By Matt Smith
This Sunday is set to be a treat for sporting fans in the UAE, with F1 whetting the appetite, the football season finale adding the spice, before the final round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills sees things out in style.

Carlos Sainz

The action begins at 5pm (UAE time) as the Spanish Grand Prix gets going at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, where Ferrari’s home hope Carlos Sainz will be hoping to upstage title-chasing teammate Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Then we move on to a don’t-know-where-to-look English Premier League finale with a whopping 10 games playing simultaneously. Manchester City will be fighting it out for the title with Liverpool, European places will get settled and Leeds and Burnley will be battling to avoid the drop.

Manchester City fans. Twitter

If that were not enough, the golf then takes centre stage as the globe’s greatest players slog it out over the final 18 holes at Southern Hills to see who will be crowned king in the second major of the 2022 season at the PGA Championship.

Southern Hills. PGA Twitter

Some may think you sporting fans are spoilt for choice, but the timings fall so conveniently that you can watch all three sporting extravaganzas — on tarmac, pitch and green -— pretty much back to back. It would be rude not to.

Now you just need to get permission from the boss at home to get out and enjoy the show…

Suggested places to watch:

Spike Bar, EGC (details here)
Nezesaussi Grill, Arabian Ranches Golf Club (details here)
Hickory’s, Yas Links Abu Dhabi (details here)
261,  The Els Club Dubai (details here)
Laveview, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club (details here)
Club Jumana, Jebel Ali Golf Resort (details here)
71, Trump International Golf Club Dubai (details here)
The Bay, Al Hamra Golf Club (details here)

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Rory McIlroy swing analysis
Is Tiger’s style holding him back?
Rory leads the way at Southern Hills
Toby Bishop swapping clubs for school books
Forget Dubai, check out the prices for drinks at PGA Championship
Stellar field for landmark Asian Tour event in England
Team Hilier triumph at Aramco Team Series — Bangkok
Rookie Onishi moves to front at Asian Pacific
Dubai golfer Amelia McKee going pro
Sensational finish at Dubai Golf Trophy
Sergio Garcia ‘can’t wait to quit PGA Tour’
Westwood and ‘many more’ request release to play LIV Golf Invitational Series

The post Where to watch: PGA Championship set to seal a super sporting Sunday in UAE after F1 and Premier League finale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dan Rapaport
It’s a hardcore golf fan’s leaderboard. The casual weekend watcher might not be familiar with either member of Sunday’s final pairing at the PGA Championship: Chilean rookie Mito Pereira and soft-spoken Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick. But PGA Tour addicts have long identified both players as overdue for the type of breakout performance they’re putting forward this week.

Pereira started hot, weathered a brutal stretch and finished hot for a one-under 69 and a three-shot lead with 18 holes to play. He has an inside track on the Wanamaker Trophy, but with similarly gusty (albeit a touch warmer) conditions expected for Sunday, and Southern Hills continuing to firm up as the week wears on, there are a dozen or so players with a legitimate chance at the year’s second major. Here are five things that we think will go a long way toward determining who leaves Tulsa with the trophy.

Mito Pereira. Sam Greenwood

Mito Pereira’s nerves
At one point on Saturday, Pereira looked at a major championship leaderboard and saw himself with a four-shot lead. He then put the car in reverse and hit the gas, making four bogeys in five holes, only to play his last eight holes in three-under to rebuild a sturdy cushion. Still, Sunday will be the most difficult round of the 27-year-old’s life. The good news is he’s won a bunch recently, earning the ultra-rare Three-Win Promotion from the Korn Ferry Tour last summer. The bad news is those were Korn Ferry events. Pereira is playing in just his 27th career PGA Tour event and his first ever weekend at a major championship.

How well he controls his nerves will determine his chances. With that in mind, one shot on Saturday jumps off the page — Pereira was the only player in the field not to go for the green on the drivable par-4 17th. He made par on the hole, but the decision to pull an iron off the tee didn’t exactly excuse a player in attack mode. Nor did his comments after the round.

“I don’t know yet,” he said about how he’ll prepare for the big day. “I’ll just try to disconnect a little bit, I guess. I was pretty nervous today. I was in the final pairing. I’ll just try to rest, do what I do every day and keep it simple.”

A steady start on Sunday is vital.

