Notes and Quotes from the PGA:
Garcia nervously watching the points – PGA Championship
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. - It's the same with the European golfers - the PGA is almost only a stepping stone to the Ryder Cup, and Sergio Garcia, one-time boy wonder, is trying to get his foot down, and that Euro captain Nick Faldo is watching.“I haven't talked to him, but I'm hoping to do well myself and put myself in position to make the team,” Garcia said. “Obviously it's one of my goals.”
To this end, he said he glances at the points list now and then, just to see where he stands. Not to the extent that he's handicapping the process. “I just like to see where I am standing and how close I am to making the team,” he said, “and I know that if I have a good week, I'll get myself back in, and if I don't, I'll have to keep on working. That's pretty much the way I look at it.”
ECHOES OF THE BRITISH - Ernie Els, struggling these few years, seemed to be zeroing in on the British Open last month. And then poof! He tied for seventh.
“Basically, I lost my patience, because I felt I played better than my score indicated to that point - to where I made the triple bogey on 14,” Els said. “I had a couple of three-putts and I missed a lot of putts, so I felt I should have been even or 1-under par at that point.”
“Then when I hit that shot right on the par-3, I really lost my cool a little bit, and I lost my patience, which through the years have really helped me in majors, keeping my patience. So I guess I was a bit out of character there.”
ROCK SOLID - Rocco Mediate, folk hero from the U.S. Open, now is aiming for the Ryder Cup team. But not to the exclusion of the PGA.
“It's in the back of your head, but I want to have another good major championship this year, and this is the last try,” he said. “So the rest of that will take care of itself. I'm not thinking about it [the Ryder Cup] on the golf course. So it's not going to affect the way I play.”
INS AND OUTS - PGA Tour players Michael Allen and Tom Pernice Jr. moved into the PGA Championship Wednesday when Jap
an's Shingo Katayama and Germany's Alex Cejka withdrew because of injuries. Katayama pulled out because of a recurring back problem. Cejka cited an arm injury.
Allen had played in two PGA's, tying for 61st in 1993 and missing the cut in 2005. Pernice has played in eight PGAs, missed the cut in four, and his best finish was a tie for 23rd in 2005.
BIRTHDAY COURSE -- Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., will host the PGA Championship in 2016, the 100th year of the PGA, officials announced. Baltusrol is where Phil Mickelson won the PGA in 2005. It has staged seven U.S. Opens and two U.S. Women's Opens. The PGA of America was founded in 1916 in New York.
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