Woods stumbles to a 73,
misses first PGA cut badly – 93rd PGA Championship
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – The picture of Tiger Woods in decline was nowhere sharper than at Atlanta Athletic Club’s 11th and 12th, both of which he double-bogeyed in the second round Friday, en route to missing the cut for the first time in the PGA Championship, which he had won four times.At the par-4 11th, he bunkered his tee shot, put his approach into a greenside bunker, and knocked his bunker shot across the green and into the water on the other side.
The par-5 12th was worse. He drove into the trees on the left, punched out, then hit a screaming fairway wood up and across the fairway and back into the trees. He made his fifth double bogey in two days, the most he’s ever made in a pro event. Birdies at the 13th and 15th eased the pain, but he ended it all at the 18th, driving into a fairway bunker and watering his approach, and making another bogey. His 73-150 didn’t even beat five of the 20 club pros in the field. He said he wouldn’t play again until November, when he goes to Australia. Considering that he didn’t play well in the Bridgestone Invitational the week before and then stumbled through the PGA, he still found a bright spot.
“It’s a step back in the sense I didn’t make the cut,” Woods said. “But it’s a giant leap forward in that I played two straight weeks and I’m healthy. It’s going to be great for my practice sessions coming up. Now I’ll be able to work and get after it.”
ROUGHING IT: South Africa’s Trevor Immelman (71-140), former Masters champion, is finding the rough perfect – in a manner of speaking. “The rough is just that perfect length where you are not sure whether it’s going to come out soft or jump on you,” he said.
KICKIN’ BACK: Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, playing badly since winning the British Open about a month ago, shot 76 Friday and missed the cut for the ninth time in 13 PGAs with a staggering 14-over 154. Just a week earlier, he was 12 over and tied for 68th in a 76-man field at the Bridgestone Invitational. “I’m just going away,” Clarke said. “I need a rest. I’m tired. I won’t pick up the clubs for 10 days. I won’t even look at them for 10 days.”
THE SANDMAN COMETH: Getting into ACC’s bunkers is much like getting between a soft and a heavy place, said D.A. Points, after he got into contention with a 67. The sand is powdery on top, and so the ball sits partly down in it, thwarting a clean pick-off shot, but also heavy underneath, thus making it tough to get the blade of the club through for a splash-out. “If you have plenty of green to work with, it’s not so bad,” he said, “because you can almost hit a chunk-and-run.”
THE WHIZ KID GOETH: It had to be the worst two rounds in the short career of Japanese prodigy Ryo Ishikawa, 19 (soon to be 20). He shot 85-72 – 157, 17 over par. According to Japanese reporters, Ishikawa was not ill or injured, but played badly because he had tried to change his swing for ACC. His chart: In the first round, one triple bogey, five doubles and two singles (no birdies). In the second, five bogeys, three birdies.
AWFUL TIMING – Brandt Snedeker got to the course at 6:30 a.m. to get properly warmed up, and was getting in a last few putts before he had to tee off Friday. “I thought I was teeing off at 8:20,” he said. Then he discovered his tee time was 8:10. He sprinted, but still was late, and was nailed with a two-stroke penalty, giving him a 73 for the second round. “That's the first time that’s happened in my career, and I guarantee it'll be my last,” Snedeker said. “Look, it happens. I’m not the first guy to do it, I won’t be the last, but I certainly thought it was never going to happen to me.” (The penalty didn’t really hurt. He’d have missed the cut anyway.)
CAUGHT IN A TRAP: “Bunker play wouldn’t really be a strength at the best of times, but out of these traps – they are just unplayable,” said Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, 2010 U.S. Open champ. He shot 74-78 – 152.
EARLY DEPARTURES: J.B. Holmes, with an illness, and Rocco Mediate (arm injury) withdrew before the start of the second round, and Retief Goosen WDd after 10 holes because of illness.
SHORT COURSE: The Highlands Course was playing 25 yards shorter, at 7,332, than in the first round. The par-3 15th hole was set at 236 yards today, or 17 shorter.
BIG SWING: Shaun Micheel, 2003 PGA champ, opened with a 66 and shot a weird 78 Friday. He started on the back nine, and in a six-hole stretch running from his sixth hole (No. 15), he made four bogeys and two double bogeys. Then he eagled his 14th (the par-4 No. 5) with a long putt. “I didn’t hit the ball well, and I didn’t deserve to score well,” Micheel said. “I can handle bad shots, but the mental mistakes – they just kill you.”
Micheel has a particular beef with the par-4 18th, listed at 507 yards but playing 486 Friday. “That hole should be a par-5, if anybody is listening,” said Micheel, who’s played it par-bogey. “There’s no place to hit the ball there. I’m just going to start hitting it in the crowd and just take my chances on hurting somebody. It’s a terrible hole.”
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