GM prepares for the 90th USPGA Championship

Three down and one to go. Well actually one to go plus another rather large, rather exciting, rather biennial event. The 37th Ryder Cup has cast a huge shadow over the final Major of the year and the USPGA is all the better for it.

Occasionally seen as the poor relation to the other three Majors (personally I think it s misnomer) it is a Championship that now boasts not only the strongest field of the entire year but also incalculable layers of intrigue that will have us scouring all ends of the leaderboard.

Best of all surely it has to be watching your friend and mine Mr Colin Montgomerie huffing and puffing his way through the Detroit heat with the inevitable good early round getting the press and the fans thoroughly over-excited before he spectacularly implodes and stares his way to an MC. All the while of course Nick Faldo will be seen on TV looking rather smug and preparing not to pick the big man. He won t will he I want him to, I would pay him to in fact but he just won t, will he? It s just not Faldo s style. Damn it still it ll make great TV.

Add to the boiling pot the likes of Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia, all of whom are by no means sure of their place and suddenly the fact that a random American is more than likely to walk off with the far too big Wannamaker Trophy the Americans have never quite grasped that bigger is not always better really won t matter.

In that vein, here s one little tip-bit that you might want to consider before you place your bets this year in the course of our ever-extensive research for this microsite (they don t just pop out of cyberspace you see) we found that technically no European has ever won the USPGA. The Championship only became a stroke play event in 1958, since when just eight non-Americans have won, including no Europeans! In fact you have to go back 78 years to Tommy Armour to find the last European victor in the match play format.

So perhaps I won t lump all my salary on Monty this time (I am sharp, very sharp).

Our man LIVE in Detroit, Paul Mahoney, will be keeping you up-to-date with all the action on and off the course don t miss it.