The PGA Tour will roar into St. Louis for the final major of the 2018 season, the 100th PGA Championship. This is the last time the event will be held in the month of August, as it is being moved to May starting in 2019. It is a change that will likely increase viewership for this particular event. With the booming popularity of both college football and professional and the coverage it demands, the PGA Championship has started to feel more and more like an after-thought, which is obviously not what the PGA wants for its crown championship event.
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Storylines to watch
The one that I just mentioned is probably the biggest one heading into this year’s event. But there are a plethora of sub-plots that are almost just as appealing. A lot of the best players in the world will come into this week’s event in excellent form. Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas have both won in the past two weeks. Rory McIlroy finished top-five at The Open just a few short weeks ago, and Jordan Spieth was tied for the lead heading into Sunday at the same event. And of course, Tiger.
The Course
This week’s golf course is Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. It isn’t very often that the PGA rolls into the mid-west part of the United States, let alone for a major so this tournament is likely a huge deal for the state of Missouri. It last hosted a PGA Championship in 1992 but has played host to a few Champions Tour events since that point. It is a par 70 that stretches out to 7,317 yards from the tournament tees. It features a plethora of greenside bunkers on nearly every hole, but the greens are above-average in size so most golfers should not be challenged too much when it comes to approach shots. A staple of PGA Championship events are steep greens and Bellerive is no exception. A bad putting week will almost certainly take you out of contention. I would expect the final score to be somewhere around 10 under par.
Correlated Courses
East Lake GC
TPC Southwind
Firestone CC
Trinity Forest
The Weather
Thursday: Sunny with a high near 89 degrees. Calm winds.
Friday: Mostly Sunny with a high near 90 degrees. Calm winds.
Weekend: Slight chances of storms with temps remaining in the upper 80s.
Side-note: A truly terrible week to be wearing pants. 90 degrees with zero wind? That is absolutely brutal.
Key Stats
Par 4s Gained (450-500 Yards)
Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee
Sand Saves Gained
Strokes Gained: Putting
Golfers to Target
Rory McIlroy
I like Rory to win this week so it makes sense to target him on my DRAFT team. He has flashed amazing form in recent weeks and his off-the-tee approach sets him up well for success at PGA Championship events. Since 2009 he has finishes of T3-T3-T8 and two PGAChampionship wins to his credit — five top-10s overall in nine starts.
Keegan Bradley
A former winner at the PGA Championship, Keegan has been sneaky good in 2018. He placed 4th at his lead-up event in Canada two weeks ago and has made six of seven cuts at this particular major. He is an excellent ball-striker who struggles mostly with his putter. If he can putt at even a marginally average level, he should perform well here.
Tommy Fleetwood
Tommy Big-Time rolls into St. Louis with a T14 under his belt last week at the WGC but has performed unbelievably well in the major tournaments this season. I always like targeting this guy on major weeks because he always seems to take his game to another level when it matters most.
Dustin Johnson
A winner on the PGA Tour two weeks ago and the best player in the world. It would be idiotic to not target Dustin.
Beau Hossler
Hossler plays out of Trinity Forest in Dallas, Texas which lays out very similar to what Bellerive offers. Hossler has been tremendous in 2018, with five top 10 finishes and two top-six finishes in his last three appearances on Tour. He has been a model of consistency, and I would be shocked if he didn’t at least make the cut here.
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Shane Davies is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Shane, check out his archive and follow him @SBDAVIES7.
