Leader Shaun Micheel is one of three golfers under par after the second round at Oak Hill.
By BOB HARIG
Published August 16, 2003
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The power returned at the PGA Championship, but it still was like playing golf in the dark. Few could find the fairways on Friday, and search parties were required to locate balls in the rough. Shooting lights out? Not here.
Talk about a major blackout. Oak Hill Country Club has turned into a major pain.
And a guy who might as well be invisible is leading.
Shaun Micheel, 34, who is playing in his third major championship and is ranked 169th in the world, matched the lowest score of the day, 2-under-par 68, to take a two-shot lead over Masters champion Mike Weir and Billy Andrade.
They were the only players under par on a brutal tract that only promises to cause more grief.
"I've played in a couple of U.S. Opens, but I've never seen rough like this anywhere," said Micheel, who lives in Memphis and never has finished higher than third in a PGA Tour event. "I saw them cutting the grass the other day, and all it did was stand it straight up. I thought it might be a long week."
For some.
Micheel completed 36 holes at 137, 3-under par, the highest 36-hole score for a leader in relation to par at the PGA since 1980, when the tournament also was played at Oak Hill. Weir, who bogeyed his last two holes, shot 71 to finish at 139 along with Andrade, who had 72. First-round co-leader Rod Pampling had 74 and was in fourth place, three shots back, while the other co-leader, Phil Mickelson, played his last 14 holes 6-over par and was tied for fifth at 141.
"One week of this is okay," said Mark Calcavecchia, who shot 71-144. "If we had a steady diet of this stuff, you would see a bunch of guys in the hospital, or at the back doctor, or with broken wrists. If you're hitting the fairways, it is a good setup. If you're not ... it's not."
"This will be a survival test to the end," Fred Funk said.
Andrade played in the morning, struggled through a stretch of bogeys, emerged with a round of 72 ... then watched as player after player fell behind him.
The 36-hole cut of 148 was the highest at the PGA Championship since 1980 and claimed British Open champion Ben Curtis (151) and PGA Tour leading money winner Davis Love (149).
The scoring average on the 7,134-yard, par-70 course was 74.175. Only one hole, the 570-yard fourth, played under par.
That happens to be the only hole that Tiger Woods birdied. The eight-time major winner has a lot of work to do if he is to add a major to his portfolio for the fifth straight year.
Woods saw the field backing up to him but couldn't make any birdies. He bogeyed two of the last three holes to shoot 72-146, nine strokes behind Micheel. He was tied for 39th.
"I made my way around the golf course pretty good until the end," said Woods, who has two birdies in two days, both on par 5s. "I made bogey at 16 and bogey at 18, both with wedges in my hand, which is very disappointing. ... When you have wedges in your hand, you feel like you should make a swing that's going to get you in birdie range. I thought I did that (Friday) but didn't hit it close, and that's disappointing."
Many players had wedges in their hand during the second round - and used them to chip out of the tall rough.
Missing a fairway almost assured that there would be no chance to get the ball to the green.
"It's brutal if you don't hit it in play. This is a very difficult test," said Andrade, who got into the tournament as an alternate. "The winner could be over par, depending on how difficult it is the next two days. If the golf course continues to get firm and fast, anything could happen. These are the best players in the world, and who knows what's going to happen. But it's definitely tough enough."
Oak Hill has played more like a U.S. Open venue, with narrow fairways, difficult rough and hard greens. The PGA of America is typically kinder, making the fairways wider and the rough not so tough. But frequent rain in the past month made the rough nastier than expected. And players are paying a price.
In fact, these are the kind of conditions the United States Golf Association would love to have seen in June at Olympia Fields. But rain softened the course, and through 36 holes, there were 26 players under par.
By Sunday, however, only four players were in red numbers. What could happen here?
"It is just going to get tougher and tougher," said Love, who shot 74-75 to miss the cut by a shot. "Unless you get lucky and get a little bit of rain. But it is probably as hard as it can play. If it gets any tougher, it is almost going to be unfair."
