Mike Weir reminisces about Southern Hills, the host site of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Canadian legend and Golf Town ambassador recalls the past champions—Retief Goosen and Tiger Woods. He also recalls the extreme heat when the event was played in August so playing it in May will be more beneficial.
“It was so hot when we played there in August,” Weir says of the course that hosted the PGA Championship in 2007 and the U.S. Open in 2001. “You’d get to the first tee and be worn out by the heat. It was something.”
The Senior PGA Championship shouldn’t have the same stifling heat, Weir says, but he does anticipate the course to be set up more like the majors he played on the PGA Tour than those on PGA Tour Champions, which includes golfers over 50. The Regions Tradition, the first major of the year for Weir, wasn’t quite the challenge he expected, playing more like a course the golfer would regularly face on PGA Tour Champions. Southern Hills will be more of a test.
“I hear they set it up with longer rough and faster greens,” Weir, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, says. “It is a course with doglegs and you’re going to have to drive the ball well to play well there.”
At the start of May, when Weir won the Insperity Invitational, he hit several strong drives while battling John Daly, including a key tee shot on the long 18th. Weir says he spent a lot of time working on that part of his game, and it is now at the point where he’s confident when he reaches the tee.
“I’ve been driving it well now for a couple of years,” Weir explained, mentioning that many thought he’d hit 3-wood off the tee at the Insperity, but elected to hit a driver to give him a shorter iron approach.
With his driving under control, Weir has chosen to spend recent weeks refining his world-class short game, the element that made him one of the Top 5 players in the world for a stretch.
“All the elements are there—I’m just spending more time on my bunker play, chipping and putting,” Weir added.