PGA Champ. Day 2 Reaction

Round 2 of the PGA Championship – August 10th

While I was not able to watch the second round of the 2007 PGA Championship on August 10th because of work responsibilities there are a couple of certainties, obvious to anyone who has remotely followed the PGA for the past ten years.

One: John Daly, although giving an extraordinarily entertaining interview about his lax attitude about his golf career, had no chance after being near the lead after Day 1. Daly, who is notoriously known as a chain smoking, caffeine guzzling, alcoholic simply does not keep the lifestyle that one needs to be successful in the world of sports today. In the 100+ degree temperatures of Southern Hills, physical fitness becomes one of the big factors along with, obviously, making shots. Shot making is one of the things that Daly does very well, especially with his enormous drives off the tee. Where he runs into trouble though, and Daly addressed this in his post round interview, is bending down and reading putts (which is amazing to think that a tour professional does not read all of his putts with the amount prize money at stake). But it must be remembered that a big factor in playing factor such heat is the physical fitness of the competitors.

Which leads to the second thing I was certain of going in to the 2nd round of the PGA Championship, and that was that Tiger Woods would make a run at the trophy. While Woods’ run is almost as certain as a Paris Hilton/Britney Spears/Lindsey Lohan joke on a late night talk show, no one could have predicted a record tying 63. But at this point in watching Tiger Woods’ career, it is unreasonable to think that there would eventually be a day where Woods would indeed tie or break the record. And with a birdie putt on the final hole, it appeared that he would indeed set the major record and score a 62. But while his second to last shot of the day rimmed out, Woods seemed very content with his round, but realized that the tournament was still not completed. A very different attitude compared to Daly the day before.

There are many differences between two of the most popular players on the PGA tour. Their skin color, hairlines, sponsors, women in their lives, etc, etc, etc. But the differences seen in the past two days in their respective interviews is what truly sets them apart. Daly is content with one good round, and Tiger is not. And the differing levels of satisfaction with their performance in tournaments are what have made John Daly a sideshow, and Tiger Woods the greatest golfer ever.