Golf fans won’t have much trouble recalling the last time a major championship was played at Medinah’s no. 3 Course. Seven years ago, the suburban Chicago layout hosted the 81st PGA Championship in which a 23-year-old Tiger Woods, displaying a maturity and control beyond his years, held off an impulsive, fist-pumping, hop, skip and jumping Sergio Garcia, still four months away from his 20th birthday.

Garcia’s inspired, if slightly dangerous, approach shot to the 16th green from the roots of an old oak tree, Woods’ crucial putt for par at the 17th hole, and the two players’ warm embrace at the 18th green helped put the PGA’s flagship event firmly back on the map after nearly two decades of fairly unremarkable finishes (John Daly’s breakthrough in 1991, Paul Azinger’s play-off win over Greg Norman in 1993, and Davis Love’s emotional win at Winged Foot in 1997 among the few notable exceptions) and ensured the tournament went into the 21st century as eagerly anticipated as the Masters and the two big opens on either side of the Atlantic.

Climaxes such as that, which thrilled the galleries at Medinah in 1999, and Phil Mickelson’s Monday morning finish at Baltusrol a year ago certainly helped, but the PGA also made some far-sighted decisions that earned the tournament the respect of not only the viewing public but also the press and, even more importantly, the players. Tiger Woods has stated his admiration for the PGA Championship and, as everyone in the game knows, once you have Tiger’s support you’re onto a winner.

Chief among its attractions is the stellar field — the season’s strongest every year since 1991 thanks, in part, to a clause in its eligibility criteria which gives the PGA of America the right to invite additional players not otherwise included in the standard exemption categories (past winners of the Masters, U.S. Open, etc). With this rule in place, the PGA can typically issue invitations to at least 90 of the world’s top 100 players.

It also visits great courses and instead of strangling them to death with 20-yard wide fairways and steel-wire rough, presents a formidable but eminently playable challenge. This week Medinah hosts its fifth major championship (sixth if you count the 1988 U.S. Senior Open). Designed by Scotsman, Tom Bendelow, and opened in 1928, Medinah no. 3 has seen a great deal of change over its 78 years. It was initially meant to be a nine-holer set aside for female members, but when Bendelow insisted the size of the membership — 1,500 — warranted another full 18, the club relented.

The original no. 3 measured just 6,261 yards and was battered into submission in 1930 by Harry Cooper who won the 36-hole Medinah Open with a second round 63. Some months before Cooper’s course record, however, Bendelow had submitted plans for a complete overhaul of the layout incorporating 77 acres of land to the south of the remarkable Moorish/Byzantine building that serves as the club’s headquarters.His plans were immediately approved and the remodeled no. 3 opened in June 1932. Bendelow’s changes added 559 yards, bringing the course’s total yardage up to 6,820 — something of a monster for the 1930s.

Now at 7,561 yards, Medinah is the longest course in major championship history, beating Whistling Straits, venue of the 2004 PGA Championship, by 47 yards. Three of the par five’s extend past the 575-yard mark, there are four par four’s over 450 yards, and the short holes average 209 yards.

With that amount of golf course to cover, you’d certainly expect a power hitter to prevail. During the practice rounds, however, reports suggested Medinah was not quite playing its full yardage. Stephen Ames of Trinidad looked surprised when told it was the longest course ever at a major. “Geez, I must be hitting it miles,” he replied. “It’s manageable,” Jim Furyk said.

Arron Oberholser, meanwhile, another medium length hitter averaging 284.5 yards on tour this year remarked yesterday that the course is playing shorter than 7,264-yard Winged Foot did at the U.S. Open. “Here, it’s all right in front of you,” he said. “You really don’t have to curve your ball off the tee, but you definitely do have to keep it in play.”

If indeed the course doesn’t play its full length and Oberholser’s suspicions are correct, Sunday’s final round may not boil down to the battle of the big guns the scorecard suggests it might. A solid rather than spectacular driver of the ball who keeps it in the fairway and can putt — someone like Ames, Furyk, Chris DiMarco, or Luke Donald — should have an outstanding chance.

Others you might expect to be hovering around the leaderboard come Sunday include Ernie Els who, one feels, is very close to putting it all together; Trevor Immelman who has come of age this year with one win and two runnersup finishes, and maybe even Jerry Kelly who rested the last two weeks despite needing a good finish to push him into the top ten of the U.S. Ryder Cup standings and who says he’s playing the best golf of his life.

The largest ever contingent of European Tour members at the PGA Championship (48), will also be challenging for the Wanamaker Trophy, hoping to dedicate a victory to the memory of Darren Clarke’s wife, Heather, who lost her spirited two-year battle with breast cancer on Sunday.Should a European win it will be the continent’s first win at a major since Paul Lawrie won the British Open at Carnoustie a month before Medinah’s last PGA Championship in 1999.

As well as being the last major of the year, the PGA is also the last counting event for Ryder Cup points. Players just outside the top 10 will therefore be looking to impress American captain Tom Lehman who, after a second place finish at the International last weekend, must like his chances of doing well here and,

who knows, qualifying for his own team. A top five finish might be enough to secure him a place.With Davis Love (15th) and Fred Couples (16th) likely to be Lehman’s picks, provided both remain healthy, the onus will be on Stewart Cink (12th), Kelly (13th), Lucas Glover (14th), Tim Herron (17th), and Scott Verplank (20th) to put in one last, telling effort and earn the necessary points

Oblivious to what is happening to a Ryder Cup team for which they qualified several months ago, and looking to win their 12th and fourth major titles respectively will be Woods and Mickelson who, over the course of the season, have reduced the game’s Big Five into the Big Two and who will play together the first two rounds. It’s only the second time the pair have played with each other in a major (the other time was the final round of the 2001 Masters), and it promises to be the most exciting golf of the year.Yesterday, Mickelson’s short game coach, Dave Pelz, told reporters his pupil doesn’t have a weakness inside of 150 yards and that Mickelson is better than anybody around the greens, including Woods. “I’m not saying Tiger’s short game is bad,” said Pelz. “He has a great short game. But I think Phil putts more consistently than Tiger does. He has more imagination and a few more shots around the green. The question is, how often is Phil on his best game.”

If he manages to find his best game this weekend and Woods can summon up the form that resulted in a two-shot win in the British Open at Hoylake a month ago and a three-shot victory at the Buick Open two weeks ago, the weekend’s action at this year’s PGA Championship will eclipse even that of 1999, leaping Spaniards and all.