Famed Ocean Course at Kiawah already more than the top players can handle for 2012 PGA Championship

And the PGA Championship isn’t even held there for another six years. That’s six years for holes to be lengthened, layouts to be changed, greens to be altered, and the course to be made as difficult as the PGA wants to make it.

Today, the gold tees stretch to 7,344 yards. The rating is 77.2, with a slope of 144. Factor in the wind that typically blows off of the Atlantic (which toys with a player’s psyche before his ball even gets in the air), and this course will challenge the world’s best players with no problem.

And if for some reason it can’t, they’ll simply move the tees back. Although the gold tees are the longest marked on the scorecard, the tee boxes that are already in place, known as the black tees (appropriate, since most players’ scores face a gruesome death from back there), stretch the course to over 8000 yards. Even people who like seeing the greatest players in the world struggle don’t want to see this tournament played from the tips.

There are currently six par fours (numbers 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18) that can be stretched to over 480 yards. Numbers 5, 14, and 17-all par threes- play over 210 yards. On certain days, the infamous 17th can play over 260 yards. Over the four days of the PGA championship, all of the aforementioned holes will have an over-par scoring average if played from these distances.

While the vast waste areas (there are no true bunkers at the Ocean Course) come into play on every shot for the average player, they will not be as much of a factor for the professionals. However, even the best in the world will find their way into the rugged dunes at some point during the tournament, and once that happens, double-digit scores are not out of the question on any hole.

Of course 8,000 yards seems like a length (no pun intended) to which even the PGA or USGA would not go in a major, at least not yet. But if the game changes as much in the next six years as it has in the last six, officials will see no other solution if their true desire is to protect the integrity of par.

At this point, they needn’t worry. If the tournament were held at the Ocean Course today from the black tees in average weather conditions, the winning score would not be under par. There are too many potentially disastrous holes along this track for anyone to avoid a hearty helping of bogeys (or worse), and birdies would be few and far between.

Make sure to watch the Senior PGA championship in 2007, which is also being played at the Ocean Course. Whatever you see will be magnified many times when the PGA stops there five years later. It is going to be the PGA’s version of a gruesome and violent movie, but it should have a pleasant ending. Given the PGA’s history of setting up fair yet challenging tests, we will see them take an outstanding golf course, wear out the best players in the world, and somehow get rave reviews from the field when all is said and done. At least I hope that is what we see.