THE 2010 PGA: AND THE WINNER IS...

By Doug McAllister

While watching today's broadcast of the 2010 PGA Championship, I was struck by a stunning fact. After all is said and done. After the last putt drops and the champion is crowned. After all of the should've's and would've's and could've's are silenced. One thing and one thing only will truly remain.

Whistling Straits.

The grand track on Lake Michigan will likely be there — barring some weird, natural catastrophe — to be enjoyed by generations of golfers yet unborn. And it won't really matter a damn who wins tomorrow. Regardless of who it is — whether a first-time winner like Nick Watney or Matt Kuchar or a seasoned veteran like Jim Furyk — the course will be as unaffected as Lake Michigan itself. The winner will be Whistling Straits and, of course, each of us who was able to witness the spectacle. Whistling Straits, like the game of golf, will be the thing that weathers time, the thing that will be remembered for years to come. And that's as it should be.

Think of it. For example, name for me the winner of the Open Championship — any one of them! — who won at St. Andrews during the twenties or thirties or forties. Who were they. Yeah, the consummate golf fact benders will be able to do it but who really cares. Certainly, in the years following their victories, they were toasted and remembered. The fact remains that St. Andrews lives on while the players — even the winners — fade away like MacArthur's old soldiers!

And so it will be with tomorrow's winner at Whistling Straits. He will be gone from sight almost as rapidly as the tracks in any of the 1,200+ sand traps are raked away at this striking course.

So, enjoy the larger aspects of the game of golf. Enjoy the timelessness of the places where it is played. Don't fret so much about who has or has not come back. And, until next time...

Hit 'em Long and Straight!