Players rave about it when they come every year, but for the course architecture heads and the peripheral golf community, the glass is very much half empty on this week’s PGA Championship venue. So why is the divide so stark?

• The course with the best combination of prestige and results was Carnoustie, one of the great courses in the world and home of results like Ben Hogan winning his only Open and the Jean Van de Velde meltdown. It ranked third best in both categories.

In some ways, the incentive to buy PGA Championship tickets is the same as to fly out of your regional airport. The PGA Championship does not have any bare-bones tickets. Every ticket purchased for this week’s event is a Championship+ ticket,