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Steve
Stricker drops some balls on the eighth hole during a
practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament on
Wednesday at Whistling Straits in Haven.
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SHEBOYGAN - Wisconsin is back in
the golf spotlight for the first time since losing its annual PGA
Tour event last year, when the 42-year-old U.S. Bank Championship
in Milwaukee folded.
Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly,
both from Madison, talked for a time about trying to revive a
regular stop, but organizing the event has proven hard.
"It's just a tough time for
businesses in our area to stick in a lot of money," Stricker
said. "The date that we had opposite the British Open, the
fee for a business to put up money for that week is a lot less
than, say, a better date that's not opposite a major. That fee is
in the $7 to $9 million range, and that's a tough pill to swallow
for a lot of companies."
Attendance at Milwaukee's
tournament sagged when it was placed opposite the British Open in
the final three years of the event. The top players went overseas
instead of returning to the tournament Tiger Woods made his pro
debut at in 1996.
Wisconsin golf officials instead
point to big events like the U.S. Amateur at Erin Hills next year,
the 2012 U.S. Women's Open at nearby Blackwolf Run, the 2015 PGA
Championship at Whistling Straits, the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin
Hills and the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
"I'm not sure our area can
handle two of these big sporting events in a year. And it's sad,
but I'm happy that we're able to get these majors," Stricker
said. "It looks like it's very well attended so far, and I
think that people will gravitate toward these every-other-year
events a little bit more than (a tournament) opposite the British
Open."
Stricker said that maybe a
Champions Tour event would come to the area, but for now, fans in
Wisconsin will have to be patient.
"We're still hopeful," he
said. "We're still working on it."
___
MONTY'S MATE: This time, it was
Colin Montgomerie's turn to face questions about his personal
life. Coming to his aid was Corey Pavin, his opposing captain in
the Ryder Cup.
Montgomerie, who is trying to patch
up his marriage after reports of a fling with an old girlfriend
surfaced in June, was asked about an injunction against a British
newspaper to bar information about his personal life.
"I know a lot of you are
having a lot of fun right now at my expense," Montgomerie
said. "Let me clear this up, though. I can categorically say
that there's no injunction ... regarding anything. I'm really not
going to discuss this any further. I apologize for this, that you
have to bring this up, but at the same time, no further
comments."
That wasn't the end of it.
Another reporter asked if there was
an injunction in place against a woman.
"Excuse me, I'm here to talk
about the Ryder Cup, OK?" Montgomerie said. "So please,
no further questions on that or any other subjection regarding my
private life."
And that's when Pavin jumped in.
"I agree with Colin,
actually," Pavin added. "Let's stick to golf subjects
here."
___
RYDER CUP PROJECTIONS: With so much
debate over Tiger Woods being a captain's pick, he gets to play at
least one more tournament to try to make the team on his own.
The PGA Championship released its
prize money on Wednesday — $7.5 million, same as last year. That
will give Woods a clear indication of the minimum he needs this
week.
Woods is in 10th place in the Ryder
Cup standings, leaving him 243.69 points (each point equals $1,000
in PGA Tour earnings) behind Lucas Glover. That means Woods will
have to finish at least 15th in the PGA Championship, assuming
Glover and Dustin Johnson in ninth place miss the cut and that no
one behind Woods passes him.
___
WESTWOOD OUTLOOK: Lee Westwood is
home in England resting an injured calf that is expected to keep
him out until just before the Ryder Cup.
He is the No. 3 player in the
world. He has been a runner-up in two majors this year. And his
captain, Colin Montgomerie, is not worried.
"Having spoken to Lee, he will
be hitting balls in four weeks, which is great news for everybody
in Europe," Montgomerie said. "He's our top-ranked
player and our Ryder Cup team will be greatly weakened if he
didn't make it. So I'm delighted that he is going to hit balls
within four weeks, and that gives him still another couple of
weeks to prepare."
Montgomerie said Westwood's goal is
to play the Vivendi Cup a week before the matches.
"If he doesn't, I'm sure three
practice rounds around Celtic Manor will be good enough for
Lee," Montgomerie said.
___
ROCKSTAR YANG: Y.E. Yang, last
year's PGA Championship winner, was surprised when he was assigned
six bodyguards upon returning home.
He understood a little better when
he saw their clothes in tatters. The South Korean's safety detail
failed to keep pace on Jeju-do Island.
"I was kind of trying to
figure out what was going on," Yang said through an
interpreter. "It turns out all their jackets and suits were
all ripped up because there were so many fans that wanted to get
my autograph."
Yang said none of his bodyguards
were hurt.
"It was kind of funny to see
those big bodyguards and their clothes getting ripped up like
that," he said.
___
ACTING HIS AGE: Rory McIlroy might
be a little jealous of Rickie Fowler and Ryo Ishikawa.
No, not because of Fowler's Justin
Bieber-like shag or Ishikawa's flowing curls — though they are
perhaps the only players who can rival the mop-topped McIlroy.
When pairings for the first two rounds of the PGA Championship
came out, Fowler and Ishikawa were in the same group.
McIlroy, Fowler and Ishikawa are
leaders in golf's youth movement along with Anthony Kim and Hunter
Mahan, and they've become good friends off the course, too.
"Whenever you get paired with
one of the guys in the tournament, you're looking forward to it
because you can talk about stuff that we like to talk about,"
said McIlroy, who is 21 like Fowler. "Rather than trying to
talk to a 40-year-old."
One of McIlroy's playing partners
Thursday and Friday? The 43-year-old Steve Stricker.
___
DIVOTS: The 73 international
players this week are the most for a PGA Championship. They
represent 22 countries. ... Corey Pavin and Colin Montgomerie said
they wouldn't put themselves on their Ryder Cup teams even if they
won the PGA Championship this week. ... Heavy rains fell twice in
the morning, causing giant puddles in many of the nearly 1,000
bunkers at the course. Large bunkers along the first fairway still
had visible water late in the afternoon, including some several
inches deep, and the course was still soggy. The National Weather
Service said a little over an inch of rain fell in Sheboygan. ...
It's the third PGA Championship in Wisconsin after Gene Sarazen
won in 1933 in Milwaukee and Vijay Singh did it at Whistling
Straits in 2004.
___
AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson, AP
National Writer Nancy Armour and AP freelance writer Joe
Totoraitis contributed to this report.
SHEBOYGAN - Add mosquitoes to the
list of life's certainties when it comes to summertime in the
upper Midwest.
Some players practicing for this
weekend's PGA Championship at Whistling Straits were swatting as
often as they were swinging during their rounds on Tuesday. And
you can bet golf bags will be packed with bug spray all week.
"They were out this morning in
a big way," Hunter Mahan said. "It was quite shocking.
Especially when you went by the few holes right by the lake there.
I mean, it was, they were incredible. They were swarming, in
fact."
Surrounded by bug-breeding water on
hole No. 5, Tiger Woods hit his tee shot into the right rough.
Instead of hitting another ball, he jogged off the tee box and
said, "It's all yours."
Mahan hit his drive, ran off the
tee, and Sean O'Hair did the same.
"We can't do anything about
it," Mahan said. "They seemed to kind of go away during
the last nine holes or so. But yeah, it wasn't a whole lot of fun
out there."
PGA club professional national
champion Mike Small said the bugs seemed to be at their worst
early in the morning and late at night. Not that he minds.
"It's a major," Small
said. "I mean, I'd putt on gravel and play in a
mosquito-infested jungle if it's a major."
With a breeze blowing later on,
players who came off the course in the early afternoon didn't
report as many problems. Dustin Johnson said it didn't bother him.
Of course, he is from South Carolina.
"I'm used to mosquitoes where
I'm from," Johnson said.
