5 TO WATCH AT
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Rory McIlroy 2014 PGA finish: 1st Best PGA finish: 1st in 2012, 2014
Reason to watch: Not only is McIlroy the defending champion but he's coming off an ankle injury that sidelined him for five weeks and prevented him from defending the British Open title he won a year ago. This is his first competitive golf since rupturing a ligament in a pickup soccer match. He was the first player since Ben Hogan in 1954 not to defend the Open Championship. He is trying to win his fifth major championship and third PGA title in four years. Is he fit enough to contend? He says so but a weekend walk up and down the slippery hills at Whistling Straits would be something to see. 2. Jordan Spieth 2014 PGA finish: Failed to make the cut. Best PGA finish: Missed the cut in both 2013, 2104.
Reason to watch: Golf's great rivalry is about to be renewed with the return of McIlroy and the emergence of the 22-year-old Spieth as the face of golf in America. They are set to play the first two rounds here together, only intensifying a rivalry both say doesn't exist. Sure. Spieth is trying to join Ben Hogan (1953) and Tiger Woods (2000) as the only players to win three majors in one year after winning the Masters wire-to-wire and the U.S. Open by a shot. Spieth was tied for the lead in the British Open with two holes to play but bogeyed 17 at St. Andrews to finish one shot out of a playoff eventually won by Zach Johnson. He has won four times this year and is No. 2 in the world behind – you guessed it – Rory McIlroy. 3. Tiger Woods 2014 PGA finish: Failed to make the cut. Best PGA finish: 1st 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
Reason to watch: The struggling Woods failed to make the cut in either the U.S. Open or the British and so needs a win here to keep his season alive. He is presently ranked 271st, the lowest of his career, and has yet to have a top 10 finish this season in nine starts. But his best finish came in his last outing, a T18 at the Quicken Loans National, in which he had three rounds in the 60s. Unfortunately, he has struggled in the majors this season, registering only two sub-par rounds. He says he has seen improvement and is ready to compete. If he wants to continue competing this season, he has to win here or likely will miss the FedEx Cup Playoffs for lack of points. 4. Jason Day 2014 PGA finish: 15th Best PGA finish: 8th in 2013 Reason to watch: No one has circulated around more major championship victories without coming away with one than Day, so you keep waiting for the moment to come. He has finished top 10 nine times in 20 major starts, including T9 at the U.S. Open and T4 at the British Open this year. His birdie putt on the 72nd hole at St. Andrews came up short or he would have gotten into the playoff won by Zach Johnson. His battles with vertigo, which felled him in the second round at the U.S. Open this year, have seemingly been beaten with new medication. He says he's feeling as good as he has in years and is ready to challenge once again. Certainly he knows how to be there on Sunday afternoon. But then what? 5. Dustin Johnson 2014 PGA finish: 8th Best PGA finish: 5th in 2010
Reason to watch: Johnson has blown four major championship possibilities late on Sunday afternoon, including here at Whistling Straits in 2010. One wonders if he can continue to remain mentally resilient in the face of so many disappointments. Will he be haunted here, where in 2010 he appeared to have bogeyed the 72nd hole to join a playoff with Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer, only to have been ruled to have grounded his club in a bunker, a 2-shot penalty that dropped him to fifth. Although the players had been warned that many of the bunkers here were not traditional and could be confusing, Johnson made a critical mental error. He three-putted on the final hole at the US Open from 12 feet when appearing in position to eagle the hole, and after leading the British for two rounds shot 75-75 on the weekend to finish T49. Can he recover in the final major of 2015 or is he fried?