Scottie Scheffler plays a shot from a bunker on the 16th hole. Christian Petersen

Bunkers, bunkers, bunkers
They’ve been a topic of discussion this week. Namely, the pebbly sand inside them, which is different from the powdery-white bunkers players are used to on the PGA Tour. Guys have been frustrated by inconsistent strikes and balls coming out hot and with no spin. With the course continuing to dry out despite the rain — it’s been windy enough to expel the moisture — and no rough lining the bunkers, they’re certain to catch a lot of balls on Sunday. A mis-hit from the bunker could absolutely ruin a tournament, and players will want to avoid them at all costs.

Will Zalatoris. David Cannon

Will Zalatoris’ short putting
Entering this week, Zalatoris was statistically the second-best player on the PGA Tour tee-to-green and the 185th best putter. That’s the story on him: If only he could hole the putts. In his year-plus on tour, Zalatoris has established himself as among the best ball-strikers, but his putting — especially his short putting — is a glaring, often hard-to-watch weakness.

Which made his first two days on Southern Hills’ greens so encouraging. Zalatoris looked rock-solid and led the field in strokes gained/putting through two rounds, but the demons made an appearance on a four-over front nine on Saturday — he lost over three shots putting on that alone and missed four putts inside 10 feet on the day. He struggled with a block and looked rather shaky on the short ones; his putter often seems to hitch, sometimes multiple times, as he takes it back. He still makes plenty of them, but you wonder how such an inconsistent motion will hold up with a major championship on the line. He’ll likely need to make a few in the six- to 10-foot range to have a chance on Sunday.

One thing working in his favour: he’s been able to pick the brain of multiple major champions. “I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up around Lanny Wadkins and Lee Trevino and obviously those guys are major champions, which is funny to even think of Scottie and Jordan, as well,” Zalatoris said. “Just stick to my game. Got nothing to lose tomorrow.”

Justin Thomas plays his third shot on the 13th hole during the second round of the 2022 PGA. Christian Petersen

Justin Thomas’ first five holes
Among the guys on the fringes of contention, Justin Thomas would seem the most likely candidate to mount a charge. Thomas is second on the PGA Tour in birdie average (5.11), and the eye test backs that up: no one in the game seems to get as hot, as quickly as JT. He caught fire in last year’s Players Championship to take the title, and while he enters Sunday seven shots back, he’s just four behind second place. A Pereira stumble would bring him right back into the tournament.

To do so, he’ll need to take advantage of the first five holes, which include the very birdie-able first and one of the two par 5s at Southern Hills. He’d ideally be two or three under by the time he steps to the brutally difficult sixth, and pars at 6, 7 and 8 would see him gain serious ground on the field. He’s not out of it, but a slow start would put him out of it.

The drivable(?) 17th hole
Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s setup chief, opted to move the tees up on the par-4 17th far enough to make it reachable for every player in the field. It’s not yet clear if they’ll do the same for the final round, but you have to think they will — drivable par 4s down the stretch of a major lead to iconic moments, like Collin Morikawa’s eagle on the 70th hole of the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park. The 18th is a beast and a half, and having the 17th provide players one last great birdie opportunity before they confront the finisher would seem to be a no-brainer.

If they go the drivable route, that hole could prove to be the decider. An eagle 2 is distinctly possible, and a mis-hit off the tee could conceivably find the water short and lead to a big number. Here’s to hoping we’re treated to major drama late on Sunday.

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Rory leads the way at Southern Hills
Forget Dubai, check out the prices for drinks at PGA Championship
Dubai golfer Amelia McKee going pro

The post Pereira’s nerves, Zalatoris’ putting and those pesky pebbles: 5 factors that could decide the PGA Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Tony Finau’s Nike outfit is the talk of the town (Tulsa in this case).

Seemingly every major tournament, Finau goes viral for his get-up, with golf’s fashion cops tasering each other in the face over whether Finau’s fits are fresh or fugly. See Sweatergate for reference:

I actually like the sweater Tony Finau is wearing but feel like Nike set him up with that hat ??‍ pic.twitter.com/VAmxv6Iz5u

— Jake Woolf (@jakewoolf) April 9, 2022

That proud tradition continued at Southern Hills on Saturday when Tony Finau showed up to the range on a cold, misty morning dressed like the New York Botanical Garden.

