Tag: Kiawah

2031 PGA Championship headed to Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, site of Phil Mickelson’s win in 2021, will host a third men’s major.

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, will be the host of another major.

The venue, site of then-50-year-old Phil Mickelson’s PGA Championship triumph in 2021 to become the oldest player to win a men’s major, will again host the PGA Championship in 2031.

The PGA of America also announced Wednesday that the 2029 Girls and Boys Junior PGA Championships will be at the Ocean Course.

The 113th PGA Championship is scheduled for May 2031. It will be the third time the Wanamaker Trophy is up for grabs along South Carolina’s coast. The Ocean Course previously hosted the 2012 (won by Rory McIlroy) and 2021 PGA Championships. It’s the ninth course to host three or more PGA Championships.

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Other significant events at the Ocean Course include the 1991 Ryder Cup won by the American side, the 2005 PGA Professional Championship (Mike Small) and the 2007 Senior PGA Championship (Denis Watson).

Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course in South Carolina (Courtesy Kiawah Island Golf Resort)

The Ocean Course rankings

“We are ecstatic to bring the Junior PGA Championships and PGA Championship to the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in 2029 and 2031,” said PGA of America President John Lindert, who is PGA director of golf at the Country Club of Lansing in Michigan. “Past PGA Championships at Kiawah Island have provided no shortage of memorable moments and historic performances, all taking place along a breathtaking coastal setting. The Ocean Course’s challenging layout and rich history make it an ideal destination for our championships.”

The Ocean Course was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1991, shortly before the Ryder Cup. At the suggestion of his wife, Alice, he engineered fairways and greens closer to the tops of the dunes alongside the Atlantic Ocean instead of on lower grades, as is common on many traditional links layouts. This increases exposure to frequent winds while providing incredible views from just about any vantage.

Golfweek’s Best 2024: Top 200 resort courses in the U.S.

From Hawaii to Florida, we offer the Golfweek’s Best ranking of top resort courses in the U.S.

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2024 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.

This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.

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Check the yardage book: Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course for the PGA Championship

Take a look at the hole-by-hole maps provided by Puttview for this week’s PGA Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course takes its second turn as host of the PGA Championship this week, welcoming players and fans back to the South Carolina seaside just southeast of Charleston.

The Ocean Course was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1991 after a somewhat frantic effort to complete construction before that year’s Ryder Cup, which the Americans won over the European team and that has become known as the “War by the Shore.”

Unlike most linksy courses, which play beneath and around the dunes, the Ocean was built atop the dunes at the suggestion of Dye’s wife, Alice. This provides fantastic views of the Atlantic but subjects the players in this week’s major championship to the full force of the coastal winds. Individual holes will play very differently this week depending on the weather.

Playing 7,846 yards with a par of 72 for this year’s event, the Ocean Course has earned high praise since its opening. It is ranked No. 1 on the 2021 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts in South Carolina. It also ranks No. 9 on the 2021 Golfweek’s Best Resort Courses list for the whole United States, No. 9 on the Top 100 Courses You Can Play list for the U.S. and No. 14 for all Modern Courses opened in or after 1960 in the U.S.

The Ocean Course is part of the large and charming Kiawah Island Golf Resort, which is home to four other courses: Osprey Point by Tom Fazio, Oak Point by Clyde Johnston, Turtle Point by Jack Nicklaus and Cougar Point by Gary Player. And beside miles and miles of beaches, the resort is home to a five-star oceanfront hotel and luxurious villa rentals, several fun pool complexes, a marina, hiking trails and more, making it a top Lowcountry destination.

Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players face this week. Check out each hole below.

Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay is back on the bag. See what pro he’s filling in for at the PGA Championship.

Is there a better replacement caddie than Bones?

The numbers were a little off. And that doesn’t happen with Joe Greiner too often.

The caddie for Max Homa asked his longtime buddy and employer how he’d feel about his attempting to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Chambers Bay.

Griener added that the event would be held during the week of the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I promised him, ‘If you qualify I’ll either take the week off or I’ll just find somebody else,’ ” Homa said on the Get a Grip podcast with his sidekick, Golf Channel’s Shane Bacon.

But Greiner’s math was off. Instead, the USGA event is smack dab in the middle of next week’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.

This left Homa in a tough spot — without a caddie for a major tournament.

But Griener had an alternate plan, offering up his friend Jim “Bones” Mackay as his interim replacement.

Homa was thrilled.

“I’m super, super fortunate. I’ve gotten to know Bones out at Whisper Rock in Arizona and he is truly one of the nicest, greatest people I’ve ever been around,” said Homa, who is currently No. 74 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and No. 39 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Of course, Mackay was an instant success upon joining NBC Sports and Golf Channel telecasts after a quarter-century on the bag for Phil Mickelson. The two mutually parted ways back in 2017 and he’s been dabbling ever since, showing up on the bag for Justin Thomas, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Jimmy Walker.

Matthew Fitzpatrick
Matthew Fitzpatrick and caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay look on from the second hole during the final round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament on July 19, 2020 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Mackay was on Thomas’ bag during a win at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in 2020 and also worked the PGA Championship the following week. He helped Fitzpatrick to a third-place finish at the Memorial last year as well.

“I have the utmost respect for Joe’s caddying and I mean this is not a slight at all, so please believe me when I say that … but it’ll be really cool to be around someone like Bones,” Homa said. “Joe has learned his way into this. Not that Bones didn’t, but he’s been doing this forever.”

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