PGA Championship: 5 takeaways from 2017 at Quail Hollow

Five takeaways from the 99th PGA Championship that bookend Justin Thomas’ heroic back nine.

The 2017 PGA Championship has once again confirmed golf’s axiomatic truth: anything can happen on the back nine on Sunday.

But to get to the final nine holes the field has to survive the the first 63. The Sunday back nine sprint is preceded by a marathon that demands everything the players have to give, and then asks for a bit more. The drama of the golf tournament is Shakespearean in its rhythm. The scene is set in the first and second acts, the betrayal comes in the third act, and the fourth act triumph over adversity brings the story to a close.

I’ll leave to others the task of unpacking the specific players and analyzing the shots gone right and wrong. I’m closing out the 99th PGA Championship with five memorable takeaways.

Golf magic. If you don’t believe in golf magic, then you weren’t watching Justin Thomas’ ball linger, and linger, and linger on the edge of the cup on the 10th hold Sunday at Quail Hollow before it succumbed to the forces of gravity and dropped. If that didn’t make you a believer, then you were surely won over by Thomas’ hole out on the 13th.

Golf’s Young Gun generation. As I watched Rickie Fowler and then Jordan Spieth embrace Justin Thomas when he came off the 72nd hole I was struck by the imagery they created. Three friends – spring break buddies – three rivals, leaders among a generation of young golfers who idolized Tiger Woods as kids and who drew on Tiger’s charisma as they found their way into the game. Now they’re emerging as the friends and rivals who will replace the camaraderie Arnie, Jack, aTnd Gary exuded and carry the game forward. Thomas, Spieth, and Fowler epitomize a new generation of talented young athletes who are refreshing and rejuvenating the game.

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Golf is internationalized. The men’s game is no longer dominated by Brits and Americans. (The women’s game has led in this area for a while now.) Look at the list of players who finished inside the top-10 at the PGA Championship. In addition to the Stars snd Strips, Italian, South African, Japanese, Canadian, English, and Australian flags were flying. The game is alive and well and thriving.

The Venue. Quail Hollow has proved a superb test of skill and endurance, more than worthy of a major championship. We’ve seen once again that golf is a game of finesse, strategy, and endurance. Power figures into the winning equation, of course, but raw power alone just isn’t sufficient to win a golf tournament. Quail Hollow more than measured up to expectations.

The 99th PGA Champion. Justin Thomas is the kind of skinny guy who in an earlier era would have gotten sand kicked in his face by one of the big muscle boys strutting up and down the beach. On the Quail Hollow track, Thomas had what it took to reign supreme.

Next: Justin Thomas' epic Sunday finish

What’s next for Justin Thomas? Perhaps more quixotic, who’s next in line to join this ever-widening circle of young players who are setting the pace and the standard for the game?

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