Hazeltine National A Big Test For Women’s PGA

CHASKA, MINNESOTA | “It’s a big ballpark.” That’s the way Golf Channel analyst Jerry Foltz described Hazeltine National to me prior to this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

“I played my one lone major here in 1991, the U.S. Open, and actually led it,” Foltz said. “I was leader when my group finished (the first round) because back then they teed everybody off of one. I was first out and just demolished the guys in my group. So I led the U.S. Open until the second group finished.

“But it's a massively big, tough golf course. There aren't really any easy holes. There's not a lot of let up in it. Some are longer and beastlier than others, and then the shorter, tighter ones sometimes are even trickier. The one they played along the lake was 16 when I played it, and if you hit a 1- or 2-iron off that tee back in the day, you were just praying, praying somehow you got it in the fairway because if you didn't, it was instant bogey. There were quite a few holes like that.

“It’s going to be kind of like the men’s PGA at Bethpage Bl...