With the PGA Championship comes the annual spring rite of attempting to identify the major’s identity, as if that’s some sort of imperative. No one ever stops to consider that not having a rigid identity may be a blessing instead of a curse. The Masters must be whispered. The British Open must be revered. The U.S. Open must strive. But the PGA Championship is its own animal, one that’s ever-evolving and free of the constraints of definition. And it doesn’t have to be anything but be itself.
This is something the combined forces of ESPN and CBS have embraced, smartly, through the first two days at Quail Hollow. Their tone is not grandiose. Wright Thompson’s rejoin essays are less about the poetic track or tradition and more focused on the spirit of competition. No tournament on Earth has as deep of a field or as narrow a gate from which to enter. This is a major about the players and the obstacles they provide as much as it is about the course. So the focus is on them and their play more than artistic drone shots of the grounds or book reports on history.
