The PGA Championship kind of snuck up on the Blob this time, and then the Geezer snuck up on the PGA. That's the name of that tune, heading into Sunday at the Kiawah Island Ocean Course.
The Geezer, of course, would be Phil Mickelson, who somehow is hanging on the last scrap of a one-time fat lead heading into the last 18 holes down there in South Carolina. The fickle breezes off the ocean seem to agree with his 51-year-old self, and all that sand and marsh has yet to lay much of a glove on him. So this could be history we're looking at today.
Or, you know, not. You go either way after Lefty went either way on Saturday.
First he put up flurry of birdies to build a five-stroke lead at the turn, and then he gave it all back. Fifty-one-year-old stuff happened to him on the way back to the clubhouse; He put ball in the water and another under a cart tire and another in a bunker and left a birdie putt somewhere near Charleston.
But on 18 he put a flop shot four feet from the cup, holed the putt and walked shakily away with a one-stroke lead over Brooks Koepka.
Sentiment dictates we hope he's still a stroke or more ahead at the end of today, because if he is he'll be the oldest winner of a major in history. Hard-headed pragmatism, however ...
Well. Koepka has won this tournament two of the last three years. The Wanamaker Trophy practically comes with his house. And his game looks to be back on the win-the-PGA setting again.
So even those of us over the age of Metamucil have to like his chances. Sentiment dictates we hope it's because Koepka puts up a low number and not because Phil unravels like cheap origami.
Age is undignified enough without that, after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment