It's all Woods all the time

Writing from Lemont, Ill.
Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Tiger Woods parade on Dubsdread has reached the turn, and Woods holds a 7-stroke lead, just as he did at the start of the 106th Western Open's final round.

The gaining of Woods' fifth title in the championship, played under BMW's name these days, is hardly in question. Only the margin is, but there have still been some interesting moments, mostly involving Woods.

One came on the ninth hole, when he blew his drive wide right, closer to the 10th fairway than the ninth. Woods threaded a low arrow across the fairway with his second shot, and it ended up behind a tree 111 yards from the cup, cut four paces from the front of the green. Woods fashioned a hook out of the rough that breezed by the tree and stopped 14 feet beyond the cup.

Naturally, he made the shot, his second birdie in three holes – he had, wonder of wonders, bogeyed the par-4 fifth hole – and kept his distance from second place holder Marc Leishman.

Woods' lead, amazing though it is, isn't even his largest in the Western with nine holes to play. He led Rich Beem by nine strokes at the turn on Championship Sunday in 2003, and won by five.

The crowd at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club is substantial. The parking lots requiring special tags have been filled, and the regular lot is close to capacity. The rough estimate: 42,500.

A full report after play concludes.

– Tim Cronin

Out of the fog, onto the fairway

Writing from Lemont, Ill.
Sunday, September 13, 2009

Tiger Woods' path to a record-tying fifth Western Open title is clear, now that the fog has lifted at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club. Woods' drive on the par-4 first hole split the fairway, and he had no trouble making par to open the final round of the 106th Western, the third playing under the moniker of the BMW Championship.

Woods should also have no trouble annexing the title, the $1.35 million that comes with it, and the No. 1 spot in the PGA Tour's point standings going into the Tour Championship, from which he'll have a leg up on the FedEx Cup title and the $10 million in cash and annuity that comes with it.

The only real question is how many strokes Woods will win by. The seven he started with? Ten, which would tie Mike Brady's mark, set at the 1922 Western at Oakland Hills Country Club? By more?

A collapse is not only unfathomable, but would set a PGA Tour record. It's six strokes, by a handful of people, including Greg Norman (to Nick Faldo) in the 1996 Masters.

A full report after the championship concludes; updates as warranted.

– Tim Cronin

A foggy day in Lemont town ...

Writing from Lemont, Ill.
Sunday, September 13, 2009

It may be sunny where you are, but Cog Hill Golf & Country Club was shrouded in heavy fog on Sunday morning, delaying the start of the final round of the 106th Western Open.

What the marketing gurus currently call the BMW Championship will begin at 9:55 a.m., with threesomes off the first and 10th tees. That means both Brandt Snedeker and Marc Leishman will play with leader Tiger Woods in the final pairing, and they will begin play at 11:45 a.m., not 12:55 p.m.

The goal is to finish at 5 p.m. to satisfy NBC, which would hang around for a sudden-death playoff, if necessary, but would prefer to leave the air on time.

Assuming the revised schedule holds, NBC has little to worry about. Woods carries a seven-stroke lead on Snedeker and Leishman into the final 18 holes after Saturday's Dubsdread-record 62, a 9-under-par outburst that saw him make up a three-stroke deficit on Padraig Harrington.

The affable Irishman is tied for fourth entering the final round, sitting at 8-under 205 with Matt Kuchar, who captured the 1997 U.S. Amateur on Dubsdread.

The fog was reminiscent of last year's Saturday play at Bellerive Country Club in Town & Country, Mo., where the delayed second round began, only to be halted for 90 minutes when a fog bank settled over the golf course, while the rest of the St. Louis area was sunny.

"We can't get away from it," WGA assistant tournament director Gabe Ottolini said, shaking his head.

Once the fog, so thin the sun can be seen shining through, but hugging the ground so tightly the Cog Hill barn can barely be seen from Archer Road, burns off, play should continue without delay. Meanwhile, the few thousand already on hand are searching for breakfast.

– Tim Cronin

Woods humbles Dubsdread and the field

Writing from Lemont, Ill.
Saturday, September 12, 2009

So you're Frank Jemsek, and you want a U.S. Open on Dubsdread, your pride-and-joy golf course, so you call architect Rees Jones and Wadsworth Construction, pull $5.2 million out of the Cog Hill Golf & Country Club kitty to pay for the added toughness, and what happens the Saturday of the 106th Western Open, the first big tournament on the golf course?