?Tony Finau takes the Nike flowering design to new heights ? pic.twitter.com/fJvIxuzZZ1

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 19, 2022

It’s like Tony Finau lost a bet with the Nike person in charge of scripting. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/19B8PjJtAH

— The Hackers Paradise (@THPGolf) May 21, 2022

The reaction of the Oklahoma gallery said it all.

Tony FInau. Richard Heathcote

Seconds after these images surfaced, the take whiplash began in earnest.

Tony Finau will wear literally anything Nike throws at him pic.twitter.com/FSIus5JvPs

— Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) May 21, 2022

Tony Finau’s agent showing him his scripting before every major pic.twitter.com/VmGbVkn8di

— Will Bardwell (@willbardwell) May 21, 2022

Nike does Tony Finau so well. Love his major fits

— aspiring retiree (@lightlydhb) May 21, 2022

Ok, hear me out, Tony Finau's pullover today is pretty great

— Drew Cove ? (@covedrew) May 21, 2022

What the hell is Tony Finau wearing? I don’t hate it.

— Shaquille Oatmeal (@oatmealshaqTDB) May 21, 2022

Tony Finau should be arrested for wearing that pullover.

— HEINICKE! HEINICKE! (@JayCagle24) May 21, 2022

It’s not fair to malign the selfless keyboard warriors risking life and livelihood to bravely share their takes with the internet without sharing our own, however. So where do we fall on the love-it-or-loathe-it spectrum? Somewhere between indifferent and pretty good. All-over floral prints are very 2016, but still, it’s better than another beige sweater.

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Rory leads the way at Southern Hills
Forget Dubai, check out the prices for drinks at PGA Championship
Dubai golfer Amelia McKee going pro

The post PGA Championship 2022: You’ll never believe it, but the internet is in fits over Tony Finau’s Nike ‘fashion’ again appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“I said, look, man, I’m 43 years old,” Bubba recalled earlier this year. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. My wrist is killing me. He’s like, he needs 10 more years. I can’t tell him what I’m going to do in 10 years. I can’t tell you what I’m going to do in six months.”

So they split, and Ted Scott had the world’s softest landing when he became Scottie Scheffler’s caddie. As for Bubba, he’s still 43, it’s been four years since his last victory at the 2018 Travelers Championship, and though he remains a dangerous weapon, he’s also in a place in his career where the next time he contends at a major might be the last.

Which is relevant this week at Southern Hills, because Bubba Watson is officially contending at the PGA Championship. (Or was. Or is. TBD…)

He came out of nowhere with a Friday 63 that could have been lower, and on Saturday, in fourth place and chasing down two leaders who have never won on the PGA Tour, much less at a major, opportunity seemed ripe for the plucking. On a grey, windy and, most of all, cold day, Watson showed up on the first tee in a grey sweater, khaki pants (no pleat) and white Ping visor atop the quasi-page-boy haircut, greeted by the usual array of rogue “Bubba!” shouts from the gallery. He’s always more angular in person than you expect, thinner and taller, and he holds himself ramrod straight. With a quick wave to the crowd, he pulled out the trademark pink driver, raised both hands in a quick touchdown motion to shake loose his sleeves and blasted his first shot 285 yards into the left side of the fairway, finishing with the open helicopter pose — Ichiro Suzuki lacing one to the opposite field gap.

It all started promisingly enough. Ahead of him, Will Zalatoris was clearly feeling the pressure of leading a major, and Watson’s playing partner Justin Thomas was massively out of sorts from the start on his way to a disappointing 74. Nobody was making a massive charge from below, and only Mito Pereira, with birdies on Nos. 2 and 5, was holding up his end of the bargain at the top. A bogey at the third momentarily set Bubba back, but on the short par-4 fourth, he unleashed a 318-yard bomb, pitched 60 yards onto the green and buried the five-footer for birdie. Things went a bit calm on the course at that point as the wind picked up, but when things seemed to have settled into the same low key that predominated on Thursday and Friday, Watson sparked a massive roar on the seventh with a 21-foot birdie to take solo second, six-under for the tournament. For a very brief moment, if you blurred your eyes just a little and forgot the vast expanse of time and fate between now and Sunday night, you could see your way into believing the 2022 PGA Championship had become a two-horse race.

