RealClearSports: Tiger Leaves Us in Disbelief

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

No, we didn't believe it. Even if we watched it unfold. It was fantasy strangling reality, the impossible becoming actuality. It was Tiger Woods losing a major golf tournament.

We wanted someone to step up and challenge Tiger, wanted somebody not to melt in his presence. We thought it might be Padraig Harrington, who had three majors of his own. Or in his fading glory, Ernie Els. Instead it turned out to be a Korean named Y.E. (for Yong-Eun) Yang.

Only the day before, Harrington was saying the fans wanted someone to challenge Tiger, "to make it a battle.'' Not to beat him, but to make it interesting. This 91st PGA Championship at Hazeltine National, on the prairieland west of Minneapolis, got very interesting.

Then it got out of hand. Then it got ridiculous. Then it got head-shockingly bizarre and unprecedented.

Fourteen times before, Tiger Woods had led a major golf championship into the final round, and 14 times Tiger had won. So why wouldn't it be 15 out of 15, especially since he had led from Thursday's first round? Especially since he was paired with Yang, which everyone believed meant Yang would fold. Isn't Tiger the great intimidator?

What he wasn't on Sunday was the great putter. Took 33 putts, did Mr. Woods. Shot 5-over par 75. Went from a two-shot lead to a three-shot deficit, as Yang had a 70 for a 72-hole score of 8-under 280. Went a year without a major victory for the first time in 2009.

But he didn't go without proving what a sportsman he is, what a gentleman he is.

You can tell more about a person by the way he acts after a defeat than after a victory. It's easy to be charming, responsive, when you're holding the trophy, when they're giving you the accolades. But an individual unveils himself when he or she doesn't win.

Tiger is painfully protective. His post-match remarks intentionally are bland, even boring. If you don't say anything in particular, he believes, than nobody can misquote you or misinterpret you. So keep it simple and uncontroversial.

But Woods pulled the mask away just a bit. He was disappointed. He had to be. We thought he would win. He thought he would win. Didn't he always win before?

"Today,'' conceded Woods, "was not very good at all. I had a few misreads on putts, and I hit some bad putts too. It was a bad day at the wrong time, and that's the way it goes.''

There's a saying about golf, that it's like a love affair. That if you don't take it seriously it's no fun, and if you do it can break your heart. If Tiger's heart isn't broken, his armor of vulnerability certainly is.

Nobody's perfect. Except Tiger Woods had been with a lead the final day of a major golf championship. Now the perfection is wiped away.

"All the other 14 major championships I've won I've putted well for the entire week,'' he said. "Today was a day that didn't happen. I didn't win. I hit the ball well enough. I didn't make any putts.''

When asked whether he lost this PGA or the 27-year-old Yang won it, Woods said, "It's both. I certainly was in control. And Y.E. played great all day.''

That's the beauty of sport. There's always the unexpected. There's always a Y.E. Yang or a soccer team from Cameroon or a rookie pitcher who steps up and makes us take notice.

No Asian ever had won a major golf championship. Until Yang. Tiger Woods never had lost a major golf championship when he led after 54 holes. Until Yang.

"I don't think anyone has gone 14 for 14 or 15 for 15,'' said Woods when asked if losing was inevitable. "So I've certainly . . . like today I played well enough to win.''

Strange things happen in sports. Outfielders drop easy fly balls. That's why athletes always stay wary. It isn't over, we -- and they -- have been told, until it's over. So don't get feeling too cocky.

Tiger led the PGA from the 15th hole the first round. On Saturday, the media kept trying to get him to admit the tournament was over, that he had it locked up. Woods kept evading the question, kept insisting that he had to play to the end.

He was right. We were wrong. We thought Tiger Woods would always come in first. He always did. Until at last he didn't. We didn't believe it could happen, but we believe it now.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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© RealClearSports 2009

Newsday: Harrington blows up with quintuple bogey

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

CHASKA, Minn. -- The luck of the Irish? Not for Padraig Harrington. Not in the cruel game of golf which for a second consecutive Sunday sent him careening, this time at the major in which he was defending champion.

