Stricker, reluctant star,
tops PGA start with 63
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Jerry Kelly, goateed free spirit from Madison, Wis., tied his all-time low in a major championship with a 5-under 65 in the opening round Thursday, and gave a little grin. “Hey,” he said, “I’m not even the No. 1 player from my own city today.”The No. 1 player from Madison would be Steve Stricker, who tied the record for majors with a 63, 7-under-par at the Atlanta Athletic Club. He was the 23rd player to shoot 63 in a major, the 11th in the PGA Championship, and he was a reluctant star at that. At No. 5, he’s the top American on the world golf ranking. But don’t remind him.
“Whatever it is, I don’t know,” said Stricker, who would rather volunteer for a root canal clinic that think of such a thing. “I try to downplay all that stuff. I really do. I try to get away from it. It’s flattering when somebody says it, but I just want to go out and play, and let all that other stuff take care of itself.”
Stricker came to his last hole, No. 9, facing a 12-foot putt for a birdie and a record 62. It never occurred to him.
“I know 63 is that number that no one has gotten under,” he said, “but I never really thought about it at all today.”
Later, his caddie reminded him that he’d just missed history.
“Oh, shoot,” he said. “It really never registered. I was concentrating on the putt but never thought about the history part of it.”
Shaun Micheel, the 2003 champ, who’s fallen on hard times since, surfaced again in a PGA, this time for a bogey-free, 26-putt 66 and sits third. “I think I take a lot of pride,” Micheel said. “Something about major championships, just with the feel of the tournament, just with the media leading up to it, the fans, the support …”
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods broke 80 – with a 77 – and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, the pre-tournament favorite, almost broke his right wrist in a par 70.
McIlroy, who started at No. 1, hit a tree root trying to get out of trouble at No. 3. The club went flying and he doubled over in pain.
“It was like a sharp pain up the forearm, and then there is a little bit of swelling just on the inside of my wrist,” he said. “And then it was going up into my elbow and shoulder.”
He received medical attention on the course, getting tape and ice. He made a bogey-5 on the hole, and went on to post a four-birdie, four-bogey par 70, and left to get further examination on the wrist.
If Stricker finds himself in a strange place at No. 5 in the world, consider the man who used to own No. 1. Tiger Woods opened with a 7-over 77, 14 off the lead and matching his career-high start in a major. Woods, in his second start after an 11-week injury layoff, birdied three of his first five holes, then scattered three double bogeys for his highest start ever in a major. There went his fifth PGA title, his 15th major, and therefore his last chance this year of gaining ground on Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 majors. He was in danger of missing the halfway cut.
“My motor pattern is getting there, and I start fighting it,” said Woods, referring to his latest attempt to change his swing. “And I couldn’t get it back.”
Stricker may have been the most surprised guy on the course. “I came to the course not expecting too much,” he said. “I really hadn’t made too many birdies in the three previous rounds I had. I really felt like I was in trouble coming into this tournament. I really didn’t feel that good on the course.”
So laboring in doubt and misery, Stricker, starting at No. 10, proceeded to birdie his first three holes, from 15 feet, then 5 and 4, out of a bunker. He knew he was on to something when he birdied the brutal 15th, a cross-water par-3 of 260 yards. He stuck a utility club to 8 feet. Then he got the 18th, a par-4 playing nearly 500 yards, with a 3-wood off the tee and a utility club to 25 feet.
For a guy who hits it 280, why only a 3-wood off a 500-yard hole?
“I’m still playing in between the water and the bunkers,” he said. “It just gets really narrow up there, and I don’t have the length to carry the corner of the water.”
That was a 5-under 30 going out. Two birdies coming in and he had his surprise 63.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the world charts:
Ryo Ishikawa, 19, the Japanese whiz kid, blew to a 15-over 85, victim of a failed attempt to change his swing for the Atlanta AC course.
Germany’s Martin Kaymer, defending champion and part of the youth movement at 26, had an up-and-down 72 and figured he was getting bad breaks. “You’ re the defending champion, and you would like to play – well, if you make good golf shots, you would like to be rewarded for it,” he said. “It’s a little frustrating if you hit good shots and you don’t get anything out of it.”
By the numbers: World No. 1 Luke Donald shot 70 and pronounced himself disappointed. “I thought if you could get the ball in the fairway today, you could make a score,” he said. “It’s a course you can attack from the fairway. I didn’t drive it well today.” Lee Westwood, No. 2, saved himself at the 18th for a 71. “I turned a 6 into a 3,” he said. He pulled his tee shot, and the ball hit a wall and bounced out into the fairway, from where he stuck it to 3 feet from the pin.
From here, the PGA doesn’t promise to be a great deal of fun. Kelly and Stricker don’t have a bet on low Wisconsiner.
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