Clawing to the top
MEDINAH, Ill. — The rumble that shook Medinah Country Club late in the afternoon had nothing to do with the rain showers rolling through the area.
Look out below, all you leaders at the PGA Championship. Tiger is moving on up.
The standings at the year's last major suddenly looked more jammed than Friday afternoon traffic. Two dozen players were within four shots of each other, and no one was too far back to be counted out.
And just in case that wasn't pressure enough for the unlikely quartet atop the leaderboard, Tiger Woods closed with a 20-foot birdie putt to pull within one stroke.
"I think it's a great leaderboard," said Billy Andrade, one of the four leaders at 8-under. "I think you've got the best players in the world and that's what we want. We want to entertain, and we're going to do that this weekend."
Either that, or the fans are going to have a meltdown simply trying to keep track of who's doing what.
Henrik Stenson, Luke Donald and Tim Herron joined Andrade at 8-under, one stroke in front of Woods (68), U.S. Open champ Geoff Ogilvy (67) and former PGA winner Davis Love III (69). If that's not enough, David Toms (67) is at 6-under.
And don't forget about Phil Mickelson (71). The defending champion checked out what seemed like every inch of Medinah's considerable terrain, including clipping the trees with his tee shot on the 18th.
The ball dropped into the rough and his approach shot barely cleared the bunker. But it got within 15 feet of the pin, and he holed it for a birdie that left him at 4-under.
"I fought hard the first two rounds to keep myself in it," he said. "I'm only four back with two rounds to go."
That deficit means nothing the way Medinah is playing.
At 7,561 yards, the course is the longest in majors history and was supposed to be up to the challenge. Instead it's looking more and more like a pushover.
The soft course yielded another record day, with 61 players scoring under par. That beats the record of 60 that was set only a day earlier. And the cut of even-par 144 matched the lowest in relation to par at a PGA Championship. It was even-par 142 at Riviera in 1995.
"The rough is tough, but there are spots where you can get away with it," Donald said. "The greens being as soft and as pure as they are, people can make putts. I think that's why the leaderboard is so bunched up right now.
"It just means I'm going to have to keep playing solidly," he said. "If I slip up at all, I could be in the middle of the pack come Saturday."
That could be said of any of the leaders. Unlike Woods and Mickelson, who have won five of the last seven majors, the guys on top don't have one between them.
Andrade hasn't made the cut in a major since the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill and, as the seventh alternate, was still at home in Atlanta a mere three days ago. The only Swede who's ever won a major is Annika Sorenstam.
With his lumpy physique, Herron looks more like a minigolfer than a guy who does it for his day job. And Donald's potential has been talked about since he led Britain and Ireland to victory in the Walker Cup five years ago.
"It's just a lot of trying too hard, really, is what I would put it down to," Donald said. "This week, I was determined to have a little bit more fun out there."
