Phil Mickelson tries to get familiar with the Medinah greens.

Only later did he recall hitting a 7-iron on the same par-3 hole nine years ago.

"Yeah, I did notice the difference. It's a lot farther back," he said. "There's a little yardage on everything else."

The 81st PGA Championship brings the world's best players to Medinah for the first time since Hale Irwin made that mile-long birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the 1990 Open, then went 19 holes the next day to beat Mike Donald in a playoff.

So much has changed.

Irwin is now 54 and making a killing on the Senior Tour. Donald is now 44 and trying to make a living on any tour. Only 43 players in this weekend's field played in that U.S. Open.

And Medinah is a lot longer than it used to be -- from 7,195 yards in 1990 to 7,401 yards for the PGA Championship, the longest course in a major tournament since Columbine Country Club measured 7,436 yards in the thin air outside Denver for the 1967 PGA.

"It's a long course," said John Huston, who tied for 14th in the '90 Open. "I don't see it as incredibly long, although only one par-5 is reachable. There's nothing real goofy about it. It's real fair, and the fairways are pretty generous for a major."

David Duval played Medinah as an 18-year-old amateur and tied for 56th in the Open.

"It's pure," he said Monday before heading out to the practice green.

About the only complaint were the greens, which took a beating from record heat in the Chicago area over the past few weeks and could be a real sore spot when the weekend rolls around. Some already were brown in spots, not a good sign as early as Monday.

"The greens aren't what they would like," Couples said.

Couples played his practice round early Monday, with only eight players in front of him, and noticed some bumpy rolls. Couples could only imagine what might happen late in the first and second rounds when more than 100 players have trampled across such vulnerable greens.

"I think they're going to be pretty ragged," he said. "But I'm saying that loosely. It's not like we're going to be putting on dirt."

Couples wasn't alone in his concern over the greens. And by the end of the week, there could be another source of controversy -- the 17th, which has always been somewhat of a lightning rod at Medinah.

The par-3 was only 168 yards in 1990, but the green sloped severely from the back to the front, right toward Lake Kadijah. Anything short could suck back into the water. Anything long into the back bunker produced a shot just as frightening as No. 12 at Augusta National.

Also, some players complained then that Nos. 2, 13 and 17 all looked the same, perhaps because all of them cross water.

"The thing I remember from the U.S. Open was three of the four par-3s were very similar," Jeff Sluman said. "Everybody thought that, and I guess they fixed it."

The 17th is now 206 yards, with the green pushed far back from Lake Kadijah with severe undulation, as opposed to the predominant tiered greens of Medinah.

Huston, for one, liked the change.

"I think it's better than it was, but it's still a hard hole," he said.

Count Paul Azinger among the critics.

"It's a shame," said the 1993 PGA champion. "It was a great hole before, an impact hole -- a little severe, but fair. You thought about that hole all day. The old hole was a little bit shorter, but a lot scarier.

"Don't get me wrong -- it's still a hard hole," he said. "But there was a bit of drama before. If you had a one- or two-shot lead, you had to get it over that water, and you were thinking about that. I don't like anything about it now."

He'll have three days to get used to it, just like the rest of the field will have time to figure out Medinah, or search for recollections of a U.S. Open nine years ago.

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