Then the back nine came for Bubba. It came for Pereira, too, but while the Chilean recovered with a bout of almost shocking resilience on the tail of a four-bogeys-in-five-holes stretch, eventually rebounding to hold a three-shot lead, there was no such mercy for Watson. He suddenly looked his age on the 10th, with an errant drive leading to a bogey, and though he held off Mother Nature for the next four holes, his only realistic birdie chance came on 13, when he missed a nine-footer. Meanwhile, the back nine played easier for most of the contenders, and while Watson stagnated, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Seamus Power, Webb Simpson and even Stewart Cink came rushing from the bottom.

At the moment when he most needed a recovery, the wheels fell off for Watson. The 15th hole was the dismal lowlight, with a second shot out of the rough that travelled just 54 yards. And with a missed four-footer on 16, a costly birdie miss from six feet on 17, and a blown four-footer on 18, he faded from five under to two under in a span of four holes, posting a three-over 73 to settle seven shots back of Pereira and likely costing himself a realistic shot at winning.

Bubba Watson plays his second shot on the 13th hole during Saturday’s third round at Southern Hills. David Cannon

Following his round, Bubba seemed to be more or less Bubba standing on stage at the interview area. He was full of his usual folks colloquialisms — ”Yesterday I made them all, and today I missed ’em” — but was in no mood to answer questions about his age. When asked whether fatigue had played a part in his late stumble, he spoke as though an entirely different question had been asked.

“Yeah, they decided not to go in,” he said. “Wish they would have went in. Maybe that’s the problem, maybe I was wishing them instead of stroking them.”

And as to whether he ever pondered that he might be getting his last licks at a major championship, the two-time Masters winner again responded to a second, imaginary interlocutor.

“All my victories and the two majors that I did win,” he said, “I hit a shot out of the trees, you know what I’m saying? It was luck, let’s be honest. I had a little skill in there, but the ball bounced my way those weeks. So I don’t take any of them for granted.”

One thing that’s clear is that he still believes he has a chance to win. He put the desired number at 63 — his Friday total — but admitted that even if he managed to attain those heights again, he’d need some help from the leaders. It’s not likely, but he may get it.

For all his peculiarities, there’s magic in Bubba still, and though it has faded with time like anything else and may not emerge with the same regularity, it can strike at any moment: a flash of vicious pink on the tee box, a roar when you least expect it echoing around a packed green.

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The post PGA Championship 2022: Bubba Watson flirts with — and fades from — another major as only Bubba can do appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
Taking the measure of Mito Pereira — and assessing his chances of winning the 104th PGA Championship — requires little more than an appraisal of his final six holes of Saturday’s tempestuous third round at Southern Hills Country Club.

Following a stretch of four bogeys in five holes, Pereira, an outwardly dispassionate young man from Chile, saw a four-stroke lead dwindle to one, and he appeared on the verge of a full-scale retreat from the pressures of a major championship and the unforgiving nature of an inhospitable golf course.

But instead of crumbling, the 27-year-old rookie exhibited resolve and resourcefulness, converting three birdies, including a “bonus” at the last, and asserting control in his first appearance in the championship and in just his second major start.

Though not much is known about the player whose full name is Guillermo Pereira Hinke, it’s obvious that “Mito,” a nickname, is no wilting rose, or “rosa” as they prefer in Oklahoma, in reference to the state flower. He’ll begin Sunday’s final round with a three-stroke lead over Will Zalatoris, the second-round leader, and Matt Fitzpatrick after battling to a one-under 69. Only Pereira and Fitzpatrick, a seven-time winner on the DP World Tour, have broken par each round.

“Just happy to be in this position,” Pereira said after posting nine-under 201 through 54 holes to become the first rookie since John Daly in 1991 to lead the PGA Championship after three rounds. “I was playing really good and, suddenly I made four bogeys in five holes. It was a tough place to be at that moment. But just found myself from 13 on.”

Pereira came into the championship ranked 100th in the world and without a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour. But he did have confidence in his ball-striking after a decent week at the AT&T Byron Nelson, where he tied for 17th. When he arrived at Southern Hills, which rewards tee-to-green execution, his comfort level soared, so he worked hard on his putting—an admitted weak spot—with coach Stephen Sweeney during the practice rounds.

He found a rhythm to his putting stroke he could trust. “Just sensations, basically,” he said.

It has paid off throughout the championship. He ranks first in strokes gained/putting at 7.033 — after entering the week 116th in the stat on tour — and leads the field with 16 birdies, three more than anyone else. And it paid off in the biggest moment of the round on Saturday at No. 13 when he faced an 18-foot birdie putt just after watching Zalatoris snake home a 35-footer to seize a share of the lead.