Last weekend, feeling rushed after being put on the clock for slow play at the Bridgestone Invitational, Paddy the Dubliner plopped a shot into the water, took a triple bogey and blew the tournament to Tiger Woods.

Virtually the same thing happened to him this weekend, only this time it was in the PGA Championship and this time it was worse. This time it was a quintuple bogey.

At the eighth hole and a shot behind the leader Woods -- who later would incur his own agony, squandering a third-round lead in a major for the first time -- Harrington hit his tee shot into the pond on the 176-yard, par-3 hole.

"I hit a little knock-down 6-iron,'' Harrington explained, "and as I was about to hit it, the wind died, and I hit it a little too easy and it just didn't carry.''

After taking a penalty drop, he nearly skulled playing partner Henrik Stenson with his third shot. His fourth sailed back over the green again and into the same pond. Dropping another ball, and now lying five, Harrington couldn't advance out of the rough. Finally onto the green in seven, he made a 5-foot putt for an 8. From a cumulative 6 under par, he had fallen to 1 under.

After starting the day tied for second, Harrington shot a 6-over 78 and finished tied for 10th with an even-par 288.

"It was a difficult tee shot,'' Harrington said of his travail, "and it was obviously a difficult second shot after you hit it in the water and pulled it left. I had been changing my chipping action a little, and I probably was more into what I was doing rather than trying to get the ball up and down, and you know, I hit a bad shot. So these things happen.''

But two weeks in a row? A triple-bogey 8 on the 16th hole at Firestone CC and now a 5-over 8 on the eighth hole at Hazeltine National?

"It wasn't anybody else,'' said Harrington. "It's all me. But I still hit all my shots out there. I got out of position only on that one hole. Obviously, it was disappointing, but I had my chances all the way through the back nine and could have got it back to 6 under.

"In fairness, I didn't feel like I could afford to make bogey by hitting left like most people. I decided I had to hit the shot, and it didn't come off . . . such is life. Some days they don't come off, and some days they do.''

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Newsday: Yang wins PGA Championship after Tiger blows lead

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

CHASKA, Minn. -- Niagara Falls didn't run uphill. The sun didn't set in the East. But Tiger Woods did lose a major golf championship, which may not be much different.

The virtually impossible became the very undeniable when Woods for the first time in his remarkable career gave away a third-round lead in a major and Sunday came in second at the 91st PGA to a deliriously excited Korean, Y.E. (Yong-Eun) Yang.

On this day of seismic shifts in golf, the 37-year-old Yang, who immediately after the final putt hoisted not a trophy but his entire golf bag like a man lifting barbells, became the first Asian to win a major.

And Tiger had perfection and dominance swept away as his record of winning all 14 times he had the lead after 54 holes in a major was gone with the wind that swept across Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Woods started the day with a two-shot lead over Yang, his playing partner, and Padraig Harrington, and everyone in the massive gallery just knew Tiger would do what he always does: win. But he didn't.

Yang took the lead by chipping in for an eagle 2 on the 301-yard 14th hole, and then embellished his round with a fist-pumping birdie at 18, moments before Tiger would close with a bogey.

Yang, going mano-a-mano with the man acclaimed by many as the greatest player of all time, shot 2-under-par 70 to Tiger's 3-over 75. Yang ended up at 8-under 280, Woods at 283.

Lee Westwood, who had the same spot in last month's British Open, tied for third with 20-year-old Rory McIlroy at 285, and Lucas Glover, who in June at Bethpage won the U.S. Open, came in fifth at 286. Harrington, who killed his chances with a quintuple-bogey 8 on the par-3 eighth, shot 78 for 288 and fell into a tie for 10th.

"I was certainly in control of the tournament for most of the day," Woods agreed. "But I just couldn't make anything today. I hit the ball great off the tee, hit my irons well. I did everything I needed to do except getting the ball in the hole."

His 33 putts were the most in any of the four rounds.

Only once previously in his career had he not won when leading by two shots or more, and that was nine years ago.

Asked if he thought he had lost or Yang had won, Woods responded: "It's both. I was playing well. I was making nothing, but still either tied for the lead or ahead. And Y.E. played great all day. I don't think he missed a shot. And it was a fun battle. Unfortunately, I just didn't make the putts when I needed them."

