Making Cut Ruins Couples’ Relaxing Weekend

If nothing else, the 80th annual PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club has taught Fred Couples something about life on the cutting edge.

The likeable Couples left the course on Friday afternoon thinking he had the rest of the weekend off. He had just shot a decent second round of 1-over-par 71, but figured even that would not be good enough to let him make the cut following Thursday’s opening-round 74.

Having grown up in the Seattle area, Couples was disappointed with his 5-over effort through the first two rounds. But he figured that having the weekend free would give him time to renew an old acquaintance with a friend who had invited him up to his home on Camano Island, about 75 minutes from Sahalee.

Thinking he had no chance of making the cut, Couples made the drive up to his friend’s home on the water, played with his kids and went out in the boat to help put the crab pots out.

“We were expecting to stay there, relax and have a Saturday of fun,” Couples said.

But while watching television later in the afternoon, it became apparent that Sahalee was kicking a little butt against the world’s best golfers and the cut line was dropping.

“The way they were talking, the (cut) was certainly becoming a lot closer to 5-over,” Couples recalled. “If this was another tournament somewhere else, if never would have crossed my mind. But being here, you know, the closer it got, I felt like I had a shot.”

At about 7:30 that evening, Couples could stand the uncertainty no longer. He called PGA headquarters back at Sahalee and was told that he had made the cut and should check back later for his Saturday tee time.

He did. It was early.

And he took advantage of being one of the first golfers off by shooting a 3-under-par 67 that put him at 2-over 212 heading into today’s final round.

“When I finished yesterday, I really didn’t think I had any chance,” Couples said after Saturday’s solid round. “So playing today was great. I felt like today I hit a lot of great shots and earned a 67.

“And I’d like to come back and play like that tomorrow.”

This is a recording

For the third consecutive day, the names associated with the course record at Sahalee changed.

On Thursday, Tiger Woods shot a 66 to wrest the record from Jack Nicklaus, who had shot 67 at a 1984 exhibition. Less than 24 hours later, Vijay Singh put his name next to Woods’ with a second-round 66.

And during Saturday’s third round, little-known Greg Kraft, a non-winner from Clearwater, Fla., blistered a dew-softened Sahalee layout with a 65.

Kraft, whose best finishes on the PGA Tour are seconds at the 1993 Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic and the 1994 Motorola Classic, made seven birdies and two bogies in snatching the course record from Woods and Singh.

He dropped in a 35-foot putt for birdie on the par-3 17th and had a chance to shoot 64 after knocking his approach on the treacherous 475-yard finishing hole to within 5 feet of the pin.

But he missed the putt, later admitting that the course record had slipped into his mind by that time.

“To be honest with you, I thought about it when I was on 17,” Kraft said. “When I birdied 16 to get to 4 (under), I knew I tied it, and I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be sweet to get the course record.’

“I birdied 17 yesterday, but I didn’t anticipate making that putt (today). At 18, I hit two perfect shots, but missed the putt.”

What, no nepotism rule?

A 73 Saturday took Carlos Franco out of contention, but the 33-year-old from Paraguay knows about the rigors of competition.

A regular on the Japanese PGA Tour, Franco has five brothers. All are professional golfers - most in South America, though brother Angel has won on the Nike Tour.

Remarkably, Paraguay has only three golf courses - all private - and only one in Franco’s hometown of Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital which has a population of over 700,000. Even more remarkable, none of the Franco brothers is the club professional.

TODAY ON TV PGA Championship: 8:05 a.m. (TBS); 11 a.m. (CBS)