BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – For years, in the eyes of professional golfers, the PGA of America has been Dudley Do-Right to the U.S. Golf Association's Snidely Whiplash.
Golfers deemed the PGA Championship fair, fun, virtuous. The U.S. Open was wicked, penal, torturous.
Then along comes one of the greatest Opens in June at Torrey Pines, played on a setup that was considered eminently manageable. It's followed by the 90th PGA Championship on “The Monster” at Oakland Hills, and the PGA is getting a taste of what it feels like to be the one tying these damsels in distress to the railroad tracks.
MEL EVANS / Associated Press
Caddie Colin Byrne shields Retief Goosen from the rain yesterday at Oakland Hills. First-
round play was suspended with 18 players on the course.
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Yesterday in the opening round, no player could post a score better than the 2-under-68 shot by co-leaders from the European Tour, Robert Karlsson and Jeev Milkha Singh.
With Oakland Hills' teeth growing by the minute, its narrow fairways hardening and sloping greens drying to a crusty sheen, only six players who finished their rounds reached red figures. Play was suspended for the day with 18 golfers on the course after an 85-minute thunderstorm delay.
Some of those who finished couldn't believe what they were seeing from the PGA of America.
“The course is diabolical,” said Paul Goydos, who shot 74. “It's like playing Scrabble without the vowels.”
Englishman Lee Westwood's assessment was far less whimsical after he shot 40 on the back nine (his front), didn't make a birdie and finished with 77.
“I was happy to break 80,” said Westwood, who tied for second last week at the Bridgestone Invitational. “Standing on the 17th tee (at 5-over after seven), I asked my caddie if he could hear the sea. I am sure I could hear my holiday calling.”
Westwood's beef is that the rough doesn't seem to be of the “graduated” variety featured at Torrey Pines.
“If you miss the semi (rough) by a foot, you are worse off than if you miss by 20 yards,” he said.
“Cut all the rough out,” he added. “I think the U.S. Open was set up perfectly. It rewards accuracy. I didn't see that today.”
He cited his bad fortune at the par-4 fourth. He said he drove a foot into the rough, had only a wedge to the green and couldn't advance his ball to get on. Westwood also said the PGA is brushing the rough back toward the players to make it more difficult.
“They are sucking the fun out of the major championships when they set it up like that,” Westwood said.
By yesterday afternoon, the PGA was more worried about the greens than the rough. Kerry Haigh, the PGA's managing director of championships, made the decision that holes 1, 9 and 18 needed to be watered during the round because they were so dry. Then, oddly enough, the rain came, which might greatly help the players today.
Karlsson, the only player in the field to have posted top-10 finishes in the three majors this year, had to be wondering what he was in for after making double bogey on the first hole. But he reeled off six birdies over the next 10 holes to reach 4-under. He gave strokes back with bogeys at 14 and 15.
“Those six birdies Karlsson made ... there are going to be a lot of guys who don't make six birdies in the first two rounds,” Goydos said.
Tod Leonard: (619) 293-1858; tod.leonard@uniontrib.com
