Golf Capsules: The next major looks like the last one
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) — Paul Goydos isn't one who rushes to judgment, especially in the case of Tiger Woods.
Three months ago, after Woods withdrew from The Players Championship with a neck injury while languishing at the bottom of the leaderboard, Goydos said it was too early to say how much Woods was affected by the turmoil in his personal life. He suggested waiting until Woods played courses that he historically dominated — Pebble Beach, St. Andrews, Firestone.
"That didn't work out too well, did it?" he said Monday at Whistling Straits.
Woods did tie for fourth at the U.S. Open, even if he stumbled badly in the final round. He was never in the hunt after the first day at St. Andrews, tying for 23rd in the British Open. And in the worst tournament of his career, Woods beat only one player in the 80-man field with an eye-popping score of 18-over 298 at Firestone.
Goydos still isn't ready to rule him out.
Not for the PGA Championship, which starts Thursday on this links-styled course along Lake Michigan. Not even for the Ryder Cup, less than two months away, with Woods probably needing to finish in the top 10 to have any chance of qualifying.
"The game is hard," Goydos said. "Obviously, he's struggling. But sometimes we judge how far away someone is by the scores they shoot, and that's not necessarily true. I'm a good example of that."
Remember, it was only a month ago that Goydos shot 59.
"Let's talk about how poorly he's played," he continued. "Since 2008, he's the No. 1 player in our world ranking. Not by as much as he used to be, but he's still No. 1 since the PGA two years ago. My point is, the demise of Tiger Woods might not be what it seems. Is he playing poorly? Yes. But he's still No. 1."
Woods finished so far behind at Firestone, and finished so early, that he arrived at Whistling Straits on Sunday afternoon, well ahead of most of the players. Only his caddie, Steve Williams, was seen walking the course.
They were out early on Monday, with Williams spending most of his time holding the end of a club against Woods' head as a reminder to keep it still through the swing. Then came a long practice session on the range before leaving.
Before leaving Firestone on Sunday, Woods twice said toward the end of his interview, "I need to be ready by Thursday."
Hunter Mahan, who won the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday and finished 30 shots ahead of Woods, was among dozens of players who began arriving for the final major championship of the year.
Those who were at Firestone spent time on the practice range. Some played nine holes.
Most came to the same conclusion.
The last major of the year looks a lot like the last one.
The key word, of course, is "looks." Whistling Straits, which Pete Dye built along the bluffs of Lake Michigan, offers some of the most inspired views in golf. It rolls along through manmade dunes, with native grass that is yellow and wispy.
"It's like a British Open with good weather," Carl Pettersson said. "Some of the bunkers can be quirky, but that's part of links golf. There's a lot of blind tee shots, like you get in links golf. I don't think it would be much fun to play in 20 mph in."
The comparisons end there.
The soil is nothing like links golf, and Stephen Ames was quick to note that his 4-iron was rolling only about five yards in the fairway.
As for the bunkers? The PGA of America only tells the players that there are about 1,200 of them, although not nearly that many are in play. There are so many bunkers that the gallery often stands in them behind the ropes. A notice in the locker room again reminded players that a hazard does not end in the rope. Even if the ball is in someone's foot print or the tire track from a cart, it's still a bunker.
Stuart Appleby found that out the hard way in 2004 by removing a loose piece of grass and grounding his club during a practice swing. That cost him four shots.
Among the changes is a pot bunker in front of the green on the 355-yard sixth hole, which Kevin Sutherland said could make any player feel claustrophobic. Ames said it reminded him of the Road Hole bunker on the 17th at St. Andrews, yet another British comparison.
"It's going to be hard," Goydos said. "It's got a little Scottish feel to it. You're aiming at the bunkers. And there's blind shots, but the blind shot is overrated. That's all you have at St. Andrews. If a course was built after 1960, blind shots are bad. Anything built before 1960, and it adds character. I don't get it."
Goydos was not around in 2004 when the PGA Championship last came to Whistling Straits, although he pays attention. The fact Vijay Singh, a power player, won in a playoff over Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco told him that the course does not suit one particular style.
He's not sure there is a favorite, especially in this climate of golf.
