BlogPGA Preview and Picks UPDATED on Wednesday

Tiger, Tiger and more Tiger:

Sorry, simply amazing how Tiger looked like a cripple on Sunday with half his body on a surgeon’s operating table and 72 hours later he was strolling out of his Mercedes courtesy car looking like he was about to do a marathon.  Gosh, wish I could afford to find the therapist that was able to put him back together.

It was like breaking news, the Golf Channel was all over Tiger’s arrival, hitting balls on the range and playing the first couple of holes.  In watching him on the range, he looked fit and nothing to show that he had back spasms just three days ago.

Lot’s of speculation on what is up with Tiger but the bottom line is that all of a sudden between 5 to 7,000 people appeared to watch Tiger practiced.  He played with Steve Stricker, Davis Love III and Harris English, they went nine holes.  Tiger had one of his “forced” news conference in which the highlight was when someone asked him, “are you pain-free?”  Tiger responded, “Pain-free, yes, except for the headache of talking to you guys.”  Afterwards Tiger walked the back nine and did some chipping and putting.  Funny that Stricker was one of the players in Tiger’s group. An hour before they played at 2pm, Stricker was named by Ryder Cup Captain Tom Watson as one of his three vice-captains.  So I guess that Stricker will have not only an inside view of Tiger’s game but hear what Tiger is feeling right now.

Now I won’t beat around the bush on Tiger, I wouldn’t bet a wooden nickel on him winning this week, or even a top-ten finish.  Matter of fact if I was a real gambler I would treat Tiger as a Wall Street broker would, short him on not making the cut this week.  I think the odds on him making the cut is 50-50 at best.

Enough on Tiger, let’s move on to others.

Steve Stricker:

First news on Stricker, looks like unless he wins this week this will be his last event of the year.  He is 122nd in the FedExCup race and made a joke that if he did get into the FedExCup and win it that he would miss the next two and play at the Tour Championship, hoping to win that and the whole series.  Guess the good folks in Ponte Vedra weren’t happy at those thoughts.

Duf-meister:

Another person that may not be playing much is defending champion Jason Dufner.  As we said in our Monday preview, he is playing despite two painful bulging discs.  Right now he is ninth in the Ryder Cup standings.  This is a goal for him, making the team.  He said that if he didn’t make the team, which consists of the top-nine after this week and then 3 wild card picks on September 2nd.  But Dufner said that if he doesn’t get one of the top-none spots this week that he will take six or eight weeks off to heal what he termed an “arthritic and degenerative” condition.  So here is another player to scratch off your PGA Championship list.

Sergio:

Now here is a player that many will put on their list of champions, I know that he was a top pick of mine, Sergio Garcia.  At the end of Bridgestone Sergio said that Valhalla wasn’t one of his favorite courses.  In looking it up, he was T-34th in 2000 and in the Ryder Cup in 2008 didn’t win a match, had two losses and two halves.  So maybe Valhalla isn’t Garcia’s cup of tea and should be eliminated this week?  In watching his press conference on Wednesday Garcia seemed very, very happy and positive.  He discounted his two loses to McIlroy in the British Open and Bridgestone and also back-tracked on his statement from Bridgestone saying, “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I just said it’s not my favorite.”  So it’s a toss-up, Garcia is playing way too good not to play well this week.

Phil Mickelson:

Another of those guys that is hard to gauge.  He is well aware of his record on the tour this year, or should I say lack of top-tens.  He doesn’t want that to continue.  Despite his record he was positive saying that he was very disappointed after Saturday at Bridgestone, but feels very confident after his Sunday 62.  He said that “I feel a lot more confident in my game, and hopefully I can put together four good rounds instead of just two.”  So who knows, can Phil do it?  Probably not but you know he will try very hard.

Rory McIlroy:

Sorry but he reminds me of a Tornado barreling down on a community.  We have heard of EF5, the most powerful tornado know to man.  McIlroy is on that scale right now, I haven’t seen such a player with more confidence and game to back it up than Tiger in 2006 and ’07.  Rory is the favorite and at this moment of time I can’t see any reason for him not to win.

A longshot:

Many have said, gosh you haven’t picked Marc Leishman this summer, what’s the deal.  Frankly I was luke warm on him and then he missed the cut at Greenbrier.  Little did I know he would be T-5th at the British and 3rd at Bridgestone.  On top of that look at the history of the PGA Championship, it is littered with players like Leishman winning from Shaun Micheel to Rich Beem to Y.E. Yang to Martin Kaymer.  Gosh Mark Brooks was not very well know when he won at Valhalla in 1996, John Daly was a nobody in 1991.  Gosh even Phil Mickelson was looking to get off the major snide when he won the 2005 PGA.  Many are still shocked that Keegan Bradley, playing in his first major championship won in 2011.  The point is that the PGA Championship creates more mystery winners than any other major in golf.  With that said, watch out for Marc Leishman this week.

Lastly, the weather:

Since getting off the plane yesterday the weather has been overcast but fine.  Very surprise at the temperature, it wasn’t really hot and humid today.  In looking at the five day forecast the first two days will be tough in the afternoon with thunderstorms.  Friday is suppose to be 100% chance of rain, but the good news is that it’s going to be 78 degrees which means we could possibly not have thunder.  One bad thing, the front nine is on swamp land and tends to flood.  In 2004 when the Senior PGA was played here heavy storms caused the front nine to flood and it took a Hercules effort to get the course playable.  But the weekend is going to be nice, so our fingers are cross.