Perception is reality in this business, and sometimes vice-versa. For instance, the perception is that the PGA Championship is the least creditable of the Grand Slam events, the Pete Best of golf's Fab Four, the Tito of golf's Jackson family of major championships. And reality is that the 82nd PGA will be held at unheralded Valhalla Country Club in 2000, the same year the Masters was at Augusta National, the U.S. Open was at Pebble Beach and the British Open was at St. Andrews. You make the call.
Perception is reality, reality is perception, one in the same.
More often, however, the two are in conflict, creating pictures without a canvass, providing canvass without a paint palette. In truth, this 82-year old championship need not genuflect to any of its peers, but in awareness, it always will. The Rodney Dangerfield persona is not entirely the PGA's fault and not entirely accurate. For instance, the PGA is at Valhalla this year, a golf club that certainly lacks the historic hinges of the other 2000 major sites. But the PGA was played at Medinah Country Club last year and Winged Foot in 1997, tracks that match resumes with any of the game's revered playing fields.