PGA Championship Day Two: Golfers Like Us

You know that Joost Luiten stood at -8 with four holes to play on Thursday, and that 4 holes later, he had four bogies and -4 for the round. Friday, Bernd Wiesberger experienced a similar stretch of golf. With six holes to play in his second round, the Austrian stood well inside the cut line at +1. Six bogies later, the European Tour winner was +7 and out of the tournament by a single stroke.

I have friends that unabashedly and shamelessly tune in to NASCAR and other auto races for the crashes, spin outs, accidents and rolling tires. Wrecks in golf typically happen at a drawn-out, irreversible pace. With winds up at the Ocean Course, Kiawah made the world’s best men golfers look like us. One guy (Vijay Singh) broke 70, no one shot 70 and just a handful of fellows shot one-under 71.

It was a tough day. If you shot par, you moved up at least 25 spots. It was a weird day. Webb Simpson shot even-par 72, moved up 70 spaces and still missed the cut by 1.

To my surprise, Carl Pettersson is still around. The Swedish Redneck (his term, not mine) opened with a pair of bogeys, found three birdies mid-round, then closed with three more bogeys in four holes. Who knows what any of that means…it’s Kiawah, it’s Pete Dye, it’s a carnival house of mirrors.

Trevor Immelman birdied one-third of his holes on Friday, but could not eclipse par for the day. Ryan Palmer stood at -1 on Thursday night, and also at breakfast on Friday. He had two birdies during his second round, yet supplemented those with four bogeys, four doubles and a quad. He worsened by 15 strokes and missed the cut.

The winds are predicted to be 10 mph on Saturday and fairly consistent in their direction. They might be joined by rain and lightning, though, adding a few more special effects to the carnival. Someone with infinite patience (or a horseshoe in the pocket) will emerge from the pack to lead on Saturday night. Unless his name is Tiger, I don’t like his chances of a holding an overnight lead.