The pattern of recent years is that the US PGA Championship, the last of the year's major championships, is won by:

a) Tiger Woods (2007, 2006, 2000 and 1999)

b) Phil Mickelson (2005)

c) Vijay Singh (2004 and 1998)

and

d) a couple of players whose names mean very little outside the US, namely Rich Beem (2002) and Shaun Micheel (2003).

It is not won by anyone from Britain or Europe because the last one such to do was Tommy Armour, a Scot who had emigrated to the US and taken out citizenship, in 1930.

The question is then which of the two camps will triumph this year. Will a major champion add a major championship to his haul of title or will a lesser known player or even a very less well known player triumph?

We can exclude Woods from the argument because he is injured. Singh is a favourite following his success in the Bridgestone Invitational, a World Golf Championship event, last Sunday. Whether his putting can hold up on some of the most sloping greens in the world is a matter of doubt. At times Singh and his putter can look as comfortable together as does a man holding a red hot plate with nowhere to put it down. That was certainly the case at Akron last Sunday. Singh's putter might have been a branding iron not a putter.

Mickelson is the favourite because he says his short game is better than it was at Torrey Pines for the US Open at Torrey PInes last June and certainly at the Open last July. Ranked second in the world to Woods, Mickelson inherits the mantle of favourite in part because of his world ranking.

Perhaps though Lee Westwood is in with a chance after his third place finish in the US Open and second place to Singh at the Bridgestone? Certainly Westwood is a more accomplished player in August 2008 than he was in April 2008 and, perhaps more significantly, a more confident player too.

But it is time to be bold. How about Anthony Kim, 23, the latest sensation on the US tour who has qon two of the past nine events in the US in which he has competed. The Asians are sweeping the board in women's golf. Kim, following the measured tread of KJ Choi, could be the start of a similar happening in men's golf.