"With Tiger struggling, it's wide open," Goydos said.
Commentary: What are the odds that Woods is done? Zero.
No one seems to know exactly what's wrong, least of all Tiger Woods.
He's gone from a very respectable start to the season, tied for fourth at the pressure-packed Masters in April, to the worst 72 holes he's ever turned in as a pro by nearly every statistical measure. If it was just a swing adjustment, it would have been taken care of long before now.
The speculation that followed Woods' driveway demolition derby last November has waxed and waned. But a consensus emerged from the weekend that he's hit rock-bottom as a golfer, which became a tripwire for yet another round of overwrought analysis that he was on the ropes as a human being, too.
No one but Woods knows what's going on between his ears, yet it's hardly speculative to say that some of the tension inside there has leaked into his golf game. He's hardly the first guy whose job performance took a nosedive in the middle of divorce proceedings, and he won't be the last to get his bearings back, either. The only question is when not if.
Bookmakers, who can't afford to be sympathetic, don't seem overly concerned yet. The Las Vegas Hilton Sports Book listed Woods at 12-1 to win this weekend's PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, just behind favorite Phil Mickelson at 10-1. The rest of the field is 15-1.
At first glance, the odds make you wonder whether the TV sets at the sports book were working Sunday, when Woods walked off the 18th green at the Bridgestone Invitation after a 77 that left him a staggering 18-over-par. (And for that matter, a few hours later when Mickelson finished. With his best chance ever to wrest the No. 1 world ranking from Woods, Avis — er, Lefty — shot 78.)
Then again, betting lines are set not to predict the winner so much as attract the maximum number of wagers on everybody in the field. And when the Bridgestone began, Woods was a 6-1 favorite in the PGA.
"We wanted to see if this would attract bettors. If they lay off," Hilton's Jeff Sherman said over the phone Monday, "you could see him drop to 15-1."
There are plenty of ways to measure how far the mighty have fallen, but none may be a better barometer than Woods downplaying his own chances. Absent Sunday for maybe the first time since his private life imploded was his public bravado. Every time he doesn't win a tournament somewhere, Woods writes it off as one more important piece of preparation for the only tournaments he really cares about — the majors.
On this Sunday, he didn't even try that alibi. He was coming off a Firestone course where he should have played well — Woods had won seven times in his last nine starts there — and heading directly to the site of the season's final major in Wisconsin. Instead of saying how close his game was to winning the PGA, Woods worried aloud whether he could recover in time to deserve a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team — and those matches don't begin until Oct. 1.
"I wouldn't help the team if I'm playing like this," he said. "No one would help the team if they're shooting 18-over par."
Woods could make the question of his selection moot by winning the PGA, or playing well enough there to climb two spots up the Ryder Cup points list from his current perch at 10. If not, plenty of smart golf people — beginning with past U.S. captains Paul Azinger and Curtis Strange — have already gone on the record saying current captain Corey Pavin should use of his two wild-card picks to add Woods to the squad — but only if he's properly motivated.
At the 2009 Memorial, Woods talked about that subject and a valuable lesson he learned pitching in during a practice session with Michael Jordan.
"I remember the countless hours I spent with Michael in the gym feeding him balls," he said. "He would just shoot all night, and you thought that, yeah, he just showed up to the game and off he went and scored 45 and went home."
Woods said something else that day about how Jordan and other elite athletes prepared for their turn in the spotlight, but he might as well have been talking about himself.
"I think their work ethic and how they prepare and what they have to do in the offseason and during the season — no one has any idea," Woods said.
Those close to Woods remember a time when his practice time was almost sacrosanct, when business and everything else had to be put on hold for two weeks or more at a time, if that's what his playing schedule demanded.
No more.
One guess is that it won't change until the divorce papers are signed — whenever that is — but there's a gauge that could be useful in the meantime. Woods has let slip that he's practicing less, that he has more distractions than ever and as a result less and less time to prepare. Until that pendulum swings back in the other direction, my guess is that not much else about Woods' game is going to change.
Jim Litke is a national columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org.
Korean bbq on menu for PGA Championship dinner
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Korean barbecued beef, noodles and pine nut salad are on the menu for the annual champions dinner at the PGA Championship.
