Feathers May Fly at Quail Hollow

Restored to its rightful place in the global golf schedule after a year damagingly-displaced by golf’s readmission to the Olympic Games in Rio, as Mike Wilson asks, will the U.S. PGA Championship continue the recent trend of first-time 'Major' champions? Or will the old order be restored with a proven winner of one of golf's 'Big Four,' events lifting the giant Wanamaker Trophy?

Can Hideki Matsuyama follow YE Yang’s step to becoming the second Asian to lift the Wanamaker trophy?

Of the Asian contingent, Korean YE Yang, who many observers consider started the demise of Tiger Woods by reeling him in to win the 2009 U.S. PGA Championship at Hazeltine remains in the field on a past champion’s exemption. But far more credible are the burgeoning - almost irresistible - ‘Major claims on a Major’ championship of Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama.

Up to number-two on the OWGR and playing his 20th ‘Major’ as a professional, the 25-year-old, fourth behind Walker last year and runner-up to Koepka in this year’s U.S. Open may be hampered by the weight of expectation from the Land of the Rising Sun - not to mention the hundreds of journalists, photographers and TV crews who follow his every step.

The young man from Ehime prefecture in northwestern Shikoku in Japan - its capital is ‘Matsuyama’ - has served his apprenticeship with wins the Japan Tour, the Asian Tour and the PGA Tour, now could be his time to graduate to the very highest level in golf.

Meanwhile, the claims of the understated South Korean starlet, the 22-year-old Si Woo Kim, who followed-up his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship with victory in the top-tier Players Championship last year could fly under the radar to get into the mix come Sunday afternoon to join compatriot Yang as a U.S. PGA Championship winner.

With Quail Hollow presenting a new and altogether different challenge to those PGA Tour professionals who play the Wells Fargo Championship in early May each year - and with the absence of a man called Tiger Woods, now outside the top 1,000 in the world - whilst the spoils are being shared more equally across the Tour. Multiple winners this term such as Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and especially three-time winners DJ and Matsuyama must surely hold sway when it comes to lifting the giant Wanamaker Trophy and the equally colossal US$1.89m?

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