13:00:00: Welcome to the 2008 Live Blog of the PGA Championship. With Saturday’s rain, Sunday will be an endurance test for those atop the leaderboard.
Can Ben Curtis add the Wanamaker Trophy to his mantle along with his Claret Jug? Can Padraig Harrington make it back-to-back in the majors? Will Sergio Garcia or J.B. Holmes win their first major? How many victims will The Monster claim?
13:14:42: Sergio (Mr. Black) birdies the first hole. Can he shake off the putting woes to win his first major?
13:18:14: J.B. Holmes finds himself in the pine trees and Nick Faldo questions his use of driver off the tee. Henrik Stenson’s drive isn’t much better.
13:30:18: Ben Curtis birdies the first hole while J.B. Holmes cards a triple bogey and Stenson a bogey thanks to their errant drives. Meanwhile, Phil has birdied two of his first three holes. The leaderboard is suddenly quite different from just a few seconds ago with Curtis having a three shot lead over Sergio.
13:43:24: Sergio drops another putt and suddenly is one shot out of the lead. His confidence with the shorter putts seems to be increasing and with the way he is striking the ball he is going to make this entertaining.
13:58:08: The wind starts to pick up a bit to go along with a few raindrops on the camera. Phil drops a test bender to stay at +1.
14:13:05: Charlie Wi drops his birdie putt on the fourth hole to go to -1. Four golfers are currently under par. How many will remain?
14:38:42: The leaderboard hasn’t changed much in a bit other than the drop by J.B. Holmes to +5. The rain continues and CBS shows us an ice cream cart. I’m suddenly craving some Breyers.
14:41:37: CBS shows us a couple of shots and then its back to the commercials. Oh, goody.
14:48:01: After blowing his drive way left on the sixth hole, Sergio sticks his wedge to to about six feet or so for a birdie attempt to tie Ben Curtis, who just pared the fifth hole.
14:56:07: Sergio makes his birdie putt to tie Ben Curtis for the lead at -3. The leaderboard is tightening up. Stenson drives the sixth green to about 20 feet of the pin while Curtis is just short of the green.
15:05:05: Stenson’s eagle putt rams through the hole and he and Curtis both birdie the sixth. Phil pars the ninth to stay at +2. Lefty’s going to need to go low on the back nine if he wants a chance to win.
15:15:07: I’m convinced Jim Nantz does the voice-overs for every commercial on TV.
15:29:10: Stenson pars the seventh as well does Curtis. Sergio can’t reach the eighth in two and has a difficult bunker shots that he gets to about ten feet. Padraig just misses a long birdie putt on the eighth. We’re told that no one has birdied seven, eight or nine yet in the final round.
15:34:09: Fredrik Jacobson just aces the 13th with a four-iron! Not in contention but still very cool to see.
15:42:11: Phil bogeys the 11th and at three over looks to out of unless he pulls something miraculous out of his hat.
15:50:40: Sergio continues to get up and down from everywhere and with Ben Curtis bogeying the eighth, we have another tie at the top of the leaderboard. Padraig pars the ninth to stay at even par. Charlie Wi putts himself out of the tournament with a double bogey at the ninth.
15:58:50: We get a brief glimpse of J.B. Holmes who at plus seven is having a final round he would just as soon forget.
16:01:47: After a poor bunker shot, Ben’s chip shot almost goes in. He makes his testy four-footer to fall one shot behind our new leader, Sergio Garcia.
16:06:37: Padraig drains a birdie putt on number ten and sits in prime position at one under, just two shots off the lead. Could the second to last group contain the two guys who will go head to head down the stretch?
16:29:34: Sergio pulls his tee shot on the 12th but it far enough left of the bunkers to some hardpan and has a good angle into the green. Ben Curtis hits out of fairway bunker on the 11th and hits it way right. Nick Faldo shows us how to hit out of a fairway bunker.
16:37:22: Ben misses his par save to fall another shot back and we get to Sergio hit it fat on his chip shot. Even the best chunk a few now and then.
16:41:33: Sergio gets out with a par on the 12th but suddenly has Padraig breathing down his neck at one shot back after pulling off a miraculous birdie. It’s Carnoustie all over again.
16:52:42: Stenson comes out short on the 12th and slams his club into the ground in frustration. Curtis has an eagle attempt and is going to need to make it to match up with our new co-leaders, Sergio and Padraig, who drops in his birdie putt on the 13th.
16:56:54: Ben drops in his birdie putt to get to -2, one shot off the lead. Stenson misses his par putt and falls three back from the leaders His driving has not helped him today.
17:09:54: Ben taps in for par at the 13th to stay one shot back. Padraig hits a nice flop on the 14th that Faldo grades out at a “B+”. Sergio pars the 14th and appears to be very confident with the flatstick as even his misses are close. Padraig fails to get up-and-down and falls a shot back.