Thus for the first time since 2004, Woods has gone through a year without winning a major. The last time the PGA was held at Hazeltine, in the western suburbs of Minneapolis, 2002, Tiger also finished second, by a shot.

Someone wondered if this day was inevitable. The undefeated Patriots were upset in the Super Bowl. Mariano Rivera occasionally blows saves. The longer you win, the greater the odds you will lose.

"I don't think anyone has gone 14-for-14 or 15-for-15," Woods said. "I played well enough to win the championship. I did not putt well enough to win the championship."

Asked about an Asian breaking through in a major, Woods, who among others was beaten by Yang in the HSBC at Shanghai in November 2007, said, "You knew it was going to happen one day." His guess would have been K.J. Choi, another Korean, who like Yang plays the PGA Tour.

Woods' opponents on the final day of majors often are intimidated. Yang said he was. He didn't show it.

"He's always been a wonderful ball-striker," Woods said of Yang, who earlier this year won the Honda Classic. "The only thing that's held him back is the flat stick [putter]. Today, he went out there and executed his game plan. He was doing exactly what you have to do in these blustery conditions. I thought if I shot under par, I would win the tournament."

Which he would have. Except he shot over par. Woods didn't make any putts, but he did make history.

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Copyright © 2009 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Scotland Sunday Herald: Woods aside, a triumph for Europeans

GOLF: Harrington and Co proving strength of our Tour with displays in Minnesota, writes Art Spander in Hazeltine

The weather turned yesterday, making Minnesota seem more like Britain, a bit cooler, a bit darker. But even in the blast furnace heat of the first two rounds the US PGA Championship was a fine place to be for the numerous representatives of the European Tour.

The fourth Major of the year, the 91st PGA, out on the prairie west of Minneapolis at Hazeltine, was in effect two tournaments, one being played by Tiger Woods and another involving everybody else.

In the Tiger Tournament, Woods was playing in his usual grand style -- usual if you forget the missed cut in The Open at Turnberry, that is. By the end of Friday's second round, he had built up a four-shot lead and as defending champion Padraig Harrington put it: "If Tiger plays the golf he's capable of this weekend, he'll be a winner.'' In the other competition, there already were a great many winners, players such as Harrington, the Irishman, Ross Fisher and Ian Poulter of England, Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark, Lee Westwood of England, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and even Scotland's Alastair Forsyth.

All made the cut along with Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain, Thomas Levet of France and Francesco Molinari of Italy, an indication that even if the Euro Tour doesn't have anyone quite like Tiger -- and nor does any other tour on the globe - it still boasts a wealth of talent. Harrington, playing with Woods for the first two rounds, as he did last Sunday in that controversial final round of the WGC Bridgestone when the two were put on the clock and Harrington self-destructed, was tied with Woods for a time on Friday. Then Harrington made four bogeys on the back nine.

But even though he stumbled to a 35-38, he hit the shot of the day, and maybe of the tournament, a 301-yard 3-wood from a bunker onto the green of the par-five 642-yard 15th hole.

Harrington said: "Tiger told me he would have paid to have seen it. So I asked him for 50 bucks.'' Poulter was on two-under 142 after 36 holes and would have been closer to the top of the leaderboard but for a double bogey at the first, his 10th."It's been great,'' he said. "The crowds are fantastic out there. This is as busy a Major as I've seen all year, so it's good fun.'' Fun is a word one rarely hears associated with championship golf but this has indeed been an enjoyable tournament, due in no small part to those who have packed the enormous galleries here in an area which rarely sees the top pros.

Fisher, who briefly led the final round of The Open at Turnberry before taking that horrendous triple-bogey eight at the fifth, was tied with Tiger on Friday until bogeys at 17 and 18.

"In some ways I'm disappointed but overall I'm delighted,'' said Fisher. "I was hitting fairways, I was hitting greens but finishing bogey, bogey always leaves a little bit of sour taste. But you know, I'm still in there with a good shout.'' Fisher has made some tremendous progress - a run at The Open, a run at the PGA a month later.