Pereira responded by guiding home his birdie home to restore his lead.

“I think it’s more just mental,” he said of the turnaround. “Obviously, that birdie really helped on 13 to get things going. But I wasn’t playing really bad in those bogeys. Just a couple, like one three-putt, one bad break. So, it wasn’t like I was losing my confidence. I was still hitting the ball really well, so I just hold to that and like try to do my best.”

“That was definitely a big moment,” Foster said of the birdie at 13. “He showed you something there. And then he probably hit one of the best shots I’ve seen from him at 14. Just beautiful.”

Back to the ball-striking clinic. Pereira, who led the field in greens in regulation through two rounds when he opened 68-64, drilled a 4-iron on the par-3 14th measuring 230 yards. The ball settled six feet from the cup and Pereira poured it in. Three pars and a 27-foot birdie at the last has set him up for his first 54-hole lead. He is vying to become the first tour rookie to win a major championship since Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship and the sixth player in the stroke-play era that started in 1958 to win in his PGA debut. Collin Morikawa was the most recent in 2020.

Pereira’s journey in golf has been a bit of a zig-zag. He was a phenom in Chile at an early age and went on to attend the IMG Academy in Florida before abruptly quitting the game for two years. When he returned rejuvenated, he played one year at Texas Tech in 2014-15 before turning pro. A halting few years of progress, including two stints on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, ensued before he won three Korn Ferry Tour events in the extended 2020-21 season that earned him immediate promotion to the PGA Tour in late June.

His only other major appearance came at the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach, where he missed the cut. That might seem like a thin CV, but Pereira believes he’s ready for the moment.

“If you play really good golf during the week, you’re going to win,” Pereira said. “Doesn’t matter your first time or your 10th time, if you play really, really well, you’re going to have chances.”

This is a big chance. And Pereira is playing really, really well.

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The post PGA Championship 2022: Rookie Mito Pereira in rare company trying to close out his first major title appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dan Rapaport
Tiger Woods has withdrawn from the PGA Championship before Sunday’s final round due to what his agent, Mark Steinberg, described as pain and discomfort in his right foot.

The PGA of America announced the decision of the 15-time major champion and four-time PGA Championship winner on Twitter hours after Woods shot nine-over 79 to tumble down the leaderboard at Southern Hills. Woods, who was making just his second tournament appearance since sustaining traumatic injuries to his right leg in a car accident in February 2021, was visibly hobbled throughout his round on Saturday and appeared to be in significant discomfort.

Woods said before the tournament that his surgically rebuilt right leg had strengthened significantly since he returned to competition at last month’s Masters, and he looked to be in better physical condition in his pre-tournament preparation at Southern Hills.

“I just think that I’ve put in a lot of hard work with my team, and I believe in them and what they have been able to get me to do,” Woods said Tuesday. “I just have to go out there and obviously do it and hit the golf shots.”

But he turned up on Thursday morning with a noticeable limp and struggled physically over the first two rounds amid intense heat and humidity. Woods battled for a one-under 69 on Friday to sneak past the cut line with a shot to spare only for temperatures to drop roughly 30 degrees before Saturday’s third round. The chilly weather combined with the quick turnaround after Friday’s round were a rough combination for Woods, 46, who has struggled in colder temperatures even before the accident.

“I just didn’t play well,” said Woods, who was 12-over and in a tie for last (T-76) at the end of the third round, meaning he would have teed off at just past 7am local time for Sunday’s final round in similarly cold conditions. “I didn’t hit the ball very well, and got off to not the start I needed to get off to. I thought I hit a good tee shot down 2 and ended up in the water, and just never really got any kind of momentum on my side.”

Woods has made the cut in each of the year’s first two major championships but has seen his leg deteriorate as the week wears on both times. At the Masters, he shot back-to-back 78s on the weekend, his two highest-ever scores at Augusta National.

Tiger Woods has withdrawn from the PGA Championship after Round 3. pic.twitter.com/r35WxqXeAT

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 21, 2022

It is not clear when Woods will play next. He told Sky Sports after the Masters that he will play in the 150th Open Championship (July 14-17) at St Andrews and also committed to the JP McManus Pro-Am the week prior. Woods has not said whether he will tee it up in the US Open (June 19-22) at The Country Club in Brookline.

This is the first time that Woods has withdrawn during a major championship as a professional.

