SPRINGFIELD, NEW JERSEY | He stood among the crowd and waited for the microphone to clear. On Tuesday of last week, Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer of the PGA of America, arrived a few minutes early at the interview tent in the parking lot of Baltusrol Golf Club for his annual KPMG Women’s PGA Championship press conference. Haigh was being joined by the LPGA commissioner and the U.S. chairman of KPMG, so a gaggle of people from both organizations wearing business attire and nervous looks gathered to nod along as their bosses spoke.
Haigh looked as comfortable as ever, right up to the moment when he saw a folding banquet table near scoring. The PGA-blue tablecloth was cockeyed, the left side higher than the right as if a dog had pulled on one end. “Excuse me a second,” Haigh said to those around him. He walked over, took everything off the table, straightened the tablecloth, and then returned the contents to their rightful spots.
As metaphors go, there aren’t many better for this championship or the PGA overall.
Leaders look after the details. All of them. They don’t wait for underlings. They don’t watch idly. They don’t let things slide. Obsession with small things at every moment of every day takes care of the big things in the end.
The list of big things last week was long and distinguished. Once again KPMG hosted a women’s summit on Wednesday, attended, once again, by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. KPMG also raised the purse to $10 million without making a fuss over it – no formal announcements or releases; just a tasteful distribution list for those curious enough to do the math.
The PGA of America made a number of wonderful announcements, including giving $50,000 to a couple of at-risk PGA Jr. League teams through the PGA Reach program.
But the biggest thing of all, apart from some tremendous drama inside the ropes and the 20-year-old winner, Ruoning Yin, had to be the golf course. This KPMG Women’s PGA Championship was the first major played at the new-and-improved Baltusrol Lower Course, a century-old A.W. Tillinghast design and 2021 Gil Hanse restoration that had everyone raving.
"I mean, our majors are our biggest opportunity to grow our sport and to grow this tour. It’s when we get the most people watching, the most people here in the media center paying attention. These weeks are so, so important, and where you play matters."
Stacy Lewis
“I don't think your casual fan is going to know how hard this golf course is,” Stacy Lewis said. “But these girls are so good.
“The biggest thing for me is, you walk through that clubhouse and you see the winners of all these past championships here, and it’s guys. To just start a history here of women being on those pictures and being around that clubhouse, that’s the biggest thing for me. That’s what’s changing in women’s golf, because we’re doing this every year. We’re doing it at this golf course. It’s going to happen (next month for the U.S. Women’s Open) at Pebble Beach, too. We’re changing the history of these golf courses. I’m just glad that the powers that be picked up the phone and said that they were ready for it.
“I mean, our majors are our biggest opportunity to grow our sport and to grow this tour. It’s when we get the most people watching, the most people here in the media center paying attention. These weeks are so, so important, and where you play matters. It matters to the casual fan. It matters to who’s watching.”
It also matters how those venues are set up. More than a handful of players said Baltusrol might have been the best-conditioned golf course they have ever seen. Zero complained about what Haigh and the PGA did with it. Despite the threat of weather all week, and enough moisture every tournament day to keep it from playing firm and fast, nobody shot 62 and the flags weren’t hidden in the fringes or placed on ridgelines.
When the first rain delay of the week came at 1:02 p.m. on Sunday with the final group on the eighth green, two players were tied for the lead, nine stood within three shots, and no one got to double digits under par. Every hole played tough but fair. And the whole place looked spectacular.
“It’s definitely a major championship-type of golf course,” rookie sensation Rose Zhang said before continuing her remarkable run and sending palpitations through the hearts of fans everywhere with a Sunday charge that came up short. “I expected nothing less from it. The rough is high. Greens are firm and very quick. There’s a lot of undulation. Even if you hit a really good shot and you’re on the wrong side of the hole, it’s going to trickle down into a rough patch or it will trickle down to the lowest part of the green. So, you have to be able to understand how to use slopes to your advantage.
“The rough is super thick. The chipping techniques that I’ve been using this week are definitely different from any other chipping techniques that I’ve been using. Once you're in the rough, that’s kind of a layup to minimize big numbers. And the course is long.”
None of the players mentioned Haigh. Few knew his name. That’s how he wants it.
Shortly after Justin Thomas won his first PGA Championship in 2017, he went to dinner with a group of PGA officials and sat next to Haigh. When asked to compare the majors, Thomas said, “The PGA gets it right almost every time. When I get to (other majors), all I hear is about (this or that official) and how they set up the golf course. I don’t even know who sets up the courses for the PGA.”
Everyone else at the table pointed at Haigh and said, “That guy.”
That’s leadership. That’s what it takes to grow the game at every level.
E-MAIL STEVE
Top: 20-year-old Ruoning Yin and venerable Baltusrol Golf Club take center stage in lifting women's golf.
darren carroll, pga of america via getty images