Back to Atlanta for PGA Championship

Atlanta Athletic Club has been around in various forms since 1898. The configuration of its Highlands Course was completed in 1970. Six years later the U.S. Open was held there. Since then it has undergone a couple of redesigns by Rees Jones, whose father, Robert Trent Jones Sr., was one of the original architects for what was then a 27-hole complex.

Anyway, that major is remembered for the shot that clinched it, a 5-iron out of the rough from 22-year-old Jerry Pate on the 72nd hole from some 190 yards away that had to clear a lake fronting the green. Moments before, third-round leader John Mahaffey had put his approach into the wet stuff. But Pate, the 1974 U.S. Amateur champion, hit it to within a few feet of the cup for a kick-in birdie 3 and a 2-shot victory over 1968 PGA champ Al Geiberger (closing 69) and 1973 British Open champ Tom Weiskopf (68).

Pate, who had been the low amateur at the 1975 Open, closed with his best round of the week, a 68 that left him at 3-under par 277.

Pate, who had trailed by two after 54 holes, never won another Grand Slam event. He would win seven more PGA Tour events, the last of which was the 1982 Players Championship (the first played at TPC Sawgrass), in a career that was derailed by shoulder injuries. He did finish second at the 1978 PGA, where he lost on the first hole of a three-way playoff with Tom Watson and, ironically, the winning Mahaffey. Pate was also runner-up (by two) to Hale Irwin at the 1979 U.S. Open.

In 1981, the PGA Championship visited AAC for the first time. And Vietnam War veteran Larry Nelson, who grew up not too far away, won the first of his three majors. He finished four better than 1979 Masters champ Fuzzy Zoeller, after leading by four after 54 holes. The course played at 7,070 yards, or roughly the same as it had for the Open. Nelson would add a U.S. Open to his resumé 2 years later, when he closed 65-67 at Oakmont to beat Watson in a tourney that didn't end until Monday. And in 1987 Nelson got himself another PGA, in a playoff at Florida's sweltering PGA National, even though his best scores in the last three rounds were a pair of 72s.

The 2001 PGA would again come down to one swing on the final hole. But this time it was a lob wedge from 88 yards by David Toms, after he elected to lay up from 210 yards out of the rough. His third shot left him a 12-foot par putt, which he rolled in to beat Phil Mickelson by one. Lefty, who closed with a 68 to go with three 66s, would have only won every other major that's ever been played with his 266 total.

Toms, who went 66-65-66-69, made a hole-in-one in the third round with a 5-wood at the 243-yard 15th, a shot that would have probably rolled over the green if the ball hadn't hit the flagstick. It's the longest ace in a major, and the only time that one has been recorded by the eventual winner. It happens.

Toms never relinquished the lead in the final round, though Mickelson did catch him several times, the last at the 15th when he chipped in from 45 feet. But Lefty, as he sometimes does, then 3-putted at the next hole.

The course measured 7,200 yards. Now it's 420 yards longer. So we'll see what difference that makes.

FEATURE HOLE

You were thinking possibly something other than No. 18? In three tries it's merely produced two memorable finishes.

It measures 505 yards, slightly longer than a decade ago, and doglegs left to right off the tee. From the middle of the fairway on there's water down the left side. But it is the widest fairway on the course. Good thing, since there's also bunkers and trees lining the right half. The wet stuff cuts in front of the putting surface, which is definied by wooden bulkheads. And there's sand in the back, which means there's really no bailout area. So it's nothing if not treacherous. But hey, no guts no glory. And this is glory's last hurrah, as CBS likes to say, until 2012. Pate attacked it one way, Toms another. Each got it done, which is all that anyone remembers. Or someone could go swimming with the fishes. History would tend to remember that as well.

DID YOU KNOW?

-- Last August, Martin Kaymer made only two bogeys in his last 55 holes. One came on his final hole.

-- The Atlanta AC becomes only the fifth venue to host at least three PGA Championships, joining Southern Hills (four), Oakmont, Oakland Hills and Firestone.

-- Of the last 11 major winners, 10 have been first-time major winners.

-- Of the 10 players who have carded a 63 in this major, starting with Bruce Crampton in the second round at Firestone in 1975, only two have gone on to win the tournament: Raymond Floyd (first round) in 1982 at Southern Hills, and Tiger Woods (second round) in 2007, also at Southern Hills. The only guy to shoot 63 in the fourth round was Brad Faxon, in 1995 at Riviera; he finished fifth. A 64 has been shot 21 times, and only once by a winner in the final round. That was Steve Elkington, in 1995 at Riviera. He beat Colin Montgomerie in a playoff.

-- Last year was the 12th playoff in PGA history, and third since the format was changed from sudden-death to three-hole aggregrate in the late 1990s (the first two, in 1961 and '67, had been 18-holers). And only one of the seven that were played at sudden death even lasted three holes. That happened in 1979, when David Graham beat Ben Crenshaw with a birdie at Oakland Hills.

-- The youngest winner was Gene Sarazen at 20 years, 5 months, 22 days old in 1922. He's also the third-youngest winner, since he lifted the Wannamaker Trophy again the following year. Tom Creavy (20/7/17 in 1931) falls in-between.

-- The highest winning score was 287 (1-under par) in 1987 by Larry Nelson at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He shot 70-72-73-72 to tie Lanny Wadkins, whom he then beat with a par on the first playoff hole.

-- Seven players have won this major in their first appearance, the last being Shaun Micheel in 2003. That list includes the guy who won the first one, Jim Barnes.

-- Of the 53 stroke-play PGAs, a first-round leader won 11 times. A second-round leader has done it 20 times, while a third-round leader has held on 30 times.

-- Three players have carded three PGA rounds of 65 or better: Nick Price, Gary Player and Jeff Maggert. Another 10 have done it twice.