History reads the future:
This one’s for Woods
CHASKA, Minn. – If history serves us in any way – apart from telling us that Troy did exist and that the Piltdown man was the paleontological equivalent of a Ponzi scheme – then it’s this: This 91st PGA Championship is over. Which is a presumptuous thing to day, this coming to you after only the first round Thursday. Which may not be so presumptuous in light of the message being this: Tiger Woods opened with a 5-under-par 67, and practically everything Woods has done in the majors to date – and that means having won 14 of them – says he has already wrapped up this one. All that’s left if epilogue, in the form of the last three rounds.
Just for openers in this context, note that Woods has won four of six major championships that he has led after the first round. And he has won 13 of 24 PGA TOUR events overall when leading after the first round.
In the other three majors this year, he had to play from behind and he came up empty all three times. So this bright little start might lift his spirits somewhere into the near stratosphere. Well, no.
“It’s just one of those things where I just keep plodding along,” Woods insisted. “Tomorrow, the weather’s not supposed to be very good. I’ve got to go out there and just be consistent. Like today, I was very consistent. I hit my irons well. And I hit a lot of good putts that were skirting the edge and lipping out. Just gotta keep doing that.”
History Lesson II (or III or IV or Whatever: Woods has won all three of the majors when he has recorded a bogey-free round. This 67 was his fourth overall bogey-free round in a major and second career bogey-free round in a PGA Championship. The other came in the second round of his 2006 PGA victory at Medinah.
It bears mentioning, of course, that this kind of information has not gotten around to the rest of the guys, and they might not be all that willing to concede this championship to anyone, Woods included.
Foremost among these is the winsome Irishman, Padraig Harrington, possibly undone in the Bridgestone Invitational last week at Firestone by a clock-watching official who feared the tournament might bump into the 6 o’clock news. Harrington was leading Woods by a shot going into the long 16th. There, having been informed that he was being timed for slow play, he proceeded to rush his shots and, clearly nervous, he made an Irish stew of the par-5, posting a triple bogey-8, and he was done. Not that he complained, gallantly issuing disclaimers.
At all events, Harrington picked up where he left off – not with the 8s – and shot 68 Thursday and trailed Woods by a stroke.
“How I played today is more from what I’ve been doing the last couple years,” said Harrington, he being a work-in-progress with mysterious swing changes. “I couldn’t figure out what it was. About six weeks ago, I got clarity in that. It doesn’t mean I got it in my swing at the moment, but I had clarity, so it’s eased my mind.”
The translation seems to be: “I know what I’m doing wrong but I’m not sure I can do anything about it.”
Anyway, “…my mind is clear on my swing, so I’m happy with that.”
Harrington, by the way, is the defending champion, and he’d won the 2007 and ’08 British Opens and so seemed an odd candidate for a swing change.
Anyone about ready to hand this PGA to Woods --- the history thing again – might do well to keep an eye on Alvaro Quiros, the Spaniard with the thunderous drives. Factor his drives into the notion that Hazeltine is a long, long course at 7,674 yards, and he becomes a prime suspect in this hunt. He is, at least, a coin toss. He’s missed the cut in both the Masters and the U.S. Open (where his length should have paid off at Bethpage Black), and also missed at the British Open. What’s different this time is that he shot a 3-under 69, his best score in the majors this year.
That was an instructive episode at No. l1, his second hole, a par-5 of 606 yards. Woods, Harrington and Rich Beem were on the 11th green, trying to putt, when a ball came rolling up on the front. They looked around,, wondering where it came from, and then glanced downrange. There stood Quiros, too far out of sight for anyone to recognize the sheepish look on his face. He’d just reached it in two – hitting driver-driver.
“Normally, I don’t try it, but today I was comfortable, and it works,” he admitted.
The length of his tee shot? He had no idea. But for his second, he had 265 meters – 290 yards -- to the front of the green.
“What did they say to you?”
“Well, nothing,” Quiros said. “Harrington, I heard ‘Good shot.’ And about Tiger, nothing.”
“Did they turn around and look at you up on the green?”
“If I had to be honest, where I was, I can’t even see them.”
The point being that if Quiros can add some more game to that power, no telling where he might end up.
Still in all, though, there is one other indicator that this is Tiger Woods’ championship.
He hit 12 of 14 fairways. He doesn’t go 12-for-14. That was his best ever in the majors.
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