South Africa’s Retief Goosen will try to recapture the magic this week at the 89th PGA Championship over the same Southern Hills Country Club course where he won his first Major title in 2001.
Goosen, who shared second at this year’s Masters, captured the 2001 US Open by taking an 18-hole play-off with Mark Brooks by two strokes after a three-putt blunder on the 72nd hole forced him into a extra day to win the crown.
”To come back to a place where I have won before brings back some good memories,” Goosen said. ”The course hasn’t changed too much. Overall it’s exactly the same as last time but the rough is a little thicker.”
Goosen won the 2004 US Open and has four top-three finishes at the Masters but a share of sixth in 2005 was his only top-20 effort in nine PGA Championship starts.
”Majors seem to bring out the best in me,” Goosen said. ”I know this course pretty well. I definitely know what shots are required to get it done.”
With temperatures soaring, Goosen expects tougher scoring this time around.
”The scoring is going to be a little bit higher than it was in 2001,” he said. ”With the heat we’re going to have this week I think you have got to look [for a winning score] somewhere around par. The course is playing tougher.”
Goosen compared Tulsa’s heatwave to conditions in Singapore and Malaysia but noted: ”It might not be as hot in temperature but the humidity there just kills you.”
The 18th green has been rebuilt since Goosen’s fiasco finish six years ago forced him into a play-off, his eighth round in as many days.
”It was a lack of concentration. I hit a poor first putt and mis-read the second one coming back,” Goosen said.
”I said I had to hit it hard and I hit it through the break. The harder one for me was more the third one to make the play-off. I was lucky to have another chance on Monday.
”It was hard that night.”
Goosen pulled ahead of Brooks and outlasted his United States rival down the stretch.
”Through 10 holes I was quite a few shots up and that helped me pull it through on the back nine,” Goosen said.
Goosen said he has not been superstitious about doing the same things he did here in 2001 but noted that he has a link this week to Stewart Cink, the US veteran who botched the 18th to miss that US Open play-off by a stroke.
”In 2001 I think Stewart Cink stayed in the house we’re renting this week,” Goosen said. ”Now we’re really getting superstitious. Maybe we will swap it around.” — Sapa-AFP