KIAWAH ISLAND -- The 2012 PGA Championship, sure to be the biggest sporting event in South Carolina history, is exactly one year away. Wonder what it will feel like watching the best golfers on the planet playing on picturesque Kiawah Island? Try this. Rig it where you can watch three or four hours of today's 2011 PGA Championship -- live from steamy Johns Creek, Ga. -- out in the middle of your backyard. While standing. Everything at Kiawah's famed Ocean Course is first class and you can expect extra TLC for a world-class entertainment event. The 2012 PGA is highlighted by ticket sales records and air-conditioned VIP options. But this is a hot ticket, in more ways than one. "Usually, this time of year for the beaches is OK but this year has been really skewed," WCBD-TV chief meteorologist Rob Fowler said. "We had our second-hottest June on record, July was hot -- two degrees above normal -- and August has already been above normal." Weather week The dutiful Fowler has done some PGA Week weather research. High temperatures in Charleston from August 9-12, 2008: 86, 85, 94 and 84. 2009: 88, 89, 91 and 90. 2010: 88, 91, 88 and 92. This PGA Week: 91 and 90 with projections for 89 today and 89 on Sunday, though everything is a little cooler on Kiawah. It's not just here. Esteemed golf author John Feinstein in "The Majors" said the fourth major is typically "brutally hot" from venue to venue. Of course, if you have lived in the Lowcountry longer than a week, you already know there is no jacket required on sunny summer days. It's just that you probably haven't tried to monitor Martin Kaymer for 18 holes without taking a shower after the front nine. "And thunderstorms are always a possibility this time of year," Fowler said. "Then there is also the tropical issue we have to worry about." Shhh ... Mention the "H" word around here and you're dispatched to Sumter for the summer. To Dye for Gators outnumbered golfers this week at the Ocean Course, temporarily shut down for aerification. It's a sweaty walk from the parking lot to the putting green with every breeze appreciated. But the views never get old. Elsewhere on the island, resort life goes on as normal this week. Folks riding bikes. Fun in the surf, right in back of the Ocean Course clubhouse. The wind was blowing in from the Atlantic. Could be lots worse. The legendary Pete Dye gets credit for a masterful Ocean Course design but we also owe thanks to Alice Dye, Pete's wife and co-designer. She insisted on raising the course to provide for majestic Atlantic Ocean views, a major plus for a major in need of extra breeze. "That's definitely a positive thing," Fowler said. "In any given year that might knock off three, four or five degrees from typically what you might have at Kiawah." Early prediction: PGA Championship patrons will gawk at Tiger Woods and laud Alice Dye.

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