It’s only 13 months until the PGA Championship comes to Hazeltine National Golf Club, and by now, more than half of the tickets have been scooped up. It’s easy to get excited about ‘09 since Tiger Woods isn’t playing in the ‘08 event.

If you got to Hazeltine for the 2002 PGA, you saw a long, honest golf course that stumped the majority of the pros, with only eight players breaking par. Next August, if you attend the PGA, you’ll again see a long, honest golf course that should again stump the best players on the planet.

Earlier this week, there was an invitation to play the course, and when you get a chance to play Hazeltine, you shouldn’t pass it up. There was construction going on everywhere, with backhoes digging, shovelers shoveling and bulldozers ... bulldozing.

As with just about every championship course, Hazeltine has been lengthened and could play at 7,675 yards, which would be the longest course in tournament history, with nine holes getting deeper tee boxes to help offset technology. The longest par-3 (No. 13) could play at 247 yards, the longest par-4 (No. 12) could be stretched to 520 yards, and the longest par 5 (No. 15) could get to 642 yards, and that hole plays uphill.

Others holes are perfect just as they are, such as the short par-4 14th, which can only play to about 350 yards but champion Rich Beem and Woods both bogeyed there in the final round in ‘02. The signature 16th hole, with its forced carry across the marsh to a tight landing area, followed by a short iron to the island green remains unchanged, as it should. Beem made an improbable 35-footer there in the final round, probably that shot that clinched the victory.

It seems like every bunker on the course has been dug up or remodeled or moved closer to the fairway, maybe to ensure that Tiger Woods can’t get over the trees and to the green from the leftside trap on 18 as he did in 2002.

This course has hosted so many great events, including the 1970 and 1991 U.S. Opens and 2006 U.S. Amateur. There’s the 1966 U.S. Women’s Open, the 1983 U.S. Senior Open and many other amateur and professional events.

Coming up after the ‘09 PGA is the Ryder Cup in 2016, which easily could be the most exciting four days in course history.

With all of the changes to the course, Hazeltine will need good weather next spring, not the stuff we got this year, to enhance the growing process. The infrastructure is there for this grand course, and the decorations are coming along nicely.

This course has already produced one great champion (’91, Payne Stewart) and something of a surprise winner (’02, Beem). The ‘09 PGA will again produce plenty of excitement on a grand stage. Hopefully, our finally memory of that tournament isn’t another unfortunate, awkward dance on the 18th green by that champion.

Chad Courrier is a Free Press staff writer. To contact him, call 507-344-6353 or e-mail at ccourrier@mankatofreepress.com.