You might also like:
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Rory McIlroy swing analysis
Is Tiger’s style holding him back?
Rory leads the way at Southern Hills
Toby Bishop swapping clubs for school books
Forget Dubai, check out the prices for drinks at PGA Championship
Dubai golfer Amelia McKee going pro
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Westwood and ‘many more’ request release to play LIV Golf Invitational Series

The post PGA Championship 2022: Tiger Woods withdraws ahead of final round at Southern Hills appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The top of the 2022 PGA Championship leaderboard is loaded, with Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson among those chasing Will Zalatoris. But the list of those who failed to advance to the weekend at Southern Hills isn’t short on firepower, either.

From fledgling superstars, current and former World No. 1s to the reigning FedEx Cup champ, here are the notables that missed the cut in Tulsa.

Scottie Scheffler
The Masters champ had been lights out on golf’s biggest stages, finishing T-8 or better in five of the last seven majors. That looked to continue after an all-time escape to finish his round Thursday evening. But Scheffler shot a 40 on his final nine holes, stumbling to a 75 and cooling the sport’s hottest heater.

Dustin Johnson
For the third time in his last six majors starts Johnson won’t see the weekend. Johnson was a victim of the late Thursday/early Friday draw, turning in a 73 Thursday and doing the same Friday. This week continued an odd year for Johnson, who came into the week 51st in strokes gained, 85th in scoring and 90th in the FedEx Cup. He has time to get turn his campaign around, but he’s running out of events.

Sergio Garcia
The Spaniard expressed his desire to no longer have to play on the PGA Tour. Judging by his recent performances he may be done with majors, too. Garcia has now missed the cut in 11 of his last 16 major championships, with zero top-15s in that stretch.

Patrick Cantlay
We say this as an admirer of the man’s work: For how good Cantlay has been over the past five years, his failure to translate that success to the majors is becoming concerning. Cantlay finished T-9 at the Masters and followed with a T-3 at the PGA at Bethpage in 2019. In the 11 majors since his best finish is a distant T-15 at last year’s US Open. This week was especially jarring, as Cantlay ejected from Oklahoma with a 76 and 75.

Daniel Berger
Berger has battled back woes throughout the year, so he deserves a bit of leniency. Still, his performance was far from pretty, shooting a 73 on Thursday and struggling mightily Friday to an 80.

Adam Scott
It wasn’t that long ago that the Aussie contended for the Wanamaker at Bellerive. Since ultimately finishing third at the St Louis venue, however, Scott hasn’t been a factor at the big events, his best finish a T-22 in his last 10 major starts. Those struggles continued in Tulsa, Scott unable to bounce back from an opening-round 77.

Matthew Wolff
The former prodigy will eventually get right. This week wasn’t it. Despite being just down the road from his college town, Wolff went 76-77 to miss the weekend.

The post PGA Championship 2022: Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay among notable cuts at Southern Hills appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Tiger Woods eyes a putt in the second round of the PGA. Icon Sportswire

By Dan Rapaport

Tiger Woods fought because that’s what Tiger Woods does. He limped and he clawed, grimaced and grunted — and for what? For himself.

Woods had zero to prove and little to gain from squeaking by the cut at this PGA Championship and trudging through two more excruciating rounds. A normal person would’ve taken a double-bogey at the 11th at Southern Hills as a not-so-subtle hint: just pack it in, man. Go through the motions, avoid pain insomuch as that’s possible, and get back to Jupiter in time to sleep in your own bed. Heck, Rory McIlroy would’ve done it even sooner.

“Looking at him yesterday, if that would have been me, I would have been considering pulling out and just going home,” McIlroy said after losing to Woods by two on Friday, in utter awe of his playing partner’s fight. “But Tiger is different.”

Indeed, Tiger Woods is a singular entity with a preternatural knack for locking in on a singular goal. In the second round in Tulsa, that goal was to make the cut, dammit. So that’s what he was going to do.

Put simply, in his own words: “You can’t win the tournament if you miss the cut.”

Friday afternoon’s one-under 69, which has Woods at three-over for the tournament and making the weekend with a shot to spare, won’t make any highlight compilations of Woods’ finest moments. But it was a genuine masterclass in the Art of the Grind. As his gait slowed to a tip-toe, the sweat poured down his temples and his ankle swelled — Woods said earlier in this week that his surgically rebuilt right leg has more stamina than it did at the Masters, but we’re still waiting for evidence — Woods grit his teeth and somehow managed to play his last seven holes in two-under par to guarantee two more tee times at Southern Hills.

