TIGER SEEKS 15TH MAJOR, SPIETH A CAREER SLAM
A trio of Americans will be the front-runners when the 100th episode of the PGA Championship tees off this week in Missouri, writes Jim Slater
Tiger Woods stalks his first major win in 10 years and Jordan Spieth chases a Career Grand Slam at this week’s 100th PGA Championship while t opranked Dustin Johnson hunts a second major triumph.
The American trio is expected to contend in the year’s final major showdown over a 7,316-yard, par-70 Bellerive layout in the last PGA Championship to be played in August. The event moves to May next year.
Woods, a 14-time major champion who hasn’t won a major title since the 2008 US Open, underwent spinal fusion surgery in April 2017 after years of back pain and began a comeback last December, rising from 1,200th in the world to 50th.
The former world No.1 shared second in March at the Valspar Championship, switched to a mallet putter in June and shared fourth at the PGA National and last month led briefly in the final round of the British Open before settling for a share of sixth at Carnoustie behind Italian winner Francesco Molinari.
“I certainly can win again,” Woods said. “I feel like I’m starting to hit the ball a little more crisp. And since I’ve switched putters, I’ve started to make some putts. When you make putts here and there, it changes everything.”
Woods, 42, has won 79 career PGA titles but hasn’t won any event since the 2013 WGC Bridgestone Invitational.
“I’ve had an opportunity to win a couple times this year,” Woods said. “My game has gotten better and good enough where I feel like I can win again out here.”
Woods has won four PGA Championships, one shy of the record five won by Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen, but missed the cut in 2015 in his most recent appearance. He last won the PGA title at Southern Hills in 2007.
Third-ranked defending champion I’m always pulling for Tiger if I’m not playing. JUSTIN THOMAS Defending champion Justin Thomas, trying to become the first back-to-back PGA Championship winner since Woods in 2006 and 2007, wants to see Woods win if he’s not in the hunt.
“I’m always pulling for Tiger if I’m not playing, or if he has a chance to win and I don’t,” Thomas said. “I said this at the beginning of the year I think he’s going to win if he stays healthy. And it would be really cool for the game, if and when he does.
“But at the same time, I’m trying to make sure that he doesn’t do that, for many reasons.”
Spieth was third at the Masters and shared ninth in his British Open title defence last month.
But the 25-year-old Texan who took the 2015 Masters and US Open titles hasn’t won since claiming his third major crown last year at Royal Birkdale.
World No.8 Spieth could become only the sixth player to complete the career Slam — winning the Masters, US and British Opens and the PGA — to join a list that includes Nicklaus, Woods, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and South African Gary Player.
“When you have an opportunity to do that, certainly it weighs on you a little bit,” Spieth said. “All I can do is embrace the challenge.”
Spieth could have become the youngest player to complete a Career Slam by winning last year’s PGA but shared 28th at Quail Hollow.
Johnson, coming off a victory in last week’s Canadian Open, is an oddsmakers’ favourite to win the Wanamaker Trophy despite missing the British Open cut.
“I felt like I was hitting it fine,” Johnson said. “It was the worst I’ve ever scored and the only thing I could come up with was I really wasn’t focused on the shots and what I was trying to do.”
But Johnson, whose lone major win came at the 2016 US Open, feels he can beat anyone anywhere when playing his best.
“If I’m playing my best, yeah, it’s going to be very tough [to lose],” Johnson said.
Bellerive is hosting its third major tournament, having been the site of Player’s 1965 US Open triumph to complete his career Grand Slam and Zimbabwean Nick Price’s 1992 PGA Championship title, the first of his three major crowns.
Woods was paired with four-time major winner Rory McIlroy and holder Thomas in tee times for the 100th PGA Championship revealed Friday.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat, the only Thai in the field, will play alongside Bryson DeChambeau of the US and England’s Andy Sullivan in the first two rounds at Bellerive.