PGA Championship: Which golfers will love Southern Hills?

The 2022 PGA Championship will be welcomed back with open arms from the historic Southern Hills Golf Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a 4-year absence to complete its’ impressive restoration, the Tour and its’ players get a chance to dominate the re-made model and walk away with some pretty illustrious hardware.

Last year, it was American Phil Mickelson who emerged victorious at Kiawah Island in South Carolina. With Mickelson having officially withdrawn from this year’s field, we now can look into which golfers suit Southern Hills the best entering this week.

This 3-year restoration project, led by Gil Hanse, has completely revamped the structure of the course, eliminating trees and some of its’ narrow fairways. Now Southern Hills is known for having tough sloping greens and not many straight holes. This means that the field won’t need to worry about the longest drive, but more so about their second shot. The better the position on the green golfers can manage, the better chance they have at scoring low.

The last time that Southern Hills hosted the PGA Championship was in 2007 when Tiger Woods dominated the field. Woods finished that week with a final score of -8, which was 2 strokes better than the field. Tiger tore through the course with ease, this was evident during his second round when he produced a 63. He had 8 birdies that day, 6 of them coming on par 4’s. Obviously, we have a different Tiger Woods today, still recovering from injury, but who knows? Woods has proven that he still has the fight and determination to compete amongst the best; just look at the 2019 Masters.

Besides Tiger, let’s look at a few golfers that could suit Southern Hills very well:

The PGA Championship and who could suit Southern Hills well

 Abraham Ancer

The World No. 21 has had a rather mediocre year so far with only 2 top-10 finishes this season. However, Ancer continues to drive the ball with incredible accuracy (5th on Tour in Driving Accuracy), which is vital to succeeding on this course. This could be his breakout tournament this season.

Corey Conners

The Canadian is enjoying a fantastic season, rising into the top 40 in both the FedEx Cup standings and World Rankings. It’s clear why, as Conners’ game is extremely consistent, ranked in the top-20 in Greens in Regulation, Scoring Average, Strokes Gained, and I could go on. In his past 2 major tournaments, he has thrived, finishing T-6 at the Masters and T-26 at the PLAYERS, so look for him to continue that success here this week.

Will Zalatoris

The young American has enjoyed quite the breakout season thus far, with 3 top-10 finishes, but no victories. That could all change this week, key elements of Zalatoris’s game include ranking 2nd on Tour in Strokes Gained Tee to Green (1.767) and 26th in Driving Accuracy. Overall, Zalatoris’s game is sharp, consistent, and accurate, the perfect recipe for a week at Southern Hills.

It’s no mystery that everyone’s eyes will be on Tiger Woods, but this week will include the strongest golfers in the World on the greatest stage. While it’s easy to bet on the best golfers, some courses simply don’t match their style. Looking into Southern Hills, don’t be surprised if these names show up on the top of the leaderboard come Sunday.