This week's tournament: The PGA Championship at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
Horse for the Course
PGA Championship GolfCast
Join ESPN.com's Michael Collins at 7:45 a.m. ET on Sunday for the resumption of Round 3 from Kiawah Island.
Bob Harig, ESPN.com senior golf writer: Louis Oosthuizen
It's hard to figure out who the Ocean Course favors, but it's hard to knock a guy who is playing well and hits the ball so nicely. He sniffed contention last week and perhaps his game is rounding into shape.
Kevin Maguire, ESPN.com senior golf editor: Dustin Johnson
The South Carolina native will be playing in the first major that his home state has ever hosted. Wouldn't it be sweet revenge if the big-hitting Johnson could avenge the debacle that cost him a spot in a playoff at the 2010 PGA Championship?
Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com senior national columnist: Adam Scott
Can play in wind. Is patient enough to deal with the nuttiness of a Pete Dye course. And golf might owe him one, right?
Birdie Buster
Bob Harig:
Keegan Bradley
The defending PGA champ comes to Kiawah on a high after his Bridgestone Invitational victory on Sunday that all but wrapped up a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Bradley is playing well at a good time.
Kevin Maguire: Keegan Bradley
The St. John's product broke out of his mid-season funk with a bang after his surprising victory at the WGC-Bridgestone just in time to defend his PGA Championship title. Before his win in Akron, Bradley hadn't earned a top-20 on the PGA Tour since before the Masters.
Gene Wojciechowski: Keegan Bradley
Bradley is fearless. He's coming off a come-from-behind win. Back-to-back PGA titles wouldn't stun me.
Super Sleeper
Bob Harig:
Kyle Stanley
He's not done much since his victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, but the PGA seems to produce first-time major winners or those to whom we're not paying much attention.
Kevin Maguire: Padraig Harrington
Loads of respect for a three-time major winner who didn't qualify for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and instead teed it up at the Reno-Tahoe Open and finished T-19. Never hurts that he's clutched the Wannamaker Trophy on a Sunday evening before, too.
Gene Wojciechowski: Jim Furyk
He collapsed at the U.S. Open and at Firestone. But Furyk is a grinder. He'll be ready this week.
Winner
Bob Harig:
Jim Furyk
Can he get over the pain of such a tough loss at the Bridgestone? Furyk is obviously playing well, he just had one bad hole at the worst time. It sure would be a great story if he bounced back this week.
Kevin Maguire: Rory McIlroy
Last week, the Northern Irishman started the WGC-Bridgestone 3 over after four holes, but rebounded nicely for a T-5 finish. Expect the world No. 3 to enjoy the links-like layout of Kiawah Island, especially if he's raising his second major championship trophy in as many years.
Gene Wojciechowski: Matt Kuchar
Steady. Unflappable. Time for another first time major winner.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Michael Collins has been writing for ESPN.com since yesterday. He started out as a stand up comedian and fell into PGA Tour golf and caddying completely by accident in 1998.
He started looping for fun in 1999 but by 2003 had decided to make it a full time gig. He won the Nationwide Tour Championship with Chris Couch in 2003 and was on the bag for Kevin Streelman when they captured the inaugural Kodak Challenge in 2009.
Michael has never won an award for his writing, probably because he failed high school English and still types with his index fingers. But he's smart, funny, and most importantly knows the game/players/caddies and what they go through on a week-to-week basis and brings a caddie perspective that's different than anything you've ever seen when it comes to golf coverage.
Farrell Evans grew up in Forsyth, Ga., 60 miles south of Atlanta, where he learned the game at the Forsyth Golf Club, an 18-hole public course. After high school, he played on the golf team at Florida A&M University and interned with the PGA Tour at the TPC at Sawgrass.
Before joining ESPN.com in August 2011, he was a golf writer for nine years at Sports Illustrated. He currently lives in Harlem and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com.
Bob Harig is a golf writer for ESPN.com and has been covering the game for more than 20 years, first at the St. Petersburg Times and for the last four years at ESPN.com. He began contributing to ESPN.com in 1997.
Harig is a native of Barrington, Ill., where he got his first exposure to golf as a caddie at Inverness Golf Club, where he earned an Evans Scholarship to attend Indiana University. He graduated with degrees in journalism and history.
Harig lives in Florida and can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com
Kevin Maguire is the senior golf editor for ESPN.com and covered his first PGA Tour event in 1994 while at American University in Washington, D.C. He played collegiately for the Eagles and graduated with a degree in print journalism.
Maguire grew up in the Philadelphia, Pa. area and now resides outside of Hartford, Conn. He has been with ESPN since February, 2007 and can be reached at Kevin.Maguire@espn.com.
Justin Ray is a senior researcher with ESPN Stats and Information. He has contributed to ESPN's golf coverage since joining the network out of college in 2008. He is based in Austin, Texas with the new Longhorn Network.
He can be contacted at Justin.Ray@espn.com.
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