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August 2008
PGA Championship: final thought
Just as Padraig Harrington stood over his putt on the 18th green a few minutes ago, I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if Padraig left the door open for Sergio by missing this, just as Sergio left the door open for Padraig a year ago at Carnoustie?”
But, of course, it didn’t happen.
Perhaps that’s why Padraig has won three of the last six majors and Sergio is looking for his first.
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PGA Championship: Final Round
I have a confession to make. I was going to skip out on the final round of the PGA Championship. I was going to skip it for several reasons, though I was still going to write some sort of comment on who won or lost so that the faithful Teed Off readers would have some input for me on golf’s fourth major.
Here are the reasons. The Olympics are going on, Tiger’s not playing and football season is upon us (sort of). Golf, in its current condition, would have to be moved up to be on the back burner. As it is, it’s sitting over on the side on the cutting board while other things cook.
Also, I’m in Austin, getting away for a few hours and taking a deep breath in between a busy week of football preparation and practice coverage and another even busier week of football preparation and practice coverage. I don’t know when I’m going to make the short drive home.
So I was going to skip the final round of the PGA Championship.
But now I’m not so sure.
This is because Sergio Garcia is currently 3-under-par for the final round an one stroke out of the lead. Sergio, perhaps even more so than Tiger, is good for final-round drama. He’s likely to make some ridiculous charge, as he is right now, and then come painfully close to winning his first major before falling inches short at the end of the day (like he did last year at Carnoustie).
So I’m going to at least flip back and forth between golf and the Olympics.
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PGA Championship Round 1: Byrd on a wire
Jonathan Byrd currently leads the PGA Championship, causing me to use the Google window on my Web browser to attempt to ascertain “Who the heck is Jonathan Byrd?”
The answer: well, I’m pretty sure of the top three results found by Google — right between The Music of Jonathan Byrd and Jonathan Byrd’s Cafeteria and Catering — is that he’s a ninth-year pro with three career victories (thank you, PGAtour.com).
His wins came at the 2002 Buick Challenge, the 2004 B.C. Open and the 2007 John Deere Classic.
ANYWAY, Byrd made five birdies and two bogeys on his front nine at Oakland Hills Country Club. As of 5 p.m., he’s got nine holes to attempt to extend his one-stroke lead over Robert Karlsson, Jeev Milkha Singh and Retief Goosen (actually, Goosen’s still on the course, so I suppose he could surge past Byrd and the others).
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PGA Championship … um … preview (?)
The biggest golf event of this week, and supposedly one of the four biggest golf tournaments of this year, will take place at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Mich.
My question: will anyone notice?
If Tiger were playing, then yeah, there would be a ton of focus on the Detroit area this week as Woods would be going after his third straight PGA Championship. As it is, Tiger has still been in the news as he did a very casual, very blah interview with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt this week. The most enlightening thing Van Pelt drew out of Tiger was that Tiger, with his recently surgically repaired knee, is having trouble keeping up with daughter Sam as she bounces around the house. Doesn’t Tiger have a nanny for such tasks?
So pro golfers will tackle the PGA Championship in the absence of Tiger and, therefore mostly likely, in the absence of much attention. It’s seems everyone in the sports universe is focused on either pollution in China or an old quarterback who’s trying to decide if he wants to come back to the NFL to throw more interceptions.
I wrote in a column earlier this summer that Tiger’s injury wouldn’t cripple golf or Tiger. But I didn’t deny that there would be some pain in the meantime.
Also, does it seem to anybody else that Scott Van Pelt could save some time by just tattooing “I’m on a first-name basis with Tiger Woods” on his forehead? Every time Van Pelt cover golf he has to mention that he know Tiger. We get it. Honestly, I’ve never heard another broadcaster attempt to get more mileage out of a friendship with an athlete than Van Pelt does with Woods.
