Gary Player was behind a weeping willow tree, and in big trouble. The occasion was the 54th PGA Championship, and hosting for the first time was Oakland Hills Country Club. After bogeying 14 and 15, Player stepped up to the tee box on 16, a dogleg-right par-4. He sliced his drive, landing in the rough behind that loping willow.

The South African faced a 125-yard blind shot around trees and over a lake guarding the green. It didn’t help that the charcoal sky had been dumping drizzle since the a.m. After standing on one of the spectators’ chairs to get a better look, he pulled a nine-iron from his bag. The ball was sitting up on a patch of rough matted down by the crowd. He swung and caught the ball clean. It cleared the trees and the lake, catching the front of the green. It rolled across the damp bent grass and stopped four feet from the pin. Player made the birdie putt and went on to win his second Wanamaker Trophy.

As the PGA Championship becomes a nonagenarian we again remember that moment from the past. It was dubbed “one of the most spectacular recovery shots in championship history” by golf writer Herbert Warren Wind, and the new book The Front Nine: Golf’s 9 All-Time Greatest Shots, puts Player’s nine-iron magic trick alongside Gene Sarazen’s double eagle at the 1935 Masters and Jack Nicklaus’s double-breaking 20-foot putt at the 1986 Masters. Now for the third time in its history, Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Hills hosts the PGA Championship, and naturally expectations of greatness arrive with it.

But visit Oakland Hills today, and that weeping willow, and the plaque commemorating Player’s amazing shot are gone. While history is a large part of Oakland Hills’ story, it seems the place is as interested in looking ahead as it is in looking back.

In the rearview mirror you see that day in 1916, the same year the PGA of America was established, when those 48 men met at the Detroit Athletic Club in the heart of the city to plan the construction of a new country club where these men and 100 others could socialize and play golf. The land, known as the Old Miller Farm (some 15 miles northwest of Detroit in Bloomfield Township), and the course architect, Donald Ross of Pinehurst, North Carolina fame, had already been secured. What the members would soon join, at $250 a pop, was Oakland Hills Country Club.

Less than two years later, in July 1918, the golf course officially opened. But there were still a few kinks to work out. There wasn’t a clubhouse, and one wouldn’t be built until 1921. There was a pro shop — a former chicken coop halfway down the first fairway. It was in that converted hut where you’d find Walter Hagen, Oakland Hills’ first club pro and winner of the 1914 US Open.

Fast-forward 90 years, past six US Open Championships, two PGA Championships, two US Senior Opens, one US Women’s Amateur and one Ryder Cup, and you’ll discover a South Course that has sharpened its teeth to Ginsu-sharp points. In 2006 Rees Jones came on board to renovate the course. He did so while maintaining Ross’ original layout and respecting the changes made in 1950 by his father Robert Trent Jones, Sr.

“This course meant the most to my father,” Jones said in 2006, shortly after the renovation’s completion. He describes Oakland Hills as “one of those wonderful rolling pieces of property where the holes fit like a glove,” adding that being invited to guide the renovation two years ago was “the call I was waiting for my whole life.”

At the 1996 US Open, the South Course was a par-70, 6,974-yard layout. Today it’s a brutal 7,445 yards. Jones lengthened 15 holes, made changes to greenside bunkers on eight holes, and narrowed several fairways. Changes to 16 were also made; as previously mentioned, the weeping willows were a casualty of the update.

The South Course has been known as the Monster for more than a half century. (Ben Hogan established the nickname. After finishing seven over at the 1951 US Open, he said, “I’m just glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees.”) Most emblematic of the Monster’s new teeth is the par-4 11th. Previously a 396-yarder, it has been extended to 455 yards with larger fairway bunkers with deeper faces. Beyond the intimidating growth spurt, players must still contend with what made this hole so difficult in the first place: the dogleg right offers the most manageable approach from the left to a green that rises some four feet from front to back.

“The PGA of America and Oakland Hills Country Club share similarities beyond the fact that we both originated in 1916,” PGA of America president Brian Whitcomb said in 2006. “Our association is committed to taking the PGA Championship to the finest and most challenging venues in the country. Oakland Hills’ membership… has never missed a step in continuing to enhance a world-class venue like the South Course. It continues to be a supreme test for the strongest field in golf that will compete in the 90th PGA Championship.”

That field of competition will have a strong Midwest presence as well. Scott Hebert, the head professional at Grand Traverse Resort and 2008 PGA Professional National Champion (he shot a 12-under 276 at the 41st annual tournament, held at Great Waters in Oconee, Georgia), is one of twenty club pros that earned a berth at this year’s event. He’ll be joined by another Michigan club pro: Bradley Dean, representing Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville.

But enough with the nostalgia, recollections and guesstimations. GLG presents its comprehensive guide to enjoying the 2008 PGA Championship: what to eat and drink, and where to find other Donald Ross courses in the Midwest. History is history. Let’s prepare for the greatness to come.