Unless the wind whips up — which
presents challenges of its own at Whistling Straits — there's
not much players can do about the bugs.
"Except put on a lot of
'Off!,'" Mahan said.
___
TOUR VOID: Wisconsin sports fans
might put football first, but Gov. Jim Doyle says the state also
is crazy about golf.
That said, Doyle acknowledged that
having Wisconsin lose its yearly stop on the PGA Tour creates a
void for what he considers a state with an enthusiastic golf
scene.
"We would like to have a
regular stop," Doyle said. "As you all know, getting a
date has been a great challenge for us in Wisconsin. We had a
great tournament played at a great course, we just over the years
couldn't get a date that really worked for us."
Facing a shortfall in corporate
sponsorship and lukewarm fan interest, the tournament once known
as the Greater Milwaukee Open ceased operations and was dropped
from the PGA Tour schedule. Recently, it was held opposite the
British Open, sapping it of star power.
But with top players appearing at
Whistling Straits this weekend, Doyle said about 200,000 fans are
expected to attend the tournament.
"I think we will prove with
these majors that are coming here that we will have great fans and
we can put on a great tournament," Doyle said. "So we
are going to continue to work on this."
Whistling Straits will host the PGA
Championship again in 2015 and the Ryder Cup in 2020. Nearby
Blackwolf Run will host the 2012 U.S. Women's Open. And
Wisconsin's Erin Hills will host the 2017 U.S. Open.
"Would you rather have a major
every two or three years, which this state will have for the next
20 years, or would you like a tour stop every year?," Kohler
chairman and CEO Herb Kohler said. "Answer that question
yourself. I think Wisconsin is taking the right course."
___
C'MON GET HAPPY: Paul Casey hopes
Sergio Garcia brings a smile back from his post-PGA Championship
break.
The Spaniard plans to take two
months off after playing Whistling Straits this week. He hasn't
won in almost two years, and said he hopes the break will rekindle
his love for the game.
"If you don't have stuff in
the right place, or if you're not happy away from the golf course,
then you're not going to find it on the golf course," said
Casey, who had his own struggles about five years ago. "When
I was playing my worst golf, I was also very unhappy off the golf
course, and vice versa.
"I want to see the happy,
smiley Sergio again," Casey added. "I don't know what's
going on with Sergio inside, but it's the same thing. As soon as I
see him smiling again, I think the great golf that we've seen from
Sergio will come back."
___
NO PRESSURE, PAL: As a close friend
and former University of Illinois teammate of Steve Stricker,
Small knows Stricker wants win in his home state this week.
"We spoke about a week ago,
and I know this is a big deal to him and I know he's under maybe
some self-imposed pressure, maybe because he wants to win a major
and being in his home state," Small said.
So Small plans to give his old
buddy some space.
"I'm sure we'll run into each
other and have a Coke or something and talk, but I'm not going to
go get in his kitchen," said Small, currently the men's golf
coach at Illinois. "I'm going to let him be and do his own
thing and root him on."
___
DIVOTS: Louis Oosthuizen went back
to South Africa after winning the British Open, and was surprised
to find out how much people in his home country appreciated his
victory. "I think it was a nice thing coming at a good time
for South Africa after the World Cup," he said. "The
country was still on a big high after everything and my friends
and everyone just said it was amazing." ... The PGA of
America touted a study, based on 2008 data, that said the game of
golf has an annual economic impact of $2.4 billion and provides
more than 38,000 jobs in Wisconsin. ... To honor defending PGA
champion Y.E. Yang, the First Lady of South Korea arranged to have
four of the top chefs in Yang's home country flown in to Wisconsin
for Tuesday's champions dinner. The menu included japchae, a
colorful dish made with glass noodles, carrot and spinach seasoned
with soy sauce, and modeumjeon, assorted pan-fried delicacies
including halibut, mushrooms and zucchini with vinegar soy sauce.
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