Newsday (N.Y.): Kuchar back in spotlight after long climb back

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- He was the kid with the big smile and great future. Matt Kuchar won the 1997 U.S. Amateur, made the cut in the Masters -- when he was paired with a defending champion named Tiger Woods -- and looked like the next American star in the golfing galaxy.

Then, as Kuchar said ruefully, golf happened.

"I went through some stretches of not having it," said Kuchar, now either a young 32 or an old 32 depending on his mood. "But I have kind of dug way out.''

He's certainly had it in this bizarre 92nd PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, some 60 miles north of Milwaukee, a tournament that depending on climatic conditions could last until the 12th of Never.

Kuchar was one of the 78 golfers who didn't finish Thursday's first round until Friday -- a different 78 won't finish Friday's second round until Saturday -- because of a second straight fog delay. He came out Friday morning, birdied the first hole he played to take the lead and he never let it go.

Beginning at the sixth hole, his 15th, Kuchar played the final four holes of his first round in 1 under par for a 5-under 67. In the afternoon he shot a 69 for a 36-hole, 8-under 136 total, a shot ahead of Nick Watney.

Tied for third at 5-under 139 are seven golfers: Jason Dufner, who had a tournament low 6-under 66 after a 73; Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irishman who shot a 63 in the British Open a month ago; Dustin Johnson, who led the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach after three rounds; 2007 Masters winner Zach Johnson; Bryce Molder, a teammate of Kucher's at Georgia Tech; Simon Kahn of England, who bogeyed the final three holes and Seung Yui Noh of Korea.

Bubba Watson and Francesco Molinari, first-round co-leaders at 68, as well as Tiger Woods, began their second rounds late Friday as wind grew and darkness loomed. Watson began at 6:15 p.m. EST and was 1-over through eight holes, while Molinari started at 6:57 and was even through five.

Woods, who was 1-under for the first round, completed six holes of his second round at even par before the horn sounded to halt play at 7:27 p.m., earlier than Thursday because of a mist off Lake Michigan.

"It was tough out there,'' said Woods, who scrambled for pars on two, three and five. "Had to hang in there and did a good job with that.''

So did Kuchar, who at Georgia Tech played very well until his junior year, then rebounded as a senior.

"I turned pro,'' he said, "earned my card and a sponsor exemption straightaway my first year and in seven events earned enough to keep myself on Tour through 2002. Then I had a win in 2002 and another dip down. Since 2005 it's been a steady climb up.''

This year he has six top 10s, including a sixth in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

"I think there's a maturing process. I thought out of school, Bryce [Molder] was the best hands-down player in college golf. I thought he's going straight to the big leagues.''

Instead, he went straight to the Nationwide Tour, unable to make the PGA Tour until the end of 2006.

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RealClearSports: Tiger Steps Out of Fog and Controversy

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- Of course Tiger Woods will be on the Ryder Cup team. Whether Corey Pavin told Jim Gray that Tiger would or whether Corey Pavin didn't tell Jim Gray he would begs the issue.

With the interest in Tiger, NBC television, commercial involvement of billion-dollar companies, the sport of golf and even Woods himself, it is a given he will play if chosen by Pavin.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger finds a bit of his game

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- "Welcome to golf,'' Tiger Woods said. "It is what it is, a fickle game.''

For Tiger, it should have been "Welcome back to golf.'' Like the supposed Mark Twain comment of his demise, reports of the death of Woods' game have been greatly exaggerated.

Woods hadn't broken par his previous seven rounds, but Thursday, with a birdie on his final hole, he shot a 1-under 71 on the opening day of the 92nd PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

"Got off to a quick start,'' said Woods. He started at the 10th hole and began birdie-birdie, "and all of a sudden I felt like I could shoot something in the 60s.

"Didn't quite happen. Lost a few shots out there, but I made a nice birdie on nine [his 18th] and finished under par for the day.''

That, he said, was his goal. It left him three shots behind several co-leaders. It left him thinking positively, maybe even thinking about winning his first major since the 2008 U.S. Open.

When asked if his driving was better, Woods answered, "Everything was better.''

Including his mood. When he finished Sunday at the WGC Bridgestone with a 77, equaling his worst closing round in 13 years as a professional, Woods seemed ready to hurl his clubs into a trash barrel. But a couple of days of practice changed everything.

