PGA title still up for grabs
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. – Phil Mickelson soared and then stumbled, and somehow finished ahead of everyone else Sunday in the PGA Championship. But thanks to a band of storms that rolled into Baltusrol, his work is not done.
In a dynamic final round that included everything but a winner, Mickelson went from three shots ahead to two shots behind Steve Elkington in a span of seven holes, only to recover when others got swallowed up by deep rough and the pressure of trying to win the final major of the year.
Mickelson was 4 under par and had a 3-foot par putt on the 14th hole when the final round was called off for the rest of the day. Twelve players will return at 10 a.m. today, the first time the PGA Championship has gone five days since Bob Tway won at Inverness in 1986.
No one could have imagined Mickelson would struggle after the way he started.
And despite a 39-minute delay just before the leaders teed off, no one could have guessed that Tiger Woods would have the best 72-hole score at the end of Sunday.
After bogeying two of the first three holes to seemingly lose any chance, Woods finished with birdies on the last two holes for a 2-under 68, putting him at 2-under 278, two shots behind.
But the final two holes are par 5s, making it unlikely that Mickelson, Elkington and Thomas Bjorn at 3-under, or Vijay Singh and Davis Love III at 2-under, all will drop shots down the stretch.
Even so, Woods had to stick around New Jersey just to make sure.
“I had a wonderful four tournaments,” Woods said of his run through the majors. “I won two, I was close in one, and I don’t know about the other one yet.”
If today follows form, it could be quite a show.
“I’m starting to hit some good shots, and we’ve got some birdie holes coming in,” Mickelson said.
Half of the 12 players who did not finish the final round still have a chance to win.
Mickelson had a three-shot lead when he rolled in an 8-foot birdie putt on the fourth hole, but he couldn’t run away from the field this time. Lefty lost the lead by making four bogeys in a five-hole stretch, either hitting into the rough or into the bunkers, and losing his touch on the greens.
Elkington, on the 10-year anniversary of his PGA Championship victory at Riviera, made all pars through the first seven holes – Retief Goosen was the only other player among the contenders not to drop a shot over that brutal stretch – and took the lead by chipping in behind the 11th green. But he looked tentative missing 8-foot par putts on the 13th and 15th holes to fall to 3-under.
Bjorn got back into the mix with a 40-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole, and he was one shot behind with four to play.
Singh looked as frustrated as ever.
Trying to join Woods as the only back-to-back PGA champions in the stroke-play era, he too saw his ball horseshoe around the cup and out as he made double bogey on the third hole and three-putted down the steep ridge on the par-3 fourth to quickly lose ground. The 42-year-old made one birdie from 3 feet on No. 8, but saw a half-dozen other chances slide by the hole.
Still, he was only two shots behind with three holes left, the same spot he was in last year at Whistling Straits when he hung around long enough to get into a three-man playoff.
Somehow, Love, too, was still part of the equation.
He also dropped four shots in five holes early in his round, and to his surprise Mickelson and Elkington came back to him. He was in the last group with Mickelson, and will have four full holes to change his fortunes.
Overnight rain could take some of the fire out of Baltusrol, allowing players to attack the flags. But it also will make it tough for Mickelson, Love and Singh to reach the par-5 17th at 650 yards.
“This is a tremendous advantage, I think,” Mickelson said. “We get a few extra holes to play, and hopefully calm weather after hopefully some rain will maybe soften it up a bit.”
The course was getting firm and fast, and it showed.
Only three players finished four rounds under par. Along with Woods, Geoff Ogilvy and U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell each shot 69 to post 279. Six others were under par and still on the course.
Japanese LPGA
American teenager Paula Creamer shot a 4-under 68 to hold off Ai Miyazato – Japan’s most popular player – to win the NEC Karuizawa tournament at Karuizawa, Japan.
Creamer, who turned 19 earlier this month, finished at 19-under 197, three strokes ahead of Miyazato, who shot a 69.
Walker Cup
Jeff Overton gave the United States its first Walker Cup victory since 1997, beating Nigel Edwards 1-up in the deciding match in the Americans’ 12 1/2 -11 1/2 triumph over Britain and Ireland at historic Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill.
Overton, the Big Ten champion this year as a senior at Indiana, two-putted from 20 feet on the 18th hole to secure the title after Edwards missed a 25-foot birdie try.
Britain and Ireland had won the last three matches in the biennial competition, topping the United States 12 1/2 -11 1/2 in 2003 at Ganton Golf Club in England.
European PGA
At Nakhabino, Russia, Mikael Lundberg of Sweden beat England’s Andrew Butterfield on the fourth playoff hole to win the Russian Open, his first European Tour title.