It will be hot and humid, high 80's F, breezy at times mainly from the SW, lots of thunderstorms and lightning moving through, especially Sunday, but there are none of the 35-55mph winds in the forecast that would really make this very expensive little strip of land right on the Atlantic ocean in South Carolina an almost impossible test..
The fairways and greens are in perfect condition as play gets set to begin at 730am this morning, they are far from being baked out and rock hard the way many of the true British links courses can get.
tee times click here http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/scoring/teetimes
live scoreboard click here http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/scoring/leaderboard
Remember when Ben Curtis won at Royal St George's in 2003 and Tiger at Royal Liverpool in 2006 they had the firetrucks on standby in case the course went up in flames it was so dry.
Veteran golf writer Ken Fidlin hit the nail on the head earlier this week reminding us that even if the wind doesn't blow hard the PGA can utilize the wide array of tee block options Pete Dye built into his design, and at almost 7700 yards stretched out they can make this Ocean course into what Tiger called "a very big ballpark"
Throw in some devilish pin placements, and players coming to terms with the Paspalum greens I wrote about yesterday, and I don't think you will see a lot of 62's and 63's this week, however if it was howling I could guarantee you wouldn't !!
Will we see another late collapse again this week?? There has been more of that than ever this year it seems to me..Tiger says part of it is parity.. "Now there are 70 guys every weekend within 10 shots of the lead, instead of 14 and 15 a few years ago"
Just last week Jim Furyk’s final-hole double bogey at the Bridgestone Invitational gift wrapped the win for Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott on the final 4 holes at the Open Championship, Tiger Woods and Furyk on the weekend at the U.S. Open, Kevin Na’s final-round 76 at the Players Championship, Ernie Els’at the Transitions, Jason Dufner’s triple bogey at Colonial,and his blown 3 shot lead at last year's PGA, and Kyle Stanley’s 7 shot giveaway at Torrey Pines early this year.
It all seemed to start when Rory McIlroy lost badly in the 2011 Masters after holding the lead through 63 holes.
Ernie Els who in his long career addressed it at his presser yesterday..."A lot of times I’ve had the lead from day one or going into Sunday. Some of them have been one-shot leads, and some of them have been four-, five-, six-, even up to eight-shot leads. It’s those big leads that are more nerve-wracking. With a one-shot lead, on paper it’s a lead, but it’s really not a lead because after one hole, one guy can birdie you lose your lead. But when it’s a five- or six-shot lead, you feel the pressure because if you lose now, you’ve given it up.
Picking a winner is always a futile exercise, there will be a lot of factors that I have talked about in play, mixed weather, greens, pin placements, tee selections, delays in play and lady luck..
For what it's worth the bookies are offering 8-1 on Tiger as the favourite...
Should make for another exciting week at Kiawah Island..
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles and at www.isr1050.com and hosting 7am-9 daily at www.nextsportstar.com
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