When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Doug Ferguson about summed up the brutality of Kiawah during the PGA's second round with this:
One score in the 60s, two in the 90s.
Of the 41 players who failed to break 80, nine of them could be found among the top 50 in the world ranking.
Through 11 hours of relentless wind, with gusts up to 30 mph that turned the Atlantic Ocean choppy with white caps, about the one thing that looked vaguely familiar was Tiger Woods making one putt after another. He had a 1-under 71, one of only four rounds under par on the Ocean Course, to share the lead with Vijay Singh and Carl Pettersson going into the weekend.
Just like that, the major known as "Glory's Last Shot" turned into one last chance for Woods to finally win another major.
"I thought going out today, anything even par or better was going to be a good score," Woods said. "So I went out today and I accomplished that. It was a tough, tough day. It was blowing all day. I don't think anyone had an advantage."
The cut will fall at 6 over, and there were more scores in the 90s on Friday (two) than in the 60s (one, Vijay Singh). Somewhere, we are pretty sure, Pete Dye was in front of a television set, grinning broadly.
Four of the course’s toughest six holes resided in that stretch from 5-13, including both the toughest (the par-4 13th) and second toughest (par-4 ninth). Heck, even the two par-5 holes in that span exacted their pound of flesh, with Dustin Johnson making triple bogey at the seventh.
“I missed the putt for 7,” he said, “and that equals 8.”
Johnson was told by reporters that 6 over, which is where he stood after rounds of 71-79, likely was going to be good enough to make the cut and play two more rounds. Would that a good or bad thing, he was asked.
Johnson smiled. “I decline to comment,” he said.
Ryan Herrington on one of the many club pros who posted big numbers in the brutal conditions.
4. The field scoring average for the second round was 78.107 when play was halted at 8:16 p.m. with Joost Luiten the only player on the course. Regardless of how Luiten plays the 18th hole Saturday morning, the second round will rank as the highest day in a PGA since the first round in 1958 at Llanerch (76.8). It also will be the highest round in a major since the closer of the '04 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills (78.727), followed by the first round of the '99 British at Carnoustie (78.314). This year's second round also finishes slightly below the first round of the 1993 Buick Invitational (78.383).
After Michael Hoey signed for his 70 at Kiawah, he thought about it and then contacted officials concerning not replacing his ball correctly. It happened late in the day, so details in his unbylined AP story are thin, but what an admirable act from the Northern Irishman.
**Brian Keogh with all the details, a quote from Hoey and a statement from the PGA.
“About 8.20 after dinner, I went straight up to the club after calling my coach and caddy to make sure I had things right,” Hoey said last night. “I was just re-living the hole as I’d sunk a really long putt for par. As soon as I realised what had happened, I went to the club.”
The YouTube poster used the "shank" word, but that was incorrect. This is the "drift" that I saw pop up in the lingo today as high, wacky and unpredictable winds made a mockery of otherwise poor golf shots during round two of the 2012 PGA.
Peter Hanson hitting into Angel Cabrera. Was there a "Fore"!?
Jim Achenbach and the likely mass hysteria and financial ruin that will come to makers of long putters who will not sell as many if the governing bodies eliminate anchoring. Stephen Boccieri of Boccieri Golf:
“Chaos,” Boccieri said. “I can see some golfers revolting against this. I can see them playing (in non-tournament rounds) by their own rules.”
Because that never happens now...
The folks at Odyssey see the ban as a chance to innovate.
Odyssey’s Koske was more optimistic.
“If they go and ban anchoring,” he said, “it opens up a whole new avenue of putting. There are so many different ways to do it. The opportunities are endless. There are a handful of things we are testing, and we expect to be ready for whatever happens down the road.”
Spotted on Scott Murray's Guardian As It Happened blog which, like other Guardian live blogs, is a good page to keep open if you are following the PGA.
From round one, which I must have missed during one of my naps or while watching the Olympics. Nice to see the gators serve a purpose!
Well all of that worrying about how tough Kiawah's Ocean Course would play during round one of The Glory's Last Stand Championship turned out to be unnecessary, as a soft, relatively wind-free layout greeted the world's best.
Doug Ferguson leads with a reference to Golf Digest calling Kiawah the toughest in America and the "walk on the beach" that it was Thursday.
Ewan Murray's Guardian game story focuses on Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and John Daly's solid first round play.
Pete Iacobelli's AP notes includes an item about Rickie Fowler calling a penalty on himself when he saw his ball move during a short tap-in on the 18th hole, moving him to a tie for 88th instead T66.
Jason Sobel on the breeze, or lack thereof, during round one. The forecast looks more promising for actual winds on Friday. Maybe even decent ones. Of course it might also bring a thunderstorm along for the ride.
However, as Bob Harig noted after talking to players, the breeze was sneaky in the afternoon, especially after a surprising direction switch.
Gary Van Sickle with many details on Tiger's opening round. PGA.com breaks down Tiger's round in a video highlight reel.
Bill Fields on Adam Scott's bounce back play, a mightily impressive 68 in the afternoon breeze.
Scott Michaux on Phil Mickelson's scrambling round and plans to attack the course Friday. And David Dusek tells us the backstory of Phil's new specially made putter.
Dave Kindred on John Daly resurfacing for a day, and maybe more if he can keep conquering the par-5s as Kindred explains.