And that debate between U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin and TV announcer Jim Gray, over whether Pavin told Gray he would select Woods for the team, seemed inconsequential.

If Woods plays well, he could be an automatic qualifier. The difference between this week and last?

"Just one week,'' Woods said. ''That's the way it goes. I mean everyone has bad weeks.''

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Newsday (N.Y.): Bubba Watson, Molinari emerge from fog to lead PGA Championship

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- It was golf's Unfinished Symphony, a round that for the longest time couldn't get out of the fog and never did get to the end.

It was Day One of the 92nd PGA Championship, which when the weather cleared offered Tiger Woods' return from the depths and two disparate sorts, Bubba Watson and Francesco Molinari, temporarily on top of the leader board.

They came in with 4-under- par 68s, but still out on the Whistling Straits course when darkness moved in were two others at 4 under, Ernie Els and Matt Kuchar.

Play had had to be delayed 3 hours, 10 minutes at the start Thursday because the shoreline along Lake Michigan looked like something along San Francisco Bay, pea-soup stuff through which golfers couldn't see 100 yards.

That meant the late starters had no chance to get in a full 18, and with more fog forecast this morning, there's a feeling this tournament might last for days.

Woods, who was to go at 8:20 a.m., finally hit his first shot at 11:30, which since he shot a 1-under 71 -- he made birdie at his last hole, the ninth -- didn't prove to be detrimental. On the contrary, his play was greatly improved from his awful finish last weekend in the WGC-Bridgestone.

Phil Mickelson, who didn't begin until around 4:45 p.m., was 1 under par through 11 holes when play was called.

Watson, like Mickelson, a lefthander, contended he was not bothered by the delay. "I get excited about playing golf,'' Watson said. "So I stayed up late [Wednesday] night when I should have been going to bed. My wife was yelling at me to go to bed. I was up playing games on my phone . . . I wasn't myself this morning when I woke up. So maybe the delay helped, since I didn't have much energy.''

Molinari, from Italy, said of Whistling Straits: "It seems like some courses in Europe, but it's a lot softer, and I like the course. And watching Graeme McDowell [U.S. Open] and Louis Oosthuizen [British Open] win, we [Europeans] think we can win a major as well.''

"It played like an American course today,'' said Charles Howell III (69) of Whistling Straits, which looks like a British links but requires different shots. "It was a bit bizarre.''

Howell got up at 5:30 a.m. for what he thought would be an 8:50 a.m. start that evolved to a noon start at the 10th tee. He quickly birdied 11, 12, 13 and 14.

"I had breakfast three times,'' said Howell, as Woods said he did. "To have the start I did was beneficial because it calmed me down a bit.''

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Newsday (N.Y.): Whistling Straits: Links course that isn't

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- With money one can do almost anything, including turning a shoreline along Lake Michigan into a bit of British links land.

Herb Kohler, 71, the plumbing fixtures magnate whose net worth is estimated at $4 billion and who became a golfer late in life, became enamored with the links courses in Scotland and England, several of which are used as venues for the British Open.

So he hired architect Pete Dye, purchased Camp Haven -- a former airfield used as an anti-aircraft center -- and with 17,000 dump-truck loads of quarried sand built mounds, dunes and traps. Voila, Whistling Straits, where for a second time, starting today, the PGA Championship will be held.

The course plays at more than 7,500 yards and is full of wild grass and dangerous slopes. When the 2004 PGA, won in a playoff by Vijay Singh, was held at the Straits, dozens of spectators suffered bruises and broken bones slipping as they attempted to follow play.

It's no less challenging for the golfers, although for the most part they walk along level but twisting fairways.

"I think it's fun,'' Phil Mickelson said of Whistling Straits. "What's interesting to me is that it's a Scottish-looking course that plays like an American course. It doesn't play like a course in Scotland, yet it has all the aesthetics of one.

"And so that actually takes a little bit getting used to, the fact you see fescues and the sand and the dunes and the pot bunkers and so forth. You think there are openings in front and think you can fun balls up. It just doesn't work. The ground is too soft, and the ball stops, so you have to fly the balls onto the greens. That takes getting used to, especially when we're just coming from the British Open.''

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