Glory's Last Shot or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the PGA

The last major championship of the year, the self-proclaimed ‘Glory’s Last Shot’, the PGA Championship begins today. In a way, the PGA Championship is the red-headed step child of the majors. It doesn’t have the historical significance of a British Open, the national status of a US Open, or the prestige of the Masters. Simply put, it’s the least important major. But, it’s still a major, it’s still a tournament the players want to win, and it still has a very good field. So how to pick a winner?



Don't be fooled by the flags, Americans
almost always win the tourney


To begin, the PGA’s field is different than the other majors. The other three fields feature a host of amateur players taking up spots from potential winners (I have nothing against amateurs in majors, but they don’t really have a chance of winning, and they do keep a professional out of the tournament), while the PGA has twenty odd club pros, who have absolutely no chance of winning. We can shrink the field down quite a bit when looking for potential winners, but there are still a lot of golfers with a chance at the Wannamaker Trophy.

What also makes it more difficult is the PGA’s tendency to crown more ‘one and done’ major winners than the other three. In the past quarter century we’ve seen such household names as Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, YE Yang, Rich Beem, Wayne Grady, Mark Brooks and Bob Tway win this tournament. Hardly world beaters, these are players who never really amounted to much other than that one hot week. So when we look at the field this weekend, these ‘no-name’ players have to be considered, even though their biggest ‘win’ might be a T22 in the Lumber 84 Classic.

The Weekly Roundup

We are introducing a new segment to The Sports Roundup entitled ‘The Weekly Roundup,’ or TWR for short. These weekly briefings will ‘roundup’ the week that was in sports and break down any stories that interest our readers. Feel free to comment, suggest, bicker, or criticize any of our posts because we want to hear from you.

So without further ado, it’s time to roundup the wagons, the horses and all of your cattle because here we go!

Giddy-up!

Old Man River


• In Flames land this week, the Flames re-signed Craig Conroy to a two way contract. An insurance deal for the Flames, for a 38, soon to be 39, year old center who scored all of three goals last season. With Langkow injured and unlikely to start the season, the move gives the Flames a veteran presence at the pivot position. He is 9 games away from reaching 1000 career NHL games. This signing gives the Flames six natural centers - Langkow, Jokinen, Stajan, Conroy, Stone, and Backlund- under contract. Stone, Backlund and Conroy are all two way deals.