Adam Schupak writes about Keegan Bradley's 68, and an explanation for how his trusted putter fell apart in practice and how he did just fine with the replacement.
Jay Coffin notes John Daly's "rock star" status with the fans in attendance. All forty of them. Rich Lerner posts Hooks and Cuts, pondering a Daly run noting this about first round leader Pettersson: "The anchored putter’s probably on its last few breaths, but Pettersson could beat it into submission with a win this week."
Rich Skyzinski updates us on the club pro play on day one, with only two breaking 75.
Sean Martin breaks down the play of the American Ryder Cup bubble boys who didn't do anything to exciting Thursday. Randall Mell tells us Davis Love was going to have Ryder hopefuls over for dinner after Thursday's round.
The first day video highlights on PGA.com.
A video of Bill Kratzert explaining the sandy waste areas and the rules, in case you were inclined to call in a violation.
The first day course stats inexplicably leave out the 18-hole scoring average.
Martin Kaufman called the telecast "disjointed and lethargic, ultimately making the event seem smaller than it is."
And finally, John Strege posts a roundup of media coverage, with notes about the ill-timed interview with the PGA president as Gary McCord was stating how fun the Mickelson viewing was getting. Oh, and Jim Nantz's unbelievable statement that Kiawah is a short drive from Charleston.
He may hear it from today's low gross and low net winners in best Tweeting bitching divisions: here, here and here. And the final word from the Ancient Twitterer:
DJ Gallo posts a short but sweet plea to Michael Phelps begging the swimmer not to become an Olympian has-been by sticking to his desire to play a lot of golf. A sampling of his take on other past Olympic greats:
Bruce Jenner: After taking gold in the decathlon in 1976, Jenner was just as famous as Phelps is today. Since then, his interests have been diverse. He is active in the sport of plastic surgery and has taken to wearing women’s earrings. He also married the ex-wife of one of O.J. Simpson’s attorneys and is now the patriarch of the family many see as the prime example of everything that is wrong with American culture.
During this week's conference call, Ed Sherman asked CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus and producer Lance Barrow about slow play and not surprisingly it's not on their radar, with McManus noting that it might even add to the drama.
I’m not terribly concerned about it. Having watched a lot of golf this year, I know (slow play) has been a topic of discussion. But I haven’t seen it affect too many of the broadcasts. If they play slow because of the course conditions being tough at Kiawah, it adds to the drama.
Sherman isn't convinced and I'm actually of the mindset that CBS usually likes it when tournaments run long. Four hour rounds for twosomes do not bother them because they simply have the tour, or in this week's case the PGA of America, adjust the tee times according. And let us never forget the importance of running long to give 60 Minutes a strong lead-in on the east coast. The real reason we're playing so late on Sundays.
Sigh...Jeff Rude on another stellar press conference performance by Davis Love and Jose Maria Olazabal, the 2012 Captains, doing nothing to kindle the buffoonery of their predecessors.
How am I, as a blogger, to work with this kind of no-nonsense talk, starting with Davis Love:
As for Mahan, he is a two-time winner this year and has played on the last five U.S. international cup teams – two Ryder, three Presidents. One person close to Love said Mahan would be on the team if he doesn’t qualify on points.
For his part, Love on Tuesday was incredulous that someone who has two 2012 victories would be outside the automatic-qualifier line.
“How can that even happen?” Love said. “You’d think he’d be in.”
Meanwhile, Olazabal provided this tip on where he's leaning with one of his picks, not that I would agree based on Colsaerts' play this year.
European captain Jose Maria Olazabal will make his two picks Aug. 27, a day after the automatic 10 qualifiers are decided at the Johnnie Walker Championship. If the standings remained the same, his most likely choice would seem to be Ian Poulter. The Englishman is 12th on the European Team World Points list, right behind Nicolas Colsaerts.
Poulter has a 9-2 record in three Ryder Cups. He went 4-1 in 2008 and 3-1 last time.
Just when I was feeling so good about the trajectory of banning anchoring, Webb Simpson had to go and inject these thoughts into the skill/rulemaking debate.
First though, Hank Gola shares Graeme McDowell's discussions with the USGA's Mike Davis and his counter position on anchoring a long putter.
"They feel like their research has shown that putting under pressure down the stretch on the back nine on Sunday, when you can anchor the putter to a part of your body . . . that just takes one extraneous movement out of the putting stroke," he said. "It's just kind of a physical fact that if you can just take one element of movement and motion out of the stroke that holing putts will become easier.
And here's Simpson's comment that certainly makes sense.
"Do I think they should be banned? No, and here's why," he said. "You take a wooden driver compared to a 460 cc's titanium, and to me that's a lot bigger difference than a 35 inch putter to a 45 inch putter. Also last year, the strokes game putting, nobody in the top 20 used a belly putter or a long putter. If anybody says it's an advantage, I think you've got to look at the stats and the facts."
There goes any potential run as a USGA poster child!
The story also includes comments from Keegan Bradley, who is concerned that taking away long putters could cost the manufacturers "millions" of dollars.
"To me, to change something that big and to cost manufacturers millions of dollars, you've got to have some pretty good facts," he said. "I think just because some of us are winning majors or winning tournaments with the belly putter, I don't think that's a good reason to say, 'hey, we're going to take them away. That's my real take."
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
