“Big Boy Golf Course” – 2024 PGA Championship Course Breakdown (Valhalla Golf Club) | The First Cut

The First Cut breaks down Valhalla Golf Club, the site of the 2024 PGA Championship.

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ABOUT THE SHOW: The First Cut brings you everything you need to know in the world of professional golf. Nearly every day Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman, Greg DuCharme, Sia Nejad and Patrick McDonald bring you the best analysis in the game. From DFS to betting previews, interviews and recaps… everything golf is on the table when you listen to The First Cut.

shall we get into the golf course shall we get right into it yes let this might be the best part about major championships the golf course I agree root always root for the golf course none of the players all right we are heading back to lville lville Kentucky Valhalla Golf Club for the fourth time 1996 Mark Brooks defeats Kenny Perry in a playoff after Kenny Perry was hanging out with Jimmy Nance and the rest of the boys after regulation 2000 tiger beats Bob May in a playoff one of the most iconic moments chasing that putt into the hole fifth major part of the tiger slam count it 2014 Rory mroy beats the clock beats Phil Mickelson beats Ricky Fowler last major major number four and we are back we are back Greg and it’s gotten a little longer I got a couple of the course modifications in front of me pretty beefy on paper par 71 over 7600 yards they changed the grass in the Fairway a couple years back they added some length Greg it seems like you know Josh likes the term big boy he uses it quite a lot and I think it’s a big boy golf course yes um if he overuses it which I can’t be certain on he’s not overusing it this week this is no question of a Big Boy golf course now that grass change that you referenced they switched the fairways to zoa grass um the idea with the zoa grass is it plays a little firmer and faster traditionally um but the caveat to that is we’re expecting some rain this week they’ve had some rain uh and that should slow the golf course down a little bit as far as the fairways are concerned the biggest difference between this iteration of a PGA Championship at Valhalla and the others aside from the length is the rough the roughs are what’s known as cool weather grasses you’re talking it’s a mix all the worst grasses you can hit out of Rye uh POA bent um they’re all mixed in there and it it it is much heartier in May than it is in August Fairways are narrow although they’ll play a little wider uh if if it is as soft as so of the reports are and if we do get rain that’s seems to be a part of this Championship um that rough is going to be a real handful especially at this length yeah rain does seem to be a factor guys were out there early and often on Monday to get as much prep as possible under their belt rain coming on Tuesday possibly Wednesday possibly leading into the weekend as well which will only make the golf course longer and like you said make these Fairways a little bit wider for these guys but it’ll also make that rough that much juicier as well and I think a little added bonus as well or added nugget they took some of that rough out around the Fairway bunkers if you notice so guys might be hitting it into the Fairway bunkers more often than usual which honestly is probably a good thing rather play out of those than they rough you know it’s um it’s very interesting because Fairway bunkers can be tricky start getting up close to lips it’s far worse to be in the bunker than in the rough uh but if you if you do find yourself at this level with the clean lie it it could be an advantage to be in the Fairway bunker compared to the rough so you know there’s a little more I wouldn’t say aim at the Fairway bunkers U because it definitely puts some variance into it that’s a little more severe than the lie you’re going to get out of the rough um you know it can be the difference between hitting it you can only Advance it 50 yards down the Fairway and you can do pretty much anything you want with it depending on the LIE you draw and where it is in the bunker so I would not be aiming for the Fairway bunkers um but you’re right Patrick in in some cases if you draw a good lie it will be better than the rough yeah and uh shall we get into some keys for the PGA Championship yeah yeah let’s do it like like we said this is number four at Valhalla first one in May Mark Brooks one out 11 under tiger 18 under Rory macroy 16 under should be noted Mark Brooks and Tiger Woods that was a par 72 Rory par 71 par 71 this week but ever since the switch to May uh half a decade ago the PJ Championship has really taken on a new identity it seems like it it’s kind of like the fairest test in golf some people are calling it and you look at the scores Brooks kept at o kill minus n Justin Thomas at Southern Hills minus5 Phil minus 6 at Kila morawa took deep final round 64 at Harding Park to finish at 13 under and then Brooks kka at minus 8 at Beth Page black you bring in these big ballparks you bring in the rough you bring in the Big Boy golf courses and you see the cream Rod at the top yes H one caveat morawa was in August because of the correct correct um so you you consider that the four iterations we’ve had in May they’ve all been single digits uh all between six and nine uh five and nine under par uh so it has played a lot more difficult in the month of May and I’ll be very interested to see what happens this week because when you have a softer Golf Course like this it does add length but it it makes targets a little bigger the greens are about 5,000 square feet they will play a little bigger if it’s soft the fairways while they’re narrow they will play a little wider uh if it’s soft so that’s kind of a it’s always an interesting balance on the PGA tour and what I I think happens Patrick is it separates the cream from that mix with yeah separates the cream from the coffee that’s right so you end up guys that are hitting the ball really well can take advantage of that guys that are struggling missing Fairways not getting the distance of some of the Stars can have a really rough go of it um but it it opens up birdie it just requires a lot longer shots in there um which you can be a little more precise with so I tend to skew towards better scoring when it’s wet over even if it plays longer over um more difficult scoring unless it’s actually raining when they’re playing that’ll be the thing to watch out for here here’s one last question for you before we get into the meat and potatoes that are uh the players do you like Valhalla do you like the golf course I do um it’s not I wouldn’t say that it’s my favorite um but I think there are a lot of really cool holes I like the concept of a Jack Nicholas design he gives you some really interesting and difficult hole locations um they most for the most part tend to be in the back right portion of greens which you’ll see here at Valhalla as well um it it creates plenty of challenge he does a nice job Meandering the golf course through the proper so yes I like it I think it’s also a perfect fit to the theme that we’ve seen in PGA championships since say uh 2015 I I think you’re looking at a pretty similar style which which I’m a fan of so I think it’s going to set up to be a great tournament P but Patrick keys to the course um no Champion except for Colin morawa since 2014 including 2014 has finished the year outside the top 60 in driving distance um only Phil was outside the top 25 uh Phil and colum morawa um Phil was 54th morawa 97th so that’s an interesting change that we’ve seen to the PGA Tour and all the things that we’re hearing all the things we just talked about this week also Point towards distance uh when that rough gets longer tendency is it gives the long hitters an advantage um so I will definitely be looking at Club head speed General ball striking and TD green ability I’ll be putting a heavy dose of my analysis on that