PGA Championship at a glance

Despite missing out on the Grand Slam when he barely lost at the British Open, Spieth could go in the record book with a win at the PGA Championship.

For all the attention Spieth, 22, has earned with his four victories (along with playoff losses at the Colonial and Houston Open), McIlroy hasn’t been a mere spectator to this sensational season. “I thought I was going to miss it more than I did”, said McIlroy, who will play alongside Spieth and Johnson in the first two rounds. “Eras last about six months these days instead of 20 years, but it’s just the way the world is”.

Johnson had blown a three-shot lead in the final round of the US Open a month earlier and is still seeking a first major title after three-putting the 72nd hole of this year’s US Open at Chambers Bay to finish a shot behind Spieth.

“Expectation levels are the same”, McIlroy said.

It wasn’t long ago that professional golf felt like a solar system with two dimming suns as Woods and Phil Mickelson began heading toward their respective sunsets at roughly the same time.

“This is going to be a tough golf course, if you miss the golf ball a little bit, and even the walks, from tee box to fairway, they’re not straight”.

Hideki Matsuyama (18-1): Talented 23-year-old often gets overlooked, but he’s a combined 16 under-par in 12 rounds at major championships this year. Over the past two years, well….

“I’m just trying to get better”, Woods said after playing nine holes with Davis Love III.

“Whenever you see someone put together a season like this, of course you become motivated”, McIlroy admitted. McIlroy went for a 20-minute run Wednesday morning and says he’s good to go.

“He has good physios, he’s worked hard”, Woods told reporters when quizzed about McIlroy, who has been at Whistling Straits for several days practicing ahead of his return to action.

‘That was like the fourth or fifth time in a 10-day period where I had played football.

“I’m just chilling”, Johnson said of his emotions on the eve of the tournament.

As the swelling diminished, McIlroy’s perspective widened.

“It’s just a little sad that every time you talk about Whistling Straits, people talk about that he would have won”.

Yet Day, who has four career PGA Tour wins, including two this year, carries himself like the most patient man in the world.

Heading into the PGA Championship that tees off at Whistling Straits on Thursday, the 22-year-old Masters and US Open champion is closing in on Rory McIlroy’s number one world ranking much sooner than his meticulous career plan forecast.

Kerry Haigh used the word “bunker” 25 times and held up a yellow sheet of paper describing the definition of the 1,300 bunkers at Whistling Straits golf course. If Spieth and McIlroy have a quality that sets them apart, it’s their resilient mental health.