Saturday, August 15, 2009

PGA Championship halfway with Tiger in the lead


Yes, we know, not a very catchy headline but what's inside is original, witty, and insightful. Actually there are some very astute thoughts on the 91st PGA Championship.

We all know Tiger led the field after Round 1. Perhaps a bit unusual. Tiger seems to wins his major championships with great play on the weekends. So, of course, when Tiger took the lead on the first lap virtually every golf writer was volunteering to put the Wanamaker trophy in Tiger's car. They couldn't slobber enough over how Tiger would win his fifteenth professional major. Here's a sampling: Rex Hoggard for The Golf Channel; Martin Rogers for Yahoo Sports: Bob Harig for ESPN; and Barker Davis for the Washington Times. And the list goes on and on.

Now these veteran scribblers should now that in golf, especially in golf, the tournament is not over until the fat lady sings. Take this year's Masters and British Open as an example.

What we can say though is that Tiger's odds have dropped significantly. See if you can get your favorite bet taker to give you 2 to 1 on Tiger. If you do let us all know.

One wonderful element about the PGA Championship is that it invites many (or most) of its past champions back for another go at the title. Unfortunately, many of them don't make the cut. Here's a few that you won't see this weekend: Mark Brooks, Davis Love III, Steve Elkington, Paul Azinger, Shaun Micheel, and John Daly (WD).

Now the questions is who, out of those remaining anywhere near the top of the leaderboard, could possibly challenge Tiger? Interestingly there are five players four strokes behind Tiger. Of those five three are major championship winners. If anyone of them can nip at El Tigre's heels, it will be Lucas Glover.

And the most interesting pairing today ...Woods and Singh. It will be entertaining to observe the interaction between the two.

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