Columnist Adam Candee: The last (and least) major

Adam Candee

Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005 | 9:42 a.m.

Adam Candee covers golf for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at candee@lasvegassun.com.

Multiple credible sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have confirmed to the Sun that there will be a major championship contested this week among PGA tour professionals.

Maybe you already knew that. Consider yourself a pretty serious golf fan if you did and deduct zero points from your exam if you didn't.

It is apparently called the "PGA Championship," though we will not be close enough to New Jersey to independently verify its existence with our own eyes. A gentleman named Vijay Singh won the event in a playoff last year and ... OK, enough with the playing ignorant. Sort of.

But seriously, did you really know that the PGA Championship was coming before flipping open the sports section or catching the day's highlights on TV? It sneaks up like a mischievous puppy, underfoot but unnoticed until almost tripping over it because it quietly got so close.

The PGA Championship, which marks the de facto end of the golf season about which anyone cares, still ranks as the clear No. 4 among the four majors.

It lacks the tradition and aura of the Masters, the uniquely brutal test and nationalism of the U.S. Open and the far-off magic and history of the British Open. Sitting down to write this, the first significant memory of the PGA Championship that leaped to mind is John Daly's stunning victory at Crooked Stick.

That happened in 1991. If the Buffalo Bills, (MC) Hammer or those striped Zubaz pants can be easily pegged to your last big thing, file it under "disadvantage."

The tournament also produces its share of offbeat winners. Sure, you say, Singh is anything but a fluke. But try to recall the three winners of the PGA Championship prior to Singh ... keep thinking ... take your time ... (cue Jeopardy theme music) ... and if Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem and David Toms are all on your card, then you likely cheated. Total major championships won among that group: Three.

The time slot for the PGA Championship is right there on the border of whether people still care about golf in any given year. Baseball is in the middle of the pennant drive, while the daily groin pulls and ice baths of NFL training camps dominate headlines, and college football is just weeks off.

People care about the Masters because it is the Masters and they tune into the U.S. Open to watch the pros feel the same pain they do when slapping Top-Flites around the local muni. And there's something about the British Open, with the "over there" allure of foreign courses and foreign lands, that piques curiosity.

The PGA Championship must rely on the quality of the golf and nothing else. If it happens to get a great finish or star-packed leaderboard, that's excellent. Barring those lucky happenstances, how can you tell this tournament from the Western Open? You can't, beyond the fact that we've grown up being told it is a major.

Last year's final round grabbed my attention as local favorite Chris Riley competed down the stretch and the excitement of a playoff loomed. I'll be glued again in similar circumstances, or if Tiger Woods really is coming within two rough holes at Pinehurst of winning the Grand Slam this year. (And there is no overplaying the importance of that potential; it would be the most transcendent golf story in years.)

And if John Q. Golfer is comfortably riding home with a three-shot lead come Sunday? Well, the yardwork is really starting to pile up.