This wasn’t fairways-green-two-putts golf, either. Woods one-putted six greens in a row after that double-bogey. There was a 14-footer for par after he pulled his approach into a short-sided bunker; an eight-footer for birdie at 13 after he carved a wedge around a tree; a 15-footer for par on the par-3 14th; an up-and-in from absolutely nowhere after airmailing the 15th green; a 5-iron to four feet for a birdie on the par-4 16th, which plays as a par 5 for membership; a nervy four-footer for par at 17; and, finally, two excellent swings at 18 to seal the deal.

“Just unbelievable making the cut at Augusta and making the cut here,” McIlroy said. “I was joking with [Woods’ caddie] Joey [LaCava] yesterday and saying, he could have came back and played like Honda and Valspar, two of the flattest courses on tour. It might have been a bit easier for him, but he comes to two of the toughest walks that we have. But yeah, just incredibly resilient and mentally tough. To get a front-row seat — he’s feeling it, and he’s feeling it on every swing, but to see what he did on that back nine … it was just a monumental effort.”

And so Woods will play the weekend once again. He has played two tournaments since his right leg was crushed by an SUV, both major championships, and he has made the cut both times. He still believes he can win this week. Of course he does. Realism is rarely a strength of the all-time greats.

“I’m hoping I can shoot a number like Bubba did today, tomorrow,” Woods said dead-pan, referring to Bubba Watson’s seven-under 63. “That’s where my mind is at right now. I’ve got to do some things physically to get myself there tomorrow and it will be a quick turnaround. That’s the reward you get for just making the cut. You get to tee off early the next day, and hopefully I can get it in. The weather is supposed to be a little more difficult and be a little more testy, and hopefully that’s the case. If that’s the case, hopefully I can post a good round and at least move up the board, get myself within striking distance on Sunday.

“I’m pretty far back, but you just never know. Major championships are hard to win. We’ve seen guys with big leads or have made big comebacks, so you just never know.”

His belief aside, Woods will almost certainly not win this week, and that will peeve him. He’s also clearly frustrated by the way his leg feels after insisting early in the week that he had made significant strides over the past month. That’s not to doubt the veracity of his self-assessment; the leg surely did feel better on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and maybe even Wednesday. But it began to scream on Thursday, and in watching him inch up Southern Hills’ one proper hill, the word “progress” did not come to mind.

But Friday’s round wasn’t about building toward Brookline or St Andrews. Woods’ mind doesn’t operate that way. He’s tunnel-vision, all the time. It’s the reason, after all this, that he’s in Oklahoma this week. And it’s the reason he’s sticking around for a few more days.

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The post PGA Championship 2022: Tiger Woods’ cut-making 69 was a masterclass in the Art of the Grind appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
The two previous times a player has shot 63 in a PGA Championship contested at Southern Hills — Raymond Floyd in 1982 and Tiger Woods in 2007 — he eventually has gone home with the Wanamaker Trophy. Bubba Watson would love to keep that tradition going.

But that’s getting ahead of things. For now, the 43-year-old lefty will revel in the delight of matching the lowest 18-hole score in PGA Championship history. “It’s an honour to be able to shoot 63 on any golf course,” Watson said. “I mean, I’ll take it.”

Ya think!?!

The scary part? It could have been lower. Watson’s 63 — the 18th shot in PGA Championship history and the 38th overall in a men’s major — somehow included two bogeys, on the third and 14th holes. And while finishing on Southern Hills’ monster 18th hole, Watson left himself a 22-footer for yet another birdie that would have let him write down a 62 on his scorecard. That score would have equalled Branden Grace’s all-time major championship record set during the third round of the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, but Watson just missed on the low side.

“I gave it a chance but at the same time I didn’t want to three putt,” Watson said with a wry smile.

Suffice it to say, Watson’s 63 moved him well up the leaderboard, leaving him at five-under for the championship and in solo fourth place. He’ll start Saturday’s third round four shots back of leader Will Zalatoris, playing in the penultimate group with Justin Thomas.

It’s a place that Watson hasn’t been at in quite some time in this major. The two-time Masters champ’s record at the PGA has been lacklustre since losing a playoff at Whistling Straits in 2010. In 11 starts since then, he’s missed four cuts and had a best finish of T-21. His previous low in the championship is a 68.

