'A diabolical test': Beastly Kiawah Island awaits world's elite at USPGA Championship

Bryson DeChambeau has ramped up the build-up for the USPGA Championship by predicting that The Ocean Course - the longest in major history - will be “a diabolical test”.

And to hear the PGA Tour’s longest driver ever saying this about the longest major ever would have been music to Pete Dye’s ears.

Dye, the architect of South Carolina's most famous layout, was nicknamed “The Marquis de Sod” and that is apt because he was to golfing turf what Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was to head removal.

DeChambeau, that confident character who not only aims to live until he is “130 to 140 years old” but, beforehand, ”to revolutionise this sport”, proved as much with his comments after his practice round on Tuesday.

In his role as "Playing Editor, of golf.com", the US Open champion quivered: "I hope this is the most wind we have out here all week."

Certainly, Jon Rahm is worried about his cranium here this week at the 103rd USPGA Championship. “I hope they do move the tees up,” the world No 3 said. “Just for the sake of our sanity.”

All this would have thrilled Dye. One of his most memorable quotes - and, in truth, there would be enough to compile a chilling compendium - reflected the warped philosophy of this wonderfully eccentric character who sadly passed away in January, 2020, aged 94.

“Life is not fair, so why should I make a course that is fair?” he said. “The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flagstick on top.”

The late great English golf writer Peter Dobereiner was a huge fan of his malevolent mischief. “While I have never met Pete Dye, I know him well,” Dobereiner wrote. “He is 500 years old and has absorbed the wisdom of the ages. He has a pointed hat and a flowing robe embroidered with occult symbols. When he speaks, he becomes extremely animated, and gesticulates a lot with flashes of blue static crackling from his long fingernails.”

Dye is rightly appreciated in the game as a genius - but as an evil genius. And to be fair to DeChambeau, it is understandable to refer to the 7,876-yarder as Dye’s beautiful Frankenstein. It boasts the most seaside holes in the Northern Hemisphere with 10 hugging the Atlantic, but it is far from a links, with its elevated greens and vicious run-off areas leading to scorecard wastelands and sporting gravelands.

In fact, Dye, bless his heart, raised the entire course seemingly to allow golfers unobstructed views. Yet there was wicked madness in his generous method. By design, Dye also made the layout significantly more demanding in the process as it also exposed players to the ocean’s brisk and unpredictable breezes. Those views come at a heavy cost.

Built in a record-breaking hurry for the 1991 Ryder Cup - the notorious “War on the Shore”, where Germany’s Bernhard endured his “Clanger” moment over that short missed putt to retain the trophy - golf immediately realised it had a monster in its midst.

Alligators roam this South Carolina island, but there has only been one human fatality on record. In contrast, this Ocean Course proceeds to gobble them up every day, including at the 1997and 2003 World Cups and the Senior USPGA Championship in 2007. Yet then came the 2012 USPGA Championship and Rory Mcilroy shot a “see you later, alligator” 67-66 weekend to romp to 13-under.

It was not meant to be X-rated not one for all the family. Frankenstein had turned into The Big Friendly Giant.

Remembering his eight-shot waltz on Tuesday - the largest margin by which the USPGA has ever been won - McIlroy was keen to point out that the examination eight years ago is not comparable with this enormous challenge and is forecasting that the field will now be served with the full Dye-hard experience.

“That was August, this is May, it was a different time of year, with a different wind, so it's going to play like a completely different course,” McIlroy said. “Just because I played well here last time, it doesn't mean I'm going to find it any easier this week than anyone else. It's a really tough test, especially when the wind is blowing like it has been in practice. Those last few holes out there are brutal.

“And it's not going to be as straightforward around the greens as it was in 2012. Then it was hot, humid and the paspalum [grass] was really strong and dense and lush, so the ball would just sit right up on top and it was just a case of get out the lob wedge and clip it and spin it. This year they're bare. Not nearly so simple.”

Kerry Haigh agrees and does so with a smirk. As the PGA of America’s chief officer of championships, the much-respected Englishman is in charge of stage set-up and is planning a macabre thriller in honour of his departed friend.

“This is one of the most difficult courses in the country and we think it will be one of the most interesting, challenging, and exciting championships we've ever had,” Haigh said.

“One of the great factors this week is that we potentially get the east wind for a couple of days and then it will switch 180 degrees to the west for the weekend. If it does, Pete, looking down, will be lapping it up. It's much firmer than last time and that is the way Pete would want it.”

Asked if he would be stubbornly ghoulish and keep the course at its maximum length for all four rounds, Haigh replied: ”That'll totally depend on Mother Nature. We'll make that decision each morning. Hopefully it'll be fun and fair."

Fun for whom? Rahm believes that without a little mercy, widespread misery could ensue. “Seriously, move up those tees, because yesterday from the 14th on, the shortest iron I hit into a green was a five iron - and I'm not a short hitter,” Rahm said. “I was playing with Zach Johnson and, going into every one of those last five greens, he pulled off a head cover for his second. It’s glorious, but it’s so, so severe.”

And somewhere Dye cackled while his finger tips crackled.