One thing I forgot to add regarding my last post (August 16) about rotating the courses that have hosted the PGA Championship. There was a reason I chose the courses that I did for the five year rotation. I looked at some of the courses that had hosted the PGA Championship recently and then I looked at the history of the championship. I came up with five courses that had the following:

1. Hosted the PGA Championship once since 1991
2. Hosted the PGA Championship twice since 1981
3. Hosted the U.S. Open less than 4 times in history
4. NOT hosted the U.S. Open since 1991

I felt that these criteria suggested that the course is – or is becoming – more of a PGA-preferred course than a USGA-preferred course. The five courses with those characteristics were:

Hazeltine National Golf Club, Minnesota
Whistling Straits Golf Club, Wisconsin
Atlanta Athletic Club, Georgia
Valhalla Golf Club, Kentucky
Medinah Country Club, Illinois

You’ll notice that Valhalla is the odd one out from my five-year rotation proposal. I would have included it, but Kiawah has already been confirmed for that year.

After hosting the PGA championship in 1996 and 2000, Valhalla has not been considered for any PGA championship between then and 2013. Which may mean it’s fallen out of favor with the PGA of America, while Kiawah certainly hasn’t. So, swap the Ocean Course at Kiawah for Valhalla and you’ll get this rotation, starting in 2009:

Hazeltine National Golf Club, Minnesota
Whistling Straits Golf Club, Wisconsin
Atlanta Athletic Club, Georgia
Kiawah Golf Club, South Carolina
Medinah Country Club, Illinois

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Oh, and one more thing… if you check my June 26 post, you'll see that I in fact correctly predicted that Phil Mickelson would win the PGA Championship more than a month in advance. He was my preseason pick, which makes me 2 for 4 in my picks for the majors this year, including Tiger for the Masters.

It's actually the second year in a row that I've gone 2 for 4 in my preseason picks for winners of the majors. (Last year, I correctly picked Mickelson to win the Masters and Todd Hamilton to win the British Open... seriously!)

Actually, considering that my pick for the British Open this year, Padraig Harrington, didn't even play in it because his father died the week before, I actually did even better this year: I went 2 for 3 in picks in which the player was actually in the field. (I think it's unfair to penalize me when something tragic like that happens.) If Harrington had played, maybe he would have beaten Tiger! You never know.

Tune in next April for my 2006 major picks!!!