under par. ... The greens are going to be firmer and faster. I'm expecting maybe single digits under par. That might be my guess for winning here."

In last year's dramatic finish at Whisling Straits in Kohler, Wis., Kaymer rallied from a four-shot deficit, where he won in a three-hole playoff with Bubba Watson to capture the Wanamaker Trophy.

"It was a fantastic year," said Kaymer looking back. "It changed my life. To win a major on a different continent was huge. I am very proud to be the PGA Championship -- for at least one year," he added with a smile.

The par-72 Highlands course will be converted to a par 70 for the championship with holes including No. 18 a par 5 converted to 507-yard par 4 that features water along the left side and in front of the green.

The pros will play the 7,467-yard layout that differs from the course 10 years ago when it last hosted the event. Renowned golf course architect Rees Jones oversaw a redesign five years ago that included reworked bunkering around many of the greens.

Marietta native Larry Nelson won the first PGA Championship held at the Atlanta Athletic Club in 1981, winning by four strokes over Fuzzy Zoeller.


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