But he seemed to find something on Friday at Southern Hills he hopes he can ride on the weekend.

“Forget the golf course, it’s about trusting yourself,” Watson said. “If you don’t trust yourself out there, it doesn’t matter if you have the perfect yardage, the perfect club. It doesn’t matter. … So yeah, today was just — I trusted it. I was focused. I was focused on what I had to do, and it worked out.”

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The post PGA Championship 2022: Bubba Watson’s response to shooting a record-tying 63 at Southern Hills was priceless appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Justin Thomas talks about his second shot on the 18th hole with caddie Jim Mackay during the second round of the PGA. Montana Pritchard/PGA of America

By Dave Shedloski

Justin Thomas hasn’t won yet this season — hasn’t won in more than a year, in fact — but he owns three of the year’s best rounds of golf, submitted amid the most difficult conditions. This is more than embracing a challenge; this is taking advantage of it.

With winds whipping and gusting through Southern Hills Country Club on Friday morning, Thomas looked like a man operating in a dome. Even he had to admit that his golf was fairly impeccable in the second round of the PGA Championship, and he was rewarded with a second straight three-under 67. His six-under 134 aggregate total leapfrogged him over first-round leader Rory McIlroy, who had yet to embark on his second round when Thomas finished. Nevertheless, at a course that traditionally favors frontrunners, he’s looking awful good. And feeling good.

“Yeah, very pleased. Although I played solid yesterday, I played really, really well today,” said Thomas, 29, winner of the 2017 PGA Championship. “The conditions were obviously very difficult. I stayed very patient, tried to get in my own little world and get in a zone and just tried to execute each shot the best I could.

“I felt we did a great job of that and am glad to have a good round to show for it.”

He’s being modest. It was an exceptional round, with most holes buffeted by crosswinds. And it was his second solid round in as many days playing in the tougher end of the draw after the breeze kicked up just in time to welcome afternoon players yesterday. And while his score was the same both days, you had to marvel at Thomas’ distance control and ability to manipulate the golf ball to stay out of trouble spots in Round 2.

Justin Thomas plays his third shot on the 13th hole during the second round of the 2022 PGA. Christian Petersen

He gained almost six strokes on the field total in Friday’s early wave, primarily because he missed just two greens, one of which led to his only bogey, at the par-3 14th when he found one of the notorious greenside bunkers. That compared to finding just 11 greens in the first round.

He seldom was out of position off the tee, either. But on one occasion when he looked in trouble, he notched one of his four birdies. That was at the par-5 fifth when he was forced to lay up after finding a fairway bunker. All he did on his third shot, from 217 yards, was carve a 6-iron smartly to 23 feet and bury the putt.

“That 6-iron that I hit on 5 today was nice. To be able to hit that thing up on the top shelf pin-high from 213 with a pumping cross wind off the left and then to make that putt, I felt like I stole one there,” he said with a wide grin. “That was a sweet shot.”

No less notable was his birdie to cap the round at the par-4 ninth when he drilled a nine-footer. “The way I played the last hole, I couldn’t have really drawn it up any or much better,” Thomas said. “A perfect kind of little slider driver and leaving that gap wedge just under the hole there and making that putt right in the middle. That was a nice way to end it.”

Winner of last year’s Players Championship, his most recent victory, Thomas proved his course management chops and ability to “manipulate different shots” in the second round at TPC Sawgrass. He shot three under then, too, a 69 that he described as coming in conditions that were “absurd,” with a raw wind that confounded many of the game’s best players.

“He’s good at just going out and playing shots,” said his father Mike, who serves as his swing coach. “He really does embrace tougher conditions because he can just go play. His attitude stays pretty positive.”

The son has another word for that. “I have confidence that I can execute still and hit the shots that I want,” Justin said. “I would like to hope a little bit of it is skill, that I’ve worked hard enough that I’m good enough to be able to execute that kind of stuff. But I don’t know. It sucks sometimes when you’re playing and you’re not playing well, but it’s fun to be able to challenge and execute some shots when you’re trying to.”

It largely hasn’t been fun for the 156-man field at Southern Hills. It’s been a grind. Justin Thomas is an outlier, which is probably why he also is the clubhouse leader.

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The post PGA Championship 2022: Justin Thomas gets tough side of draw and predictably produces great round appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.