Tiger Woods goes out and shoots a 62, that's what.

A 62!

That's a course record on Dubsdread in any iteration, whether it was Rees Jones or Chuck Jones doing the re-doing.

It's a score that matches the championship-record 62 scored by Jim Furyk in the second round of last year's Western, or BMW Championship, if you prefer, at Bellerive Country Club.

It's a 9-under-par outburst that – if it was anyone else in golf – would have defied imagination, given the added difficulty that Dubsdread now presents. In his case, it simply restates the obvious, that Woods is the greatest player ever. Ever as in across the 600-odd years the game has been played.

Oh, and the 62 began with a bogey 5 on the par-4 first hole and finished with a 30-foot par putt that came up short on the par-4 18th.

Hey, nobody's perfect. Otherwise, Woods played the 15 holes from the third to the 17th in 10 under, with eight birdies, and an eagle on the par-5 ninth.

The 62, which supplants Ben Hogan's similar round in the 1941 Hale America National Open at Ridgemoor Country Club as the best round ever authored in Chicagoland, also brings Woods to 16-under-par 197. That matches the Western Open mark for the first 54 holes set by Camilo Villegas in his victory last year, and stakes him to a seven-stroke lead on Brandt Snedeker and Australian Marc Leishman with a round to go.

Snedeker, paired with the great man himself at 12:55 p.m. Sunday, has never played with Woods in three years on Tour. Leishman is a rookie. Fancy their chances at all on Sunday? Or those of Padraig Harrington or Matt Kuchar, the 1997 U.S. Amateur winner – on Dubsdread – who are eight strokes back at 8-under 205?

Didn't think so. That means the engraver of the J.K. Wadley Trophy is warming up in the bullpen.

Woods – and who are we, as mere humans, to argue? – said the par on the par-4 seventh hole "kinda saved my round."

There was this tree he ended up behind on a sidehill lie in the left rough, and it presented a vexing problem.

Until, that is, he cut a 6-iron around it, landing the ball on the proper quadrant of the green from 185 yards out, and proceeded to two-putt from 20 feet.

"Sweet," Woods said of the cut shot.

It got sweeter. He had already birdied the third and sixth holes.

"I saw Paddy (Harrington) birdie three of the first four, and I knew Marc (Leishman) was birdieing up ahead," Woods said. "You had to get into double-digits today."

For the first 54 holes, he meant.

The show, witnessed by a goodly amount of the estimated 40,000 spectators on hand, then began in earnest. He birdied the eighth, sinking a 3-footer. He eagled the ninth, hammering a drive 311 yards and then blasting a 3-metal 303 yards to within 11 feet of a cup on the back of the severely elevated green. When the ball disappeared for a 3, you could hear the roar from 600 yards away.

"The round kinda built upon itself," Woods said. "You can always make up shots from 8 to 11. The only one I didn't take advantage of was the 10th."

He narrowly missed a 30-footer for birdie there, but sank a 7-footer for a bird on the par-5 11th, a 6-footer for a 3 on the par-4 13th, a 26-footer for a 2 on the par-3 14th, and then "saved" a birdie after finding a greenside bunker and an insane lie on the par-5 15th.

At that stage, Woods was 15 under. He was five strokes ahead of Leishman, then his closest pursuer. He had played eight holes in 7-under, not only taking dead aim on a course record – Woods was one of seven players to have scored 63 on Dubsdread, and he was the only one to do so twice – but on locking up his record-tying fifth title in the Western, whether the name of BMW – a car record-holder Walter Hagen would likely have driven if a Deusenburg was unavailable – is stitched onto it or not.

There was one more birdie, a 6-footer on the par-4 17th. By then, it was clear that the title will belong to Woods unless he signs an incorrect scorecard on Sunday. He's 47-of-51 leading or sharing the lead after 54 holes. And Woods' failure to win after leading last month's PGA Championship through three rounds won't be repeated. Woods led the PGA by two strokes. He leads this one by seven, his fifth-largest margin.

