Woods off to hot a start,
but blows to opening 77 – 93rd PGA Championship
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Though finishing down the track in the Bridgestone Invitational last week, Tiger Woods left fully confident in the game he’s remaking, speaking of tighter shot patterns, deviation, compression and some such. He was in high spirits on arriving at the Atlanta Athletic Club for the PGA Championship, a major he’d won four times. Asked what would be his realistic expectation for this week, he beamed and said, “A ‘W’ -- do you want me to elaborate? A nice ‘W.’ ”A chance for that win evaporated in a hurry in the opening round Thursday. After going three under on his first five holes, he came apart and shot a 7-over 77 – his highest opening round in a major, and only the second time in his career that he had three double-bogeys in one round.
Said Woods, who’s undergoing another swing change: “It’s frustrating because my shots don’t shape like they used to. I aimed left for a fade and it moves about a yard or so and I’m used to having it cut a lot more than that, and my draw used to move a lot more than that.”
Woods, starting on the back nine, double-bogeyed the par-3 15th, and two par-4s, the 18th and the 6th. And then, in what has become cryptic Tigerspeak, said: “My motor pattern is getting there, and I start fighting it, and I couldn’t get it back.”
Woods’ highest single round in a major was an 85 in the 1995 U.S. Open, and he also had an 81 in the 2002 British Open. He’s missed the cut in three majors: 1996 Masters (as an amateur), 2006 U.S. Open, 2009 British Open.
OFF THE GREEN: The official explanation was the “significant rise in the dew point” Wednesday evening. It seems the mowers tore up some turf when grass got caught in the brushes. The damage was quickly repaired, and a rules accommodation was put in place: Golfers could move the ball under no penalty when the repaired area was in the line of the putt.
HOWZZAT AGAIN? Phil Mickelson, on whether he enjoyed himself and had fun: “It was a fun, great golf course, and what this is, is a long golf course. It’s not fun. It’s not great. It’s not exciting. There’s no intimacy. It’s just long and it’s hard, and that’s what it is.”
FAILED PROMISE: Nick Watney, starting at the 10th, was off and running with three straight birdies, then had to survive for a tough par 70. He double-bogeyed the par-4 14th, then watered two shots for a 7 at the 507-yard, par-4 18th. He’d hit a 3-wood off the tee, and someone wondered whether an iron off the tee might be wiser. “Hitting an iron off the tee,” Watney said, “will leave you close to a wood [shot] coming in.
POINT OF VIEW: Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, the 2008 PGA champion, started on the back nine, finished 5-3 against the 4-4 on his last two holes. Said Harrington: “You feel better with a bogey-birdie finish than a birdie-bogey finish.”
POINT OF VIEW II: Defending champion Martin Kaymer, on having to look at Steve Stricker’s 63 while struggling with his own game in the afternoon: “But still, 7-under is an unbelievable score on any major golf course. Maybe it will be a little easier [Friday] morning, but it doesn’t mean that you shoot 7-under. I would be more than happy if I shoot anything under par tomorrow.”
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