Hello again from Classic Swing Golf School! We're enthusiastically keeping an eye on Kiawah Island's Ocean Course this week. If you're a local or are here just visiting, get out and enjoy our courses and sign up or a golf lesson!. Classic Swing Golf School is also enthusiastically waiting to help you improve your golf game. Like I said, fans this week are keeping their eyes on the Tour!
KIAWAH ISLAND — The 94th PGA Championship begins today at the Ocean Course, the last of golf’s four major titles to be contested for the year.
And for the last three days, the world’s best players have worked over Pete Dye’s oceanside layout, described as a “monster” by Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal. “Ollie” should know, as he’s the only man in the 156-player field who played the Ocean Course back in 1991, in the Ryder Cup known as the “War by the Shore.”
Spectators have made their way through Johns Island’s rural roads, paid $20 to park and boarded buses bound for the far end of Kiawah Island. Autographs have been signed, TV studios set up, and there’s a purse of $8 million up for grabs.
But the six inches of rain that have soaked the Ocean Course in the past week, much of it in the last two days, also has dampened the fairways and the atmosphere.
“It’s been kind of a quiet, surreal, un-major-like buildup so far,” said Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion.
Players were called off the course three times Tuesday and Wednesday as rain and lightning interrupted practice rounds, and more storms are forecast for the rest of the week. Most tickets have long been sold, but officials conceded the rain has hurt gate sales.
There’s little doubt that the heavy rains will impact the nature of the Ocean Course, at least for the PGA’s first two rounds. But course officials insist that the course is up to the task.
“It’s so soft,” said Rory McIlroy, the young Irishman who won the U.S. Open last year. “Of course, there’s going to be a little bit of wind, but it’s not really playing like it’s really designed to be played, or how it should be played.”
The Ocean Course is at its best, and most difficult, under drier and windier conditions, which usually prevail here. But at the ever-changing Ocean Course, there’s plenty of time for the sandy soil to drain and for drama to develop. – Jeff Hartsell
Classic Swing Golf School: Voted "Best Golf School in Myrtle Beach"
"One of Golf Magazine’s Top 25 Golf Schools in America" 2001-2002, 2003-2004, 2008-2009.
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Classic Swing Golf School in Myrtle Beach, SC has been coined as one of the most affordable golf schools in America.
Classic Swing Golf School has earned many accolades on which to hang its hat. Classic Swing Golf School is honorably distinguished as one of the "Top 25 Golf Schools in America" by Golf Magazine and was also voted "The Best Golf School in Myrtle Beach" in 2008.
Classic Swing Golf School guarantees a maximum 3:1 student to teacher ratio in all golf schools and offers private golf lessons for those golfers that prefer one-on-one golf instruction. Classic Swing also offers custom golf club fitting. The staff of Classic Swing Golf School abides by their motto, "We Love What We Do and We GUARANTEE Improvement." We invite you to preview the Classic Swing Golf School experience today! www.classicswing.com