Not bad for a guy who, after two rounds, was last in the field of 68 players in hitting his approaches close to the pin.

"I was just doing what I always do, plodding along and playing shot-for-shot," Woods said, dismissing the idea of a 59 floating through his head. "You've got to have the right golf course for (thinking 59), and this golf course is a little bit more difficult than that."

Gee, won't Frank Jemsek and Rees Jones be glad to hear that.

Jemsek was fine with the idea that a new record had been set, and especially glad that it was Woods who had set it.

"I'm thrilled for anybody who's done it, and jealous," Jemsek said.

As for the renovation – and now, who knows what the USGA might think of Dubsdread as a possible U.S. Open site – Jemsek said, "We really hoped we'd made it harder."

So will bulldozers soon return to toughen the tougher Dubsdread?

Said Jemsek, "Not until the bank loan's paid off."

– Tim Cronin

Meanwhile, back in the pack ...

Writing from Lemont, Ill.
Saturday, September 12, 2009

Lambs going to the slaughterhouse aren't as happy as Brandt Snedeker was on Saturday afternoon.

He had just shot a 5-under-par 66 and moved into a tie for second place on Dubsdread, totaling 9-under-par 204 after three rounds of the 106th Western Open, a.k.a. the BMW Championship.

All was right with the world. That little detail about trailing leader Tiger Woods by seven strokes entering the final round? A mere bagatelle.

And Snedeker, an optimistic chap by nature, is delighted to be paired with Woods in Sunday's final game, a 12:55 p.m. teeoff.

"It'll be a fun day," Snedeker said. "I've played with everybody else. It's weird, there's probably five guys I've never played with out here in three years. I see them every day, we're friends, but I've never played with them on the golf course. Tiger is one of them."

Almost always, Woods outscores whomever he plays with. Snedeker says he'll take the chance.

"Are you kidding me?" Snedeker said. "Playing with the best guy in the world, hopefully in the last group? It'll be fantastic. That's what you want. You want to play with the best when they're playing their best and see what you've got and see what you need to work on.

"If you told me at the beginning of the week I was playing with Tiger Woods on Sunday, I think I would have liked my position."

Maybe Snedeker is just saying that because he's punchy. At least he should be punchy. He's played 13 of the last 14 weeks, missing only at Firestone four weeks ago.

The race to Atlanta

The FedEx Cup playoff thingie reaches its qualification climax Sunday, when the field for the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta is set. Only 30 will advance.

Matt Kuchar entered the week 46th. He's tied for fourth in the Western with Padraig Harrington. The PGA Tour stat gurus believe Kuchar has to finish fourth to lock up a spot. And Kuchar, who went to college at Georgia Tech, just a few miles from East Lake, really wants to play there.

"I've struggled a bit with goal-setting, but I tried to do some and making the Tour Championship is right about at No. 1 for me," Kuchar said. "I haven't been able to make it, and now I have an awfully good shot.

"I don't know how (the playoffs) have treated all the other players, but it's given me a chance."

Playing at Cog Hill, where Kuchar won the 1997 U.S. Amateur, hasn't hurt his chances.

"I've had a lot of great support from the staff inside (the clubhouse)," Kuchar said, citing well-wishes from veteran employees who remember his victory.

"The golf course itself still has the feeling I remember from '97, though it's changed a lot. It's a lot meaner than I remember. There are a lot of hard bunkers, a lot more penalizing than I remember it being in '97. I was walking around in practice rounds just shaking my head thinking how hard this golf course has become."

Tiger Take 2

Tiger Woods' 62 is a stroke off his PGA Tour-best of 61, recorded three times, most recently at Warwick Hills Country Club during the 2005 Buick Open. It helped lower his third-round scoring average in the Western Open to 66.64 in 11 appearances as a professional. Along with four wins, he has four other top-10 finishes.

Around Dubsdread

Mark Wilson played with Woods and was lost in the shuffle. He scored even-par 71 and might as well have been a plowhorse next to Secretariat. … The field averaged 70.706 strokes on Dubsdread, and has averaged 71.063 strokes through three rounds. … The estimated attendance of 40,000 brought the three-day total to 83,500. … Kevin Na's 6-under-par 65 was the second-best round of the day, and moved him to a tie for 18th.

– Tim Cronin