Move over, Ben Curtis. Shaun Micheel, the latest surprise in a major, made four birdies in his final five holes Friday in the PGA Championship to take a two-stroke lead into the weekend at Oak Hill.
He still has two rounds left on the toughest PGA Championship course in 23 years. And he still has plenty of players within range -- but none named Tiger Woods.
PHOTO: AFP
"It's obviously way too early," Micheel said after a 2-under 68, matching the best score of the second round. "But if I continue to hit the ball as well as I did off the tee, I don't see any reason why I can't be around."
Unlike Curtis, a rookie who won the British Open in his first crack at a major, Micheel has played on the PGA Tour the last four years and has two majors under his belt, missing the cut both times.
Still, his name atop the leaderboard was the only thing that made the PGA Championship feel like the Grand Slam event known for producing first-time major winners.
For everyone else, it seemed like the US Open.
Masters champion Mike Weir was leading by two strokes until he made bogey on the final two holes for a 71. Joining him at 1-under 139 was Billy Andrade, who overcame four bogeys in a five-hole stretch and shot 72.
No one else was under par at Oak Hill, which lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest tests in the US majors.
"This will be a survival test to the end," Fred Funk said.
Micheel was at 3-under 137, the highest 36-hole lead in relation to par in the PGA Championship since it last paid a visit to Oak Hill in 1980. The cut was at 8 over, also the highest for a PGA since it was 9 over that same year.
None of that seemed to faze Micheel, who holed a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 8 and finished off his memorable day with a 7-iron into 8 feet on his final hole.
"I hit some nice shots and made some nice putts coming in," he said.
Woods could hardly say the same.
Unable to control his short irons, Woods' wedge into the 482-yard closing hole went long into the gnarly rough, and he looked away in disbelief. No sooner was his chip in the air than Woods flung his club at the bag.
He bogeyed the 16th and 18th, shot 2-over 72 and was nine strokes behind. For the second straight day, he refused to speak with reporters.
Phil Mickelson had two double bogeys in a round of 75, dropping him four shots out of the lead. Still, he was well within range of a major that has eluded him the last 10 years.
"That's kind of a 'glass half-empty, glass half-full' question, and I'm going to go with half-full," Mickelson said. "I'm a couple of shots off the lead heading into the weekend, and I feel like I'm playing pretty well."
Twelve of the last 15 players to win the PGA Championship had never won a major, and any number of players fit that mold going into the weekend.
Rod Pampling of Australia, who shared the first-round lead with Mickelson, had two double bogeys on his first five holes. Unlike the 1999 British Open, when he went from a first-round lead to missing the cut, the former greenskeeper recovered.
He took two shots to get out of a fairway bunker on the 18th, then holed out from 144 yards for par to shoot 74 and reach even-par 140.
Along with Mickelson, the group at 1-over 141 included three-time major winner Ernie Els, despite a double bogey by the Big Easy on his final hole.
"I really wanted to get to red numbers by the end of the day, and I almost did that," Els said after a 69. "I have two rounds to go, and I'm here for the weekend. I have a chance."
He and everyone else.
Five others were at 141, none of them major winners. The half-dozen guys at 142 included Vijay Singh and two-time US Open champion Lee Janzen, who knows a tough golf course when he plays one.
"Generally, the PGA doesn't have as much rough as the US Open," Janzen said after a 4-over 74. "Generally, it takes maybe 10 to 12 under par to win. But this is fine. If you're playing well, you want it to be as tough as possible."
It was every bit of that for Woods.
Trying to avoid a Grand Slam shutout for the first time since 1998, Woods has made only two birdies in 36 holes at Oak Hill. His two-day total of 146 might be even worse if not for several good par saves, none bigger than a 25-footer on No. 8.
Woods has never won a major when trailing by more than five after any round.
"You know that you just have to be very patient, and that if you can somehow get back to near par, you'll have a chance of winning the tournament," Woods said through a PGA Tour media official.
Mickelson rolled the dice, as usual.
It paid off when he hit driver out of the rough and under the trees into a bunker on the par-5 fourth hole, setting up birdie to give him a four-shot lead at 5 under.
It cost him when he tried to hit out of the rough and over the water, failing to clear the creek on No. 5 for a double bogey. He also hit into the creek by pulling his 3-wood off the tee on No. 7, making another double. Only when he finished nine holes did Mickelson realize this wasn't a user-friendly PGA Championship.
"I didn't think it was going to play anywhere near this difficult until after about nine holes today," Lefty said. "Then, I realized that par was going to be a pretty good score."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but