Napoleon would have felt right at home today at the Atlanta Athletic Club for the second round of the PGA Championship. The 18th hole in particular was taking no prisoners. In the last hour and a half of the day Adam Scott, Angel Cabrera, Nick Whatney, Phil Mickelson, Matteo Manassero, and Gary Woodland (twice) all saw their momentum drown in a watery grave on their approach shots into the final green.

David Feherty asked the question of the day, doesn’t the PGA think that the final hole of their most important tournament of the year should actually be playable by the best players in the world. This one clearly is not. It wasn’t about the wind, it wasn’t about the pin, it was just that the driving area was so confined the players could not find the courage to hit a driver far enough up the hole to give themselves a manageable shot at the green. As hard as the hole was in 2001 when David Toms chose to lay up on his second shot and rely on a wedge to get up and down to beat Mickelson in the PGA it has clearly been ratcheted up a notch in Rees Jones’s latest upgrade of the course for this year’s event. Tom’s strategy may the play du jour for the next two days if guys are in the hunt.

Maybe the real secret today was being fortunate enough to play the back nine first because Dufner and Bradley, the current leaders, both played the front as their inward nine and seemed able to close out their rounds without blunting their momentum. They will not have that opportunity tomorrow and will have to face the terror of fifteen through eighteen with the full pressure of trying to hold the lead in a major. Climbing over the battle casualties in front of them could be a huge mental challenge in that stretch.

August 2011

In the aftermath of Adam Scott’s impressive win in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone CBS did the rarest of things, they decided to interview the winning caddy.  So Stevie Williams had a microphone in front of him and a world wide audience to which to crow that of the 140+ wins he has had as a caddie, 13 of them majors with Tiger Woods, “this is the most satisfying win I have ever had, there’s no two ways about it”.

His guy played flawlessly today with four birdies on the back side posting the low score of the final round and there is little doubt that Stevie was the elixir that kept Scott relaxed and focused helping him hold off a horde of young talent nipping at his heels.  Williams is one of the most accomplished caddies in the modern era, having worked successfully with Greg Norman, Raymond Floyd, and Mr. Woods and deserves a good deal of credit for helping Scott get to the finish line with the championship in hand.

While Scott was blistering the field with 21 birdies and only 4 bogies over four days, Tiger only broke par the first day and had 11 bogies and 2 doubles on the way to a mundane T-37 in the event, a full 18 shots behind Scott’s winning score of 17 under.  Tiger’s driving accuracy was 76th in the field of 76 and his putts per round stat was T43rd-not the winning combination he was looking for in his first competitive appearance in three months.

But I doubt that it was his role in Scott’s competitive revival that Stevie was referring to as the source of his satisfaction today.  He was clearly taking great pleasure in thumbing his nose at his former employer as if to say to Tiger, that hill you have to climb is going to be much steeper without me by your side.

The $140,000 share Stevie gets from this win will certainly make the steak taste very savory tonight, but I think it is the just desserts delivered to Tiger’s table that will sustain that sly grin on Stevie’s face for a good long while.

August, 2011

Steve Williams that is.

Yup the man who stewarded Tiger to seven victories at Firestone since 1999 sprinkled a little magic dust on his new man Adam Scott who shot a scintillating 62 today to grab the first round lead at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Scott threw down 8 birdies, including 5 on the back side, coming in with just 30 shots on the inward nine. He hit 83 percent of the greens and used only 25 putts with that garden hoe he calls a putter. Clearly Steve Williams is creating positive vibes for his new man.

Steve’s ex-boss could only manage a mundane 68 and is wallowing in anonymity in a tie for 18th at the moment. Guess he did not have his “A” Game today. Driving accuracy was his Achilles heel once again only hitting 36% of the fairways (T-73rd in that category). 27 putts with his old Cameron flat stick is not bad, but he obviously has to put it in play and hit it closer to the hole if he wants to prove that he still owns this track.

I sense that Steve Williams is doing some snickering in the parking lot. If this could somehow hold up through Sunday he might just break out into a full blown guffaw.

August, 2011