Golf's old and new champions -- Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods -- walk together off the 11th green.
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Play slowed to a crawl in the afternoon, with some groups taking more than six hours to play. Starters delayed the Fred Couples-Craig
Stadler-Jose Maria Olazabal group for 10 extra minutes
on the first hole. Still, they ran into a three-group backup at the par-5 second. Six groups didn't finish. PGA officials blamed
it on the number of players trying to reach the par-5s in two.
Wayne Grady had missed seven cuts and finished no higher than a tie for 38th this season in 13 starts. He's missed five
PGA Championship cuts since winning the tournament in 1990. So his 71 may have been the biggest surprise of the first
round.
Of the 25 club pros in the PGA field, only one broke par -- Mark Brown, the head professional at Tam O'Shanter
Club in Brookville, N.Y. Brown, playing in a group with Jean Van de Velde and Robert Damron, was even-par on the front nine, then got it to 3-under
through 15 before bogeys at both the 16th and 18th.
Kenny Perry took a bogey on the 18th hole -- his third straight in
PGA competition at Valhalla. He bogeyed the 18th on the final hole of regulation to fall into a tie four years ago, then
bogeyed it again in the playoff with Mark Brooks.
Speaking of Brooks, he took an eight on the second hole. Tom
Lehman, who hasn't played much since surgery, took a quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-4 16th, and followed that with a
double-bogey 6 on the 17th. His back nine score? 45.
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The course fights back
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- You can't win the PGA Championship on the first day, but you can lose it.
Trite but true. Just ask Vijay Singh. Fred Couples. Nick Faldo. Rocco Mediate. Nick Price. Tom Lehman. Steve Stricker. Michael Campbell.
Ask them, that is, if you can find them. The best score of the group? Singh, Mediate and Price all shot 77. Couples and Faldo shot 79. Stricker shot 80. Lehman, admittedly hobbled, shot 82. Campbell shot 84.
No, Valhalla wasn't all birdies and eagles Thursday -- Tiger Woods and Scott Dunlap not withstanding. There were plenty of big numbers on an increasingly hot and humid day, as some of the game's top players left themselves little chance of being in weekend contention.
"It's a course where if you don't have a very good day, you can shoot 72, 73, 74 -- easy," said Sergio Garcia, relatively unscathed with a 74. "(And) if you are able to play really well, you can shoot 65."
Mediate fell off a chair before his round and hurt his back, neck and shoulder. He said he would have withdrawn if not for a major. Dudley Hart, who later did withdraw, shot 79. Everybody probably should have called "uncle."
Four years ago, 43 players bettered par or better for four rounds at Valhalla. This year, 18 players beat 72 on the first day. There are 96 rounds over par, and 14 higher than 80.
And it could get tougher -- if the daytime temperatures fall, which they are expected to do, the PGA and Valhalla officials can hold off watering the greens. That will make things even slicker.
"If they do that, they can make some of these greens off the charts," said Dunlap.
All week, players said Valhalla would have more bite than it did four years ago. If the cut to 70 happened Thursday, anyone shooting 75 or better would play the weekend.
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Jack and Tiger: Believe it or not, Thursday was the first round Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods had ever played together in a tournament. Both players were thrilled by the opportunity.
"It was an honor to play with Jack," said Woods. "We have played in practice rounds before. Never played in competition."
Nicklaus was equally enthusiastic. "I was really very happy with the pairing this week. I was absolutely delighted.
"I've never played with Tiger in competition before," he said. "I wanted to play with him in a major championship. I certainly didn't ask to be paired. The PGA did that."
-- Peter Lawrence-Riddell
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OVERHEARD
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VAN DE VELDE
On club pro Mark Brown: "I looked at him (and) I thought, 'Well, geez, (he) may not play every day of the year, and he hits the ball 10 times better than I do. What is he thinking about?' " |
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LOVE
On whether the media expects too much: "My expectations are a lot higher than yours. ... You're not on my side. If you look at my game, everybody expects me to play better than I have." |
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NICKLAUS
On what he and Woods talked about: "You don't sit there and ask a guy how he (hit the ball 350 yards down the middle). He doesn't sit there and ask me why I hit it 230 yards in the rough." |
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FAXON
On his birdie at the 18th: "I don't know how to play that hole. I have never been able to figure out how to play that top pin placement, because even the front bunker isn't a gimmee." |
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