Justin Thomas. Richard Heathcote

After a quiet stretch on the PGA Tour schedule, the season heats up once again with the 2023 PGA Championship, which will be held at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York. This will be the fourth time this course will host the vaunted major, placing it second in total PGAs only behind last year’s host, Southern Hills.

Just one year ago, Justin Thomas bested Will Zalatoris in a down-to-the-wire playoff in Oklahoma, which only occurred due to a 72nd-hole collapse by 54-hole leader Mito Pereira. A drive by the Chilean directly into a water hazard kept JT and Willy Z alive, with Thomas ultimately coming back from seven strokes down to start the final round.

This was the first major to require extra holes since the 2017 Masters. That was 19 consecutive majors that only needed 72 holes, the longest streak in PGA Tour history.

It should be an excellent second major of the season after a Jon Rahm Masters barnburner back in April. Below, we’ll answer any and all frequently asked questions you may have about the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill.

When and where is the PGA Championship being held in 2023?
This year’s PGA will take place at Oak Hill, which has gone through quite the renovation over the last decade or so. The East Course has been essentially overhauled and will feature a drastically different look due to a large removal of trees, recontoured bunkers and major work to three holes, including the elimination of one altogether.
Architect Andrew Green revised the Donald Ross-designed course and added 200 yards of additional teeing space, bringing the total championship distance to just under 7,400 yards.

Oak Hill

“The new dynamics give Oak Hill’s membership more freedom to play, to hit a variety of shots and recover,” wrote Derek Duncan, Golf Digest’s Architecture Editor. “It should also prove an entertaining test for the professionals, who will be tempted to flex their muscles. If the remodel helps the East Course get back to crowning champions like Nicklaus, Trevino and Cary Middlecoff (winner of the 1956 Open) and their 27 combined major titles like it used to, the club won’t have to do anything more to entice the USGA or PGA of America to come back.”

Has Oak Hill hosted any other majors other than the upcoming PGA Championship?
Even with the historic redesign, it’s not as if Oak Hill hasn’t been critical in the golf landscape since its inception back in the early 20th century. The course has hosted many a major tournament from 1949’s US Amateur to the Senior PGA Championship in 2019. After the completion of 2008’s Senior PGA Championship, Oak Hill Country Club became the first club in the United States to have hosted all six of the men’s major championships that move around the country.
In terms of majors, the New York course has hosted three US Opens (1956, 1968 and 1989) and three PGA Championships (1980, 2003 and 2013). The last PGA before the upcoming event featured Jason Dufner’s only major. Dufner held off Jim Furyk by two shots with a two-under 68 on Sunday. Tiger Woods finished T-40, never breaking par his entire four-day run in Rochester.

Who conducts the PGA Championship?
The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America conducts the event.

Are the PGA Tour and the PGA of America different?
Yes, the PGA Tour and the PGA of America have been independent of one another since 1968. The PGA Tour is an elite organisation of tournament professionals, while the PGA of America is made up of club and teaching professionals who work at on- and off-course golf facilities around the country (and the world).

When and where was the first PGA Championship played? And who won?
The first PGA Championship was played in 1916 at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, NY England’s Jim Barnes won, 1 up, over Jock Hutchinson.

Wait, 1 up … so was the PGA Championship a matchplay event at one time?
Yes, from 1916 to 1957, the PGA Championship was contested as matchplay with a stroke-play qualifier. During the course of the championship, it was not uncommon for players to play more than 200 holes in seven days. Starting in 1958, the PGA Championship switched to the standard 72-hole, stroke-play format. Dow Finsterwald won the first stroke-play version of the event in 1958 at Llanerch Country Club.