Twofer Tuesday: PGA Championship

First, congrats to Steve Stricker on his first-ever major, the Regions Tradition on the Champions Tour. Stricks started the last round with a two-stroke lead and won with a six-stroke lead. That just might give him enough confidence to finally get a PGA Tour major at the PGA. Maybe.

But it does not get him a Twofer Tuesday pick. Sorry, Stricks.

The PGA Championship will be played at Bethpage Black (here is a video manual to all 18 holes) and the defending champion is Brooks Koepka. In a way I feel sorry for Brooks due to the fact, with the restructuring of the Tour season, he hasn't even had a complete 12 months to experience his win. That's a bit of a bummer for my part. Just due to the fact you received majors remaining yr is not any assure you may get another this 12 months, not to mention defend one you simply won.

However you feel about that, it brings us to the purpose of this Twofer Tuesday, which is me picking a winner and a Top10er for the PGA Championship. Last year I was just picking five players that I thought the winner would come from, which was a lot easier -- although, admittedly, my record wasn't all that good. But at least I felt like I had a better chance.

And the weather hasn't made it any simpler. The recent rains have genuinely opened up the scoring opportunities at the Black, on account that shorter hitters can get their longer shots to preserve on the softer greens. But does that suggest I'm taking some shorter hitters?

Not always.

• My Top10 pick is Dustin Johnson. I guess this is my "DJ or Brooks?" pick since it's hard to make a pick this week without taking one of the two. If I was picking five players like last year, I'd have both men in my picks but, since I'm not, I'm taking DJ over Brooks. While there's been a lot of talk about Brooks feeling slighted, I think DJ is probably feeling it as well. Don't you think he's tired of hearing how Brooks has three majors and he has only one? I do, and I also think he's in better form than Brooks. They may have tied for second at Augusta but, in my opinion, that T2 was a better indication of where DJ is than where Brooks is.
• My pick to win is a bit outside the box though. I'm loving me some Rahmbo this week! While Jon Rahm is a bit down the list for most fans -- and I've heard few analysts pick him -- I like the way Rahm is playing. While it's easy to discount the team win with Ryan Palmer, Rahm has more Top10s this season (8 in 12 events) than anyone but McIlroy (8 in 10 events). If he continues to channel his emotions as effectively as he has so far this season, I like his chances to break through at the Black.

For the record, I would finish out my old "5 to Watch" picks with Tiger and Tony Finau. Tiger has played well in the last three majors, and Tony seems to be learning what he needs to know very quickly.

The big thing you need to remember this week is that TNT and CBS are sharing the coverage this week. TNT's coverage begins Thursday at 1pm ET and PGA.com begins streaming coverage at 8am ET. Let the battle begin!