AT A GLANCE | PGA Championship

When, where: Thursday-Sunday, Oak Hill Country Club (East course), Rochester, N.Y.
Course facts: 7,134 yards, par 70. First incorporated in 1901, the club engineered a land swap with the University of Rochester to build two courses on the current acreage, both designed by Donald Ross. The East course opened in 1926 and hosted its first U.S. Open 30 years later, when Cary Middlecoff held off a charge from Ben Hogan. It also has staged the 1968 and 1989 Opens, two U.S. Amateurs, the 1980 PGA Championship and the 1995 Ryder Cup matches won by Europe with a Sunday comeback.
Format: 72 holes, stroke play. Field cut to top 70 and ties after 36 holes. Three-hole playoff, if necessary, immediately after final round.
Field: 156 players, including 96 of the top 100 in the world rankings. Two-time winner Nick Price (family), Nick Faldo (new baby), Paul Lawrie (neck) and John Cook (shoulder) are missing.
Purse: Announced during the week. Last year's offered $5.5 million ($990,000 to winner).
Television: Thursday and Friday: 1-7 p.m. (TNT), highlights 12:37-1:07 a.m. (CBS). Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (TNT), 2-7 p.m. (CBS).
Defending champion: Rich Beem (72-66-72-68--278 at Hazeltine National GC), one stroke ahead of Tiger Woods.
Last year: Beem shrugged off a four-birdie finish by Woods to join the list of unlikely winners in the year's final major. Beem began the final round three shots behind Justin Leonard but needed just eight holes to move in front. An eagle at the par-5 11th hole put Beem in command, and a 35-foot birdie at No. 16 allowed him to effectively slam the door on the charging Woods. The triumph came in just the fourth major for Beem, who might not have made the field had he not won the International two weeks earlier.
Last PGA at Oak Hill: Forty-year-old Jack Nicklaus ended a two-year winless stretch with a seven-stroke romp in the 1980 PGA, matching Walter Hagen's five PGA Championships in record fashion. It was the largest margin of victory in any major since Hogan won the 1953 British Open at Carnoustie by seven shots.
Changes: Seven new tees were built under the direction of Tom Fazio, adding 232 yards and bringing some of Oak Hill's key fairway bunkers back into play. Bombers no longer can cut the corner on the dogleg at the par-4 17th, now measuring 295 yards and requiring a 280-yard drive to reach the corner. Same at the 482-yard 18th, which now requires a 300-yard drive to carry two fairway bunkers. The addition of 34 yards at No. 11 turned one of Oak Hill's easier par 3s into one of its most difficult.
Former champions in field: Larry Nelson (1981, '87), Hal Sutton (1983), Bob Tway (1986), Jeff Sluman (1988), John Daly (1991), Paul Azinger (1993), Mark Brooks (1996), Davis Love III (1997), Vijay Singh (1998), Tiger Woods (1999, 2000), David Toms (2001), Rich Beem (2002).
Noteworthy: Six-time major winner Faldo will stay home to be with his newborn daughter, bringing the longest current streak of major starts to an end at 65. Emma Scarlet Faldo was born July 28, Faldo's fourth child and first with wife Valerie. Love stands poised to inherit the streak, with Oak Hill to be his 54th consecutive major start.
-- The Miami Herald