17:15:06: We’re shown that the 18th is playing to 4.67 strokes and is the toughest hole today with no one having birdied the hole yet.
17:20:39: Sergio just nails the flagstick on the fly on the 15th with a 172-yard six iron. He gets lucky as it stays to about ten feet rather than bouncing into the bunker. Padraig answers with a nice shot of his own to have a putt just a bit longer than Sergio’s. Ben hits his approach to 20 feet on the 14th for a birdie attempt.
17:26:28: Bam! Ben drops his 20-footer to tie for the lead. We’re told most of the final group’s crowd have gone elsewhere. Apparently they though Ben was out of it?
17:33:49: Ben finds what is called “the worst rough on the course” on the 15th. Takes a lot of power just to advance the ball.
17:36:36: Are you kidding me? Sergio drops a depth charge on the 16th. Padraig fails to take advantage of this mistake and dumps it into a bunker. Sergio gets lucky that it crossed the yellow line so he gets to use the ball drop.
17:47:00: Sergio gets up and down for bogey. Padraig bunker shot doesn’t stop and he has about 15 feet right to left bender, which he drains for par. Ben’s par putt on the 15th “bobbles” a bit to the right and he cleans it up for a bogey. The race down the stretch is getting messy.
17:49:12: We have a three-way tie for first with Padraig, Sergio and Ben. Ben just yanks his drive on the 16th to the hospitality tents on the left. Perhaps he should get something to calm the nerves?
17:51:47: Padraig stuffs it close on the 17th and Sergio answers that with the closest to the pin for the day. What a pair of shots!
17:58:24: After getting relief from the tents, Ben has 176 yards to the pin and calmly hits a 5-iron to the left side of the green. Meanwhile, Padraig drains his birdie putt and Sergio lips his out. Suddenly, the Open Champion has a one shot lead.
18:04:01: Padraig sticks his drive on the 18th in a bunker and will have to lay up. Sergio’s drive just misses the bunkers. A par on this hole just might win the tournament. Sergio has putted well today but the lip-out on the 17th might cost him his first major.
18:11:17: Ben gets an unlucky bounce and bounces his tee shot over the 17th green. Sergio’s five-wood just about clears the greenside bunker but fails to do so. Padraig just needs to get it the fairway and ends up hitting it fat from the bunker into the rough. Sergio can’t stand it and runs to the porta-potty!
18:14:00: Padraig sticks his third shot to pin high and has a good chance for his par save. Sergio needs some magic for his bunker shot.
18:16:36: No magic as he gets to 10 feet. He needs to drain this and hopes Padraig misses his. Ben meanwhile bogeys the 17th to fall two shots back. The 2008 PGA Championship comes down to a putting contest on the 18th green.
18:22:23: Padraig Harrington drains his par save to take away the 2008 PGA Championship from Sergio Garcia. Ben needs to knock in a miracle shot from the fairway on the 18th to keep this going.
18:32:18: No miracle shot from Ben so congratulations to Padraig Harrington who wins back-to-back majors as well as being the first European to win the PGA Championship since 1930 with a final score of 277 (-3). Ben Curtis ends up with Sergio Garcia in a tie for second place.
🙂 I’m reading this from Rome, Italy where it is 9:09 pm. I watched Sergio live at Carnoustie on 18 last year. Go Sergio!!!!
Chuck
Well done, Alan Olson! And how ’bout that Paddy? He took the championship. He came up and grabbed the win. All kudos to him for his great effort.
And, Sergio performed credlbly. He is a great player. But Padraig seems to be made of sterner stuff. He stayed a bit steadier than Mr. Garcia. Well, I think the latter still has a major in him and I believe the former may have more than one left in him.
Congratulations Padraig!
Sorry to those who think courses should be set up easier, but to me this was much more exciting than watching everyone birdie hole after hole. Harrington’s putting made for amazing saves and a deserving winner; he’s made the most of Tiger’s absence. Sergio may have blinked but I liked how he handled himself. And what was with the lack of crowd interest in Curtis?
GREAT summary. Straight-forward, simple, and humorous. I could have missed the entire round and caught up just from your blog.
I was trying to remember the spot where I thought Sergio blew it and this helped. Other than the obvious lip-out (which he says he misread, but I thought looked pulled), and the shot in the water, the biggie I think was not draining the putt on 15 after having the excitement and momentum of nailing the flagstick. What an iron shot! He needed to make that putt for emphasis. That would have given him a 2 shot lead with 3 to play and probably would have been enough to put the nail in Padraig’s comeback. In the words of Tiger’s mom, that’s where Sergio needed to “step on their throat”.
One more thing. Poor Ben Curtis. The ONLY American in contention and he had no fans. He even wore a Detroit Lions cap hoping it would help. Maybe he needed one that looked like the Michigan Wolverine helmets. But that might have been asking a little much for an Ohio native.
He’s a great guy and a heck of a golfer, but he needs a personality makeover, maybe an image consultant or som’n. 😉