Plenty of Issues Riding on the Final Major

No one has won consecutive PGA Championships since Denny Shute in 1936 and 1937. Do you think this bothers the defending PGA champion? A better question is this: Who is the defending PGA champion?

It is Vijay Singh, of course, who worked his way around the trees last year at Sahalee and won his first major title. Of course, that’s not exactly unusual in the PGA, which is well known for producing one-time major winners or first-time major winners. For nine of the last 10 winners of this event, the PGA marked either their first major title or their only major title.

Singh, the 36-year-old from Fiji who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., belongs in the second category. Singh’s nine-under 271 was two shots better than Steve Stricker and three ahead of Steve Elkington at the tree-lined layout in suburban Seattle that Singh attacked aggressively.

As for the Shute back-to-back legacy, Singh met that head-on too.

“Who knows? This week maybe you’ll have another one,” he said.

We will find out, starting today at Medinah Country Club, where the 81st PGA Championship will be played out on cooked greens in steamy weather.

Meanwhile, the defending champion enters with a rather dubious performance last week at the Buick Open, where he began with rounds of 68-68 and finished with rounds of 76-76. He finished tied for 72nd.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I was playing pretty good. I was really feeling good about my game. I was trying one or two new things with my golf clubs that didn’t kind of work out. But I’ve forgotten about that. So far, I’ve more or less hit the ball the way I’d like to.”

At his best, Singh is regarded as one of the premier ball-strikers in the world. That was clearly the case at Sahalee, where his victory helped his confidence and boosted his reputation as someone to watch in a big tournament.

It will be a big tournament for many others because it’s the last chance they have to make the Ryder Cup team. Tom Lehman, Stricker and Lee Janzen are not yet in the top 10 in points and neither is Fred Couples. Ben Crenshaw has two captain’s picks and will announce them Monday.

The play-for-pay issue seems to have been successfully squelched, at least for now, which is no doubt a relief to Crenshaw.

Immediately after declaring the issue over, Crenshaw decided to get something off his chest during an interview in the media tent.

“I want to say something,” Crenshaw began. “I am personally disturbed at a couple of people. They know who they are.

“It burns the hell out of me to listen to some of their viewpoints.”

Crenshaw did not mention the two players by name, but he said earlier that he telephoned David Duval after Duval’s comments that the Ryder Cup wasn’t such a big deal, that it was more like an exhibition and that if the players were not compensated it could affect their full participation.

“When you can’t show up and you can’t play for your country, [when] that’s not enough, that’s when my heart bleeds for golf,” said Crenshaw, who went on to say people are “sick and tired” of reading about athletes and pay disputes.

Duval, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have secured spots on the Ryder Cup team, but this is their last chance this year to win a major title, something that only Woods has been able to do in this threesome and that was two years ago.

Woods has three wins and eight other top-10 finishes in 15 tournaments this year as well as one victory and three other top-seven finishes in his four appearances off the PGA Tour.

So you would have to say Woods has been consistent. And something he has been very consistent about is hitting it a long way, so even though Medinah is playing 7,401 yards, Woods said it’s not playing that long.

“The fairways are hard and fast,” he said.

“When you hit a couple of two-irons off the tees they’re rolling 30, 40 yards. You can use some of these slopes to your advantage. It’s just a matter of getting the right wind so you can land on the slopes and run that ball out there.”

Tom Watson, who is playing in his 27th PGA, did not hesitate when asked what a shorter hitter needs to do in order to win this week.

“Hit it longer,” he said.

Duval is concerned about hitting it shorter. His putting has been bothering him, although he hopes he has it all straightened out.

“In general, I’m hitting the golf ball close to how I was through April,” he said. “Since then, I don’t think I’ve putted as well. I just haven’t seemed to hole as many putts.

“Today, right now, I would tell you that I feel very good about what’s going on in my golf game. I believe I’ve resolved what issues there might have been with my putter.”

INSIDE

THE COURSE

Medinah has a lot of history, having played host to three U.S. Opens. It also has more than 4,000 trees and a lake, which will come into play this weekend. Page 2

LOVABLE LOSER

Jean Van de Velde arrives at the PGA Championship determined not to let his meltdown on the 72nd hole at the British Open adversely affect his game or his attitude toward life. Page 3

OCEAN TRAILS

Investigators are still looking at what made the final hole of this new course nearly fall into the Pacific in June, but officials say it won’t open for business until No. 18 is a par four again. Page 4

DESIGNING MEN

They don’t make courses the way they used to, but they didn’t have environmental reports then, and that’s not to say newer courses won’t be classics in a few decades. Page 5