South Korean officials say defending champion Y.E. Yang has chosen popular dishes from his native South Korea for the traditional dinner taking place Tuesday in Wisconsin.
The dinner will feature a marinated beef entree called bulgogi. Dessert will include rice cakes made of jujube and fresh ginseng.
Last year's dinner was a traditional Irish menu selected by 2008 champion Padraig Harrington. This year's tournament begins Thursday at Whistling Straits golf course.
Yang became the first Asian player to win one of golf's majors with a three-stroke victory over Tiger Woods at last year's PGA Championship.
Champions
Free golf! No fee at Senior Players Championship
POTOMAC, Md. (AP) — Admission will be free at this year's Senior Players Championship.
The PGA Tour announced Monday that tickets are on the house for all spectators during the entire week at this year's final major on the Champions Tour.
The Senior Players Championship will be held Oct. 7-10 at the newly renovated TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
The PGA Tour says the tournament will be the first modern major championship on any of the U.S. professional golf tours to offer free admission for every fan.
The tour's 3M Championship in Minnesota, Administaff Championship in Houston and Allianz Championship in Florida have previously offered free weeklong admission. A few other Champions Tour events have offered free admission for one round.
Officials say they are able to offer free tickets because of support from several corporate sponsors. Golf Galaxy, the Telos Corporation and OMNITEC Solutions are each sponsoring one round, and a search is ongoing for a sponsor for the remaining round. Constellation Energy is the event's title sponsor.
Golfers committed to play include defending champion Jay Haas, Tom Watson, Nick Price, Hale Irwin, Jeff Sluman and Craig Stadler.
Amatuer
Rohanna sets women's amateur scoring mark with 65
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A touch of luck and a ton of confidence from a 25-foot birdie putt to on the first hole were all Rachel Rohanna needed to beat the heat.
Rohanna, an all-Big Ten player at Ohio State, set a U.S. Women's Amateur scoring record with a 7-under 65 during a muggy first round of stroke play on Monday during which the heat index approached triple digits.
"If it didn't hit that hole, it probably would have been a good 5 feet by," said the Waynesburg, Pa., resident who added eight more birdies to go with two bogeys in the morning round. "I was getting lucky on a few shots and I was playing for the center of the green I played well, but I'd say that it was a lot of luck."
Brooke Pancake, of Chattanooga, Tenn., finished with a 68 as conditions eased slightly with some cloud cover and a slight breeze in the afternoon.
Pancake, who just played in triple-digit temperatures in the women's collegiate championships in Dahlonega, Ga., last week, struck the middle of the green on No. 11 Monday — a trouble spot for her during practice — giving her a boost after the turn.
"The back side had some crucial holes where you can throw up some high scores," Pancake said. "But I just stayed in the moment and picked a target and swung - and if I hit it well, great, and if I didn't, then just go to the next shot."
Girls junior champion Doris Chen of Bradenton, Fla., and Jaclyn Sweeney, a senior at Arizona State from Andover, Mass., were at 3-under.
Madison Pressel of Boca Raton, Fla., younger sister of LPGA Tour player Morgan Pressel, shot 4-over 76.
Kellee Booth (1998), Natalie Gulbis (1999) and Amanda Blumenherst (2008) previously shared the 18-hole women's amateur mark of 66.
Sixty-four of 156 players will advance to match play after a second day of stroke play Tuesday in this U.S. Golf Association event, concluding with a 36-hole final on Sunday.
Elsewhere
Nicklaus, Palmer to christen new Michigan course
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Four of the biggest names in the history of golf are getting together to commemorate the opening of a new course located in one of Michigan's most impoverished communities.
Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller are to tee off together Tuesday morning along Lake Michigan in Benton Harbor, site of the Nicklaus-designed Golf Club at Harbor Shores.
The par-71 course is the centerpiece of a 530-acre resort community that also is to include 800 residences, a deep water marina and shops and restaurants.
Tuesday's 18-hole scramble skins match is being called the Champions for Change Golf Challenge.
Nicklaus says it "is a great opportunity to highlight how golf is being used as a vehicle for social and economic revitalization."
