By Doug Ferguson
The Associated Press

HAVEN, Wis. - The PGA Championship is known as "Glory's Last Shot," but this major will be a first.

No one has ever played a competitive round at Whistling Straits, the course built along the shores of Lake Michigan. The links-styled course is the longest in major championship history at 7,514 yards.

There are more than 1,000 bunkers, so much sand that it's hard to tell when one bunker ends and the other starts.

By the sound of some early reviews of Whistling Straits, players might be whistling past the graveyard.

Defending champion Shaun Micheel shot 77 with no birdies the first time he played the Pete Dye design on a windy afternoon in June, then said the cut could be 10 to 12 over par. He later changed his prediction.

"If the wind comes up at all, and they play the golf course the way it did when I played, it really felt like double digits over par could win the golf tournament," Micheel said.

Indeed, curiosity is at an all-time high for the final major of the year - and so is the hysteria.

"I've heard so many different opinions," Tiger Woods said before going to Wisconsin for his first look. "I've heard it's too tight in the landing areas, and I've heard other guys say it's a fair test with plenty of room. Some guys say you can roll the ball up to the greens, others say you have to carry it to get to the right spot. ... We don't know."

About the only thing anyone expects is another strong performance by Phil Mickelson, who transformed himself from the guy who couldn't win a major into the lefty who does everything right.

If not for missing a couple of short par putts at Shinnecock and Troon, Mickelson could be going for the Grand Slam. Instead, he has gone 1-2-3 in the majors, starting with his win at the Masters, and has a chance to become the first player to finish in the top three in all four professional majors in the same year.

Ernie Els gets one last chance to erase a season of major heartache. Although he is close to replacing Woods at No. 1 in the world rankings, all that matters to Els is winning majors. And all he has this year are three close calls, including seconds to Mickelson at the Masters and Todd Hamilton at the British Open.

"I've come this close, so obviously I'm doing something right," Els said. "Something is good in my game. It's just not quite there at the end."

At stake for the Americans is the last hope of making the Ryder Cup team. Because the points are double at a major, 34 players have a mathematical chance of getting into the top 10.

Most of the attention is on John Daly (No. 20), the only two-time major winner to have never played in the Ryder Cup, and Jay Haas (No. 14), at age 50 trying to become the oldest American to qualify for the team.

The other storyline is whether Woods can end a drought that has reached nine majors. Woods has twice gone entire years without winning a major (1998 and 2003), but this is the first time he has not seriously contended on the back nine on Sunday.

"When Tiger was winning every other one, we said, 'Look, this is unusual; you guys don't understand,' " Davis Love III said. "It's going to go back to normal sometime when we get a streak of different guys winning."

That certainly has been the case. Ten players have won the last 10 majors dating to Woods' last major victory at the '02 U.S. Open. And the PGA Championship is a good place for that trend to continue, since 13 of the last 16 winners had never won a major.

This is the third consecutive major played on a links-style course, preceded by Shinnecock Hills at the U.S. Open and the true links, Royal Troon, at the British Open.

Whistling Straits figures to be much different than the others.

What could help the players is that Shinnecock Hills has become a battle cry for how not to set up a golf course. The USGA refused to water the greens, which all but died during the final round and led to 28 players in the 80s and the best score at even par.

But at more than 7,500 yards and with the potential for big wind, Whistling Straits could get silly.

Then again, no one knows.

The last major won with a score over par was the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie, which Paul Lawrie won in a playoff after finishing at 6-over 290.