The next five PGA Championship sites stretch from Minnesota to Massachusetts By Jeff Williams

From year to year, the PGA Championship takes its competitors and its fans on a dazzling ride through the grand world of American golf. The PGA of America selects Championship courses that are strategic tests, historical icons and contemporary expressions of the game.

Unlike any other sport, golf can be as much about where it is played as it is about those who play it. A golf course is a living and changing entity which can reflect the roots of the game and can also reflect its future. The PGA of America, in considering sites for the PGA Championship, looks at everything a course and an area offers to enhance the prestige of the event. Through the next five years, the PGA Championship will travel to courses that play a major role in golf, from a founding father of the game to a tough new kid on the block. From an urban icon in Boston to a suburban behemoth in Chicago to a rural sanctuary in Wisconsin, the PGA Championship will visit the best and brightest of tournament venues, leaving its mark along the way, and being marked itself by the courses that will test the competitors.

A look at the next five PGA Championship sites follows:

2004
Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wis.

Whistling Straits

The PGA Championship visits a new venue when it travels an hour and a half north of Milwaukee to Pete Dye's version of a links course. Whistling Straits, the vision of Kohler Company Chairman Herbert V. Kohler, Jr., sits hard against Lake Michigan. On misty mornings or windy afternoons, you would swear you were looking at the Irish Sea and at an Irish course. Whistling Straits hosted The PGA Club Professional Championship two years ago and was given strong marks by participating PGA Professionals.

2005
The Country Club, Brookline, Mass.

The Country Club

The Country Club was one of the founding members of the United States Golf Association in 1894 and has taken its place as a pillar of championship golf. Who will ever forget the U.S. Team's stirring, final-day comeback in 1999 to win the Ryder Cup Matches? Just minutes from the city of Boston, The Country Club is a grandfather of American golf.

2006
Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Ill.

Medinah Country Club

Medinah Country Club is as broad-shouldered as nearby Chicago. Its No. 3 course has played host to a number of major championships, including the 1999 PGA Championship won by Tiger Woods in a final-round showdown with Sergio Garcia. Medinah provides an exciting challenge and brings enormous galleries of intense golf fans.