There is only one event planned for this week amongst the top tours. The USPGA Championship at Oak Hill Golf and Country Club in Rochester, New York. In 1922 the club swapped its first course and magnificent clubhouse on 90 acres with the University of Rochester who provided a 350 acre pre approved site with Donald Ross’ input. The land featured the undulating Allan’s creek and subtle elevation changes. Ross designed and constructed one of his best, a masterpiece. A number of factors altered the course ethos over time. A wealthy amateur arborist and member planted tens of thousands of oak trees, fairly close together. Robert Trent Jones, firstly and then Tom Fazio made alterations to ostensibly make the course more “modern” and suitable for tournament play and successive green keepers reduced many of Ross’ quirky greens to circular inferiors.
The club after evaluation decided to bring in architect Andrew Green to recover the Ross influence and he has done that. The course has teeth, lost many of the oaks (despite some of them having been named after champions like Trevino and Nicklaus). Oak Hill will look magnificent on television and the par 70, with a course rating of 76.7 and a slope of 147 will seriously test all players
In the first division,
Rahm, Cantlay, Finau, Day, Morikawa, Smith, Reed,
In the second division
KH Lee, Min Woo Lee, Harris English,Lucas Herbert, Beau Hossler, Brendan Steele, Emiliano Grillo,
In the third division
JJ Spaun, Mackenzie Hughes, Joel Dahmen, Mark Hubbard, Andrew Putnam, Thorbjorn Oleson, Lee Hodges
In the first round market, Bet365 has a special bet. John Rahm to lead the first round and win $51. Worth a punt, the only downer is if three tie for the lead after one round B365 may cut your dividend!
On Betfair
Michael Nesmith $1000
Andrew Putnam-$1000
Zach Johnston-$1000
Lee Hodges-$1000 *
Mark Hubbard-$1000*
Jordan Smith-$1000*
Webb Simpson-$1000
Thorbjorn Oleson-$670
Mackenzie Hughes-$840
Emiliano Grillo-$600*
Brendan Steele-$580*
Beau Hossler-$520
JJ Spaun-$510
Lucas Herbert-$420
K H Lee-$410
Kurt Kitayama-$460*
Brian Hayman-$400*
Harris English-$330
Adrian Meronk-$370
Min Woo Lee-$350*
Patrick Reed-$150
Tom Lee-$120
On Bet365
Joel Dahmen-$401 each way
Thorbjorn Oleson-$451 each way