It Pains Me To Say It But It Still Feels Like The PGA Championship Is Lacking An Identity

It's often said that the PGA Championship struggles with its identity and that was certainly evident on Thursday at Quail Hollow.

The regular Wells Fargo Championship host, now known as the Truist Championship, is seen every year on the PGA Tour and the opening round at times resembled a PGA Tour event. Yes, a very good PGA Tour event with an elite field but nothing that is overly captivating like you'll find in the other three men's Majors.

The course is beautiful and has some standout holes - the drivable par 4 14th and the three-hole Green Mile finishing stretch are all enjoyable to watch and I'd love to play the course myself - but there's nothing that's greatly out of the ordinary to what we watch each and every week, and year, on the elite US circuit.

"The conditions are about as same. It's just not as firm," Stephan Jaeger said on how Quail Hollow compares this week with its usual PGA Tour conditions.

Major Championships are supposed to be truly elevated above the other events on the calendar and offer up different challenges vs regular weeks on tour, and venues really do matter. That seems to be something that the PGA of America struggles with.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with Quail Hollow but there's nothing absolutely spectacular about it either, and it's certainly not going to make people turn on their TVs just to catch a glimpse in the same way that Augusta National does, or one of the Open rota links courses, or Pinehurst or Pebble Beach.

While there's not a great deal that the PGA of America could do about the soft conditions and a fairly star-free leaderboard, the organization came under question for its decision not to play preferred lies in round one as well as the thick rough lining many of the lakes on the property.

Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele were both victims of mud balls on their way to double bogeys on 16, and Scheffler explained very eloquently why he believes that lift, clean and place should have been used on Thursday.

"When you have overseeded fairways that are not sand capped, there's going to be a lot of mud on the ball, and that's just part of it," Scheffler said.

"When you think about the purest test of golf, I don't personally think that hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway you should get punished for.

"On a golf course as good of conditioned as this one is, this is probably a situation in which it would be the least likely difference in playing it up because most of the lies you get out here are all really good.

"So I understand how a golf purist would be, oh, play it as it lies. But I don't think they understand what it's like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance.

"In golf, there's enough luck throughout a 72-hole tournament that I don't think the story should be whether or not the ball is played up or down.

"When I look at golf tournaments, I want the purest, fairest test of golf, and in my opinion maybe the ball today should have been played up."

The thick rough around water saved a number of players shots on Thursday, which some believe is too forgiving for a Major Championship test. Brooks Koepka's ball stopped twice in the long grass to narrowly miss water while Rory McIlroy also received a spot of luck in the same vein.

Then later in the day my jaw dropped when Justin Thomas was shown hitting his 3rd shot on the 16th after his ball was flying long and left of the green into the water. The thick rough somehow stopped his pulled approach from dropping into the lake and the two-time PGA Champion then chipped in for a miraculous birdie.

Majors are supposed to separate and reward the best players, and a course setup that doesn't punish poor shots like that is not a characteristic of one of the sport's elite events.

The PGA of America has an excuse that the PGA Championship weather forecast has not been on its side this week and there is hope that the course will significantly firm up come the weekend thanks to favorable conditions and Quail Hollow's sub-air system.

There will hopefully be an improvement in the atmosphere come the weekend, too, as Thursday afternoon in particular seemed to be fairly quiet on the grounds, with many shots on the broadcast showing sparse galleries.

Cam Davis was leading at six-under late on the front nine (playing his back nine) and there was barely anyone watching from the view shown on TV. It was the same when Aaron Rai popped up hitting into a completely empty grandstand on the 5th hole.

That hardly screams Major Championship, so hopefully things liven up over the weekend - which I'm sure they will.

So, what can be done to improve the PGA Championship?

There's always talk of the PGA reverting back to match play but that seems very unrealistic, and in truth it seems unrealistic for anything to really change.

The PGA Championship future sites are set for the best part of the next decade and aside from The Olympic Club in 2028 and Kiawah Island in 2031 there isn't a great deal to be excited about.

This grand old championship certainly has an identity crisis, and it seems to be cementing itself as the fourth of four men's Majors every time it comes back around.

The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass has never been closer to it in terms of prestige, in my view, with perhaps only the lack of LIV Golfers and a few other small things holding it back from matching the PGA.

The Australian Open at Royal Melbourne this year, with the addition of Rory McIlroy in the field, will be a must-watch event that fans will tune into just to have a look at the course with the added bonus of watching some good competition.

Many have called for the PGA Championship to move abroad and many have also called for the Australian Open to become the men's game's fifth Major.

While neither are likely, this year's Australian Open will be hosted on a better course than Quail Hollow that asks players different questions and requires all sorts of different shots. The atmosphere Down Under, as we've seen with LIV Golf Adelaide, is surely one to create a Major feel as well.

Whether the men's game gets a fifth Major one day or the PGA Championship looks to make any significant changes is to be seen but it's clear that it just isn't quite living up to the other three right now - which pains me to say.

Let's hope we get a great weekend.