Golf’s Final Major of the Season Has Arrived

With three straight practice rounds on Monday through Wednesday and first round action to take place on Thursday, the 98^th PGA Championship will be hosted for the second time by historic Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey.

Defending champion Jason Day is looking for his second major championship and what a foursome he has been paired with: Phil Mickelson, the 2005 PGA Champion from Baltusrol and Rory McIlroy, who captured two PGA titles in 2012 and 2014.

Thursday’s tee time at 8:30 a.m. from the 10^th tee will mark the 15th round in which Day and McIlroy have been paired. The last time: this year’s World Golf Championships – Dell Match Play, in which Day beat McIlroy 1 up to advance to the finals, when he upended Louis Oosthuizen 5 & 4.

Other featured groups and ones to follow amongst the 52 groups set to tee off on Thursday include:

• 7:40 a.m., 10^th: Ernie Els, Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson
• 7:50 a.m., 1^st: Vijay Singh, John Daly, Padraig Harrington
• 8:10 a.m., 10^th: Brandt Snedeker, Brooks Koepka, Lee Westwood
• 8:20 a.m., 10^th: Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, Jamie Donaldson
• 1:05 p.m., 1^st: Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar, Danny Lee
• 1:05 p.m., 10^th: Jason Dufner, Y.E. Yang, Martin Kaymer
• 1:25 p.m., 1^st: Sergio Garcia, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson
• 1:35 p.m., 1^st: Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel
• 1:45 p.m., 1^st: This year’s Major Champions pairing of Danny Willet (Masters), Dustin Johnson (U.S. Open), Henrik Stenson (Open Championship)
• 1:55 p.m., 1^st: Graeme McDowell, Webb Simpson, Louis Oosthuizen

The field consists of 156 players, including 20 PGA Club Professionals, who advanced here based upon their placing in this year’s PGA Professional Championship at the Atunyote Golf Club at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.

Television coverage begins with TNT broadcasting the first two rounds Thursday and Friday from 1-7 p.m. and will cover early action on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. CBS will carry the third and fourth rounds from 2-7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. PGA.com also will provide live streaming coverage of featured groups every day via its PGA Championship app. The Golf Channel will also be here to provide extensive analysis and coverage throughout the week.

Photo Courtesy of Gregg Snyder