Golf

Divots

By BOB HARIG
Published August 21, 2006

Divots

The Trophy: The winner of the PGA Championship gets a trophy that is bigger than those at the rest of the majors. The Wanamaker Trophy weighs nearly 30 pounds and is named for Rodman Wanamaker, a Philadelphia businessman who helped create the PGA of America in 1916. He funded the PGA Championship and the trophy, which later took his name. Wanamaker had other links to sports. He founded the Millrose Games in 1908, a track and field event during which he began the tradition of playing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Next time: The PGA Championship returns to Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., next year. Southern Hills has a long history of hosting major championships. It is where Retief Goosen won the U.S. Open in 2001. Hubert Green won the Open there in 1977, as did Tommy Bolt in 1958. The last PGA played at Southern Hills was in 1994, won by Nick Price.

Quotable

"It's going to happen. He's not going to be 68 years old, in the final round of a major and tied for the lead, and win. It's going to happen eventually. We'll see when."

- Sergio Garcia on Tiger Woods being 12-for-12 with a 54-hole lead in major championships someday blowing a final-round lead.

STAT OF THE DAY

Woods has won each of the four major championships by five strokes or more.

HOLE OF THE DAY

No. 8: par 3, 204 yards

This tough par 3 is where you want to get on the green, take your two putts and get going. And this is where Woods all but put the PGA Championship away. He made a 30-foot birdie putt to take a four-shot lead. With his unlikely birdie, Woods could go into full defense mode. None of the other contenders could make a birdie on the hole. Mike Weir, Luke Donald, Adam Scott and Shaun Micheel made par. Garcia and Chris DiMarco made bogey.

Around Medinah: Woods became the fifth player in PGA Championship history to win three times. Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus won the tournament five times; Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead won three each. ... The top four finishers and ties get an invitation to the Masters, although Woods, Micheel, Scott, Garcia and Donald figured to make it to Augusta in other ways. ... A major trend continued at the PGA, where the winner came out of the final pairing for the 11th straight year. In the past 29 majors, only three winners have not come from the last pairing: Ben Curtis at the 2003 British Open, Michael Campbell at the 2005 U.S. Open and Geoff Ogilvy at this year's U.S. Open. ... The European streaks remained intact. No European has won a major since Paul Lawrie in 1999 at the British Open, and the PGA drought dates to 1930, when Scotland's Tommy Armour defeated Gene Sarazen 1-up in the match play final. ... The annual PGA Grand Slam of Golf, a perk for the winners of the four major championships, had to dip into a points pool because Woods won two majors. Jim Furyk will join Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ogilvy in the event scheduled for November.

[Last modified August 21, 2006, 02:02:44]