Player interviews dominate Tuesday activities at the PGA Championship
The PGA Championship interview schedule for Tuesday includes Masters champion Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka, who won the 2018 PGA and came close at the Masters.
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Another cloudy and unseasonably cold day at Bethpage Black welcomed players continuing their preparations for Thursday’s start of the 101st PGA Championship, but the big stories Tuesday will come from the interview tent.
Tiger Woods, competing for the first time since winning the Masters on April 14, will be the headliner receiving the media’s total attention. The questions for Woods will center on the afterglow from his Masters triumph, his preparation for what could be his 16th career major championship and second of the year, and his affinity for Bethpage Black, a public course on which he won the U.S. Open in 2002. The curious also will ask why he hasn’t played since the Masters.
Woods will be followed into the interview area by defending champion Brooks Koepka, who has gone down to the wire with Woods in the last two majors. Koepka withstood a final-round 64 last year by Woods at Bellerive to finish two shots clear of him and win the 2018 PGA. He then challenged Woods on the final nine at Augusta National last month but came up one shot short as Woods won his fifth green jacket.
Other players scheduled for interviews Tuesday are former PGA champion and 2020 European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington; Rory McIlroy, who has eight top-10 finishes in 10 events this season; and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson.
The annual PGA of America press conference will feature two first-time principals: association president Suzy Whaley, the first woman in that post and a former West Chester resident, and first-year chief executive officer Seth Waugh. The discussion is sure to center on preparations for the championship given all the rain that has fallen at Bethpage in the last week or two.
The PGA also will hold a long-drive competition of sorts during Tuesday’s practice round. If they wish, players can go for a long-drive tee shot at No. 16, with the winner awarded $25,000 to be donated to his favorite charity.