Another long day at PGA

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – Tiger Woods ate breakfast three times before he teed off in the first round of the PGA Championship. It was time for dinner when his second round began Friday.

Bubba Watson walked off Whistling Straits atop the leaderboard after opening with a 68. He waited 30 hours for his next shot.

And then there’s Nick Watney.

“I was talking with my caddie this afternoon, and we were talking about something that happened this morning,” he said. “But we both thought it was yesterday. So it’s been a long day. I’ll have no trouble sleeping tonight and wake up tomorrow and see where we’re at.”

After two days – but not two full rounds – of the year’s final major, Matt Kuchar was atop the leaderboard after another rock-solid round on a soft course. He nearly holed out from the 13th fairway again during a stretch of three straight birdies that led to a 3-under 69.

Kuchar was at 8-under 136, one shot ahead of Watney, who had a 68.

“Not too much trouble to report in two rounds,” Kuchar said.

The only trouble was sleep. Kuchar woke up at 4 a.m. to get to the course and resume his second round at 7 a.m. But while it was clear on the practice range, it was soon tough to see the clubhouse 200 yards away, and players had to wait 21/2 hours to start. Kuchar made birdie on his first hole – the sixth – to take the lead, finished up his 67, had a quick lunch and played the second round.

“Sitting around right now, it’s nice to be done,” Kuchar said.

Woods finally teed off at 5:45 p.m., leaving him enough time to play six holes and make six pars.

Only they sure weren’t routine.

He had to scramble for par off a cart path, out of grass up to his knees and from a grassy knoll that made it tough for him to keep his balance. After the siren sounded to suspend play, Woods opted to finish the sixth hole. He chipped out of deep grass below the green and left himself a 5-foot birdie putt that spun 270 degrees around the cup and sent him home somber.

“Had to hang in there, and did a good job with that,” Woods, who remained at 1 under, told a PGA official.

Phil Mickelson took some unusual routes from tee-to-green, although some of his misses were so big that he wound up in the gallery, where the grass had been trampled. Mickelson carries extra gloves in his bag for souvenirs when he hits fans, and he handed one out on the 15th hole, complete with a frown sign inside the “o” in “sorry.”

No apologies were necessarily when he scrambled his way to a 69, putting him at 2-under 142 and still very much in contention.

“This is a penalizing golf course to not play from the fairway,” Mickelson said. “And I certainly explored a lot of areas here.”

Bryce Molder made an impressive debut in his first PGA Championship. He made five birdies in a six-hole stretch and wound up with a 67.

That put him in a large group at 5-under 139 that included 19-year-old S.Y. Noh (71), 21-year-old Rory McIlroy (68), short-hitting Zach Johnson (70) and big-hitting Dustin Johnson (68).