"Every golfer wants to be at the Major championships,'' said the 28-year-old. "This is what we all dream of, right from when we were kids. I want to go out there and perform, not only for myself but at the same time to give the fans something to shout about.'' Fisher and Harrington were paired yesterday in an interesting twosome, the kid with potential alongside the only player not to back down where matched up against the Tiger. Harrington may have fallen apart last weekend, but that was the result on one errant shot into a pond, not being intimidated by Woods.

"It's irrelevant,'' Harrington responded when someone ask if he was unhappy that he wasn't playing a fourth straight round with Woods, who yesterday was with Vijay Singh two groups ahead.

"It's not bad to have a day off. Hopefully I'll see him again on Sunday," Harrington added.

McIlroy, widely expected to be the next great thing, was on level-par 144 after 36 holes and picked up a shot through the first seven yesterday.

"If I can iron it all out,'' said the 19-year-old, "I can get myself back where I was in the middle of the second round. I'm definitely a lot happier about my game than I was on Monday or Tuesday, so there are a few positives to take from it all.'' There are more than a few positives to take from the way the European Tour members have played this week in America. The only negative is they continue to chase that guy Tiger Woods. Then again, so does everyone from every corner of the world.

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Newsday: Harrington pushes but Woods still leads PGA

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

CHASKA, Minn. -- The lead still is his, if reduced, and presumably the tournament still is his. A name nobody expected and one everybody did expect are challenging Tiger Woods, but there is a big difference in being challenged and being beaten.

Woods played conservatively Saturday in the third round of the 91st PGA Championship, which made sense when he began the day with a four-shot lead. By the end of the day, the lead was two.

"Only mistake I made,'' Woods said, "was three-putting there at 4. But other than that, the card was pretty clean. I didn't give myself a lot of looks at putts. I was lag putting a lot. Given the conditions and my position in the tournament, I didn't mind.''

Woods, with a 71, is still in first at 8-under-par 208 for 54 holes at Hazeltine National. The spread is two strokes over Y.E. Yang, a Korean who despite a win on the PGA Tour is little recognized, and over defending champion Padraig Harrington, who was supposed to battle Woods. They are tied at 210 after Yang's 5-under 67 and Harrington's 69.

"I think everybody wants to see a battle in the hope the underdog catches up,'' Harrington said. "But when he catches up, they want the hero to win, as usual.''

The hero, of course, being Mr. Woods, who is a perfect 14-for-14 when leading a major after three rounds and 47-for-50 when leading any tournament after three.

"I had tremendous support,'' Harrington said. "I get the impression people want me to push him along but want him to win.''

Behind the top three at 4-under 212 are Henrik Stenson and the man who won the U.S. Open at Bethpage, Lucas Glover, meaning three of the top five are major champions, and Stenson has won The Players and Yang beat the whole lot at the 2007 HSBC in Shanghai.

Woods, trying for his fifth PGA title that would equal Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen (and 15th major overall), said it does make a difference who is on the leader board.

"You get guys who understand how to win major championships,'' Woods said, "and guys that know how to deal with the situation. They believe in themselves, and they know how to get it done.''

Because Harrington bogeyed the 18th hole, Woods will play with Yang Sunday in the final pairing. Had Harrington parred 18, he would have been second alone and matched with Woods for a fourth time in five rounds.

"I think I would rather,'' Harrington said of playing with Woods. "I think it would suit me better to have that sort of match-play style. I think I [would] get into it and hopefully raise my game. But I don't think I have a choice.''

Through an interpreter, the 27-year-old Yang said, "It's a privilege to be listed on the top with those great names, great players what I admire and respect.''

Sounds like a setup from a guy who Saturday made six birdies and only one bogey. Or four more birdies than Woods.

But the second of Woods' birdies was on the 318-yard 14th when he drove over the green, chipped long and then using a wedge as a putter, knocked the ball into the cup. That regained the lead from Harrington, who briefly had tied him.

"It's a rush,'' Woods said of the competition. "It's fun to go out and test what you have.''

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Copyright © 2009 Newsday. All rights reserved.