Newsday (N.Y.): Phil up, Tiger down after average performances

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- Phil Mickelson feels nothing is wrong now. Tiger Woods probably feels little is right.

Mickelson shot a 5-under-par 67 Sunday, low round for the day, in the 92nd PGA Championship. And while his 72-hole total of 6-under 282 was considerably higher than the leaders, he was feeling good, literally and figuratively.

"I feel nothing's wrong now,'' said Mickelson, who was recently diagnosed with a muscle disorder called psoriatic arthritis. "I feel normal. It's gone. I don't want to say it's gone away, but all the symptoms have gone away and I feel great.''

Woods shot a 1-over 73 Sunday, his only over-par round of the tournament. He was not so upbeat after a four-round total of 2-under 286.

"I hit my irons really good today,'' Woods said. "I drove it terrible. I just couldn't get a feel with the driver.''

A week ago, at the WGC-Bridgestone, Woods had his worst finish as a pro, tied for 78th in a field of 80. He was in the top 30 this time, but that's not what one expects of Tiger, who went winless in majors this year and last.

"Disappointed?'' Woods said. "Certainly. In order for it to be a great year you have to win a major championship.''

Mickelson did that, taking his third Masters. He and Tiger did tie for fourth in the U.S. Open, but Mickelson, stricken with a disease he now says is under control, has had a tough time of it since then.

"It was good just to get a solid round,'' Mickelson said. "I wish I had put together all four rounds here, though.''

19th hole

Rob Labritz of Glen Arbor GC in Bedford Hills, Westchester County, was the only club pro of the 20 entered to make the cut. Labritz, who had a 5-over 77 Sunday for a 7-over 295 total, won the 2008 New York State Open at Bethpage Black.

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Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger and Phil can't take advantage of perfect conditions during Round 3 of PGA Championship

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- In the rankings, if not in actuality, they are the two best golfers in the world: Tiger Woods, No. 1, Phil Mickelson, No. 2. And when they began the third round of the PGA Championship Saturday afternoon, each believed he would be a factor.

Mickelson shot 33 his last nine of the second round Friday, and Woods, who had to play the final 12 holes of his delayed second round Saturday morning, came in with a 2-under-par 70.

But this tournament belongs to others, to younger, less famous players.

Woods had three bogeys on the front nine of his third round Saturday afternoon and even though he recovered with four birdies on the back, he finished at par 72 and a three-round, 3-under total of 213. Mickelson wasn't even that good. He shot a 1-over 73 for 215.

So the PGA Championship's two biggest stars are far back. Woods, who will go a second straight year without winning a major, is tied for 31st place after 54 holes, and Mickelson, who took the Masters in April, is among a group tied for 48th.

Others were able to conquer the Whistling Straits layout along the Lake Michigan shoreline -- for instance Wen-chong Liang of China shot a course-record 8-under 64, moving from a tie for 47th to a tie for fourth -- but not Mickelson and Woods.

Tiger had his moments. In both the second and third rounds, he shot 3-under 33s on the back nine. But he was over par all three rounds on the front; his shots too often landed in bunkers or rough, and he couldn't always save par.

"Ironically,'' Woods said, "I hit the ball better than I did the first two days. I made nothing.''

Mickelson was in anything but a good mood.

"The golf course was there to be had,'' he said ruefully. "It was a very frustrating day.''

The holes that stymied Woods were the holes he used to own, the par 5s.

"Tell me about it,'' was his comment. "I haven't played them well all week. You've got to make birdies on par 5s, and I haven't done that."

He did it twice on the 11th hole, including the third round, but of the 12 par 5s he's played so far, Woods also has had three bogeys, including the 16th during the third round.

"I struggle there for some reason,'' he said of the 569-yard hole, "even when I hit a good shot [off the tee]."

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Newsday (N.Y.): Mickelson scrambles to stay in the mix

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- Phil Mickelson's reputation is that of a person who figuratively can make gold from flax, or to be specific, a golfer who can make pars from lies that seem to guarantee a bogey or double bogey.

When still an amateur at Arizona State, he was featured in Golf Digest hitting wedge shots backward over his head while facing the opposite direction. But that move was no less impressive than some he pulled off Friday in the 92nd PGA Championship.

"I certainly explored a lot of areas here,'' Mickelson said. "The first 27 holes, for me to keep it around par was a feat.''

The first 11 of those holes he played Thursday until the fog-delayed opening round was halted by darkness. Friday, he returned to finish the first round at 1-over-par 73. After a brief break, Mickelson began his second round on the 10th tee and he shot a 69 for a two-round total of 2-under 142.

At times during his struggles, Mickelson, who disclosed he has been receiving treatment for psoriatic arthritis, was in deep rough, in bunkers and even on a dirt road.

That wonderful short game kept him from a high score except on 18 of the second round -- his ninth hole -- when his second shot disappeared in high grass and he ended up with a double-bogey 6.

"This is a penalizing golf course not to play from the fairway,'' he said. "I grinded pretty hard just to get in, and you never know what can happen in a major -- and I shot 10-under on the weekend at Augusta to leapfrog everybody.''

That was in April, when he won his third Masters. A victory here, although unlikely, would lift him to No. 1 in the world rankings, where Tiger Woods has been for years.

"It required a lot of patience not to force the issue [Friday],'' said Mickelson, known for taking chances. "I obviously didn't have it. Because of that I had to be patient and keep myself in position where I maybe could make up ground the next two rounds."

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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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