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Elite Field to Lock Horns at PGA Championship
Woods Seeks to Snap Major Title Drought
Bradley Won't Rest on Golfing Laurels
'B' Grade McIlroy Has Room for Improvement at Kiawah
McDowell Seeks to Keep Major Hot-Streak Going
Els Feeling Like His Old Self Again
Scott Says Better Equipped to Deal With Pressure
Elite Field to Lock Horns at PGA Championship
KIawah Island, South Carolina, Aug 7, 2012 (AFP) - The strongest field ever put together for a tournament will tackle one of the most challenging golf courses in the United States when the 94th PGA Championship begins this week.
All 100 of the top ranked players in the world will tee it up at Kiawah Island Golf Resort for the final major championship of the season.
It is the first time that the top 100 have played in the same event since the world ranking system came into effect in 1986.
With the last 16 majors having been won by 16 different players and this field being what it is, Tiger Woods warned Tuesday not to be surprised if another first-time major winner emerges from the pack.
"Golf is getting deep," said Woods, who is chasing his 15th major title.
"There are so many guys with a chance to win. That is how the sport is. The margins are getting smaller.
"There may be 16 different winners but you look at the cuts. The cuts are getting lower. The scores between the leader and the guy who is 70th, sometimes it is 10 shots or less which is amazing.
"If you have got margins that are that small, you're going to get guys who win once here and there."
The tournament begins Thursday and a lot is going to depend on the weather at Kiawah Island's The Ocean Course, which at 7,900 yards was recently rated by Golf Digest to be the most difficult course in America.
The wind usually blows in off the Atlantic Ocean but thunderstorms and heat might play an ever big role this week in how low scores go.
"It doesn't look like we are going to get dry weather this week," Woods said during Tuesday's practice day.
"The fairways are perfect. The greens are perfect. It is going to be a touch on the long side because it is just not rolling out.
"If the PGA decides to play it all the way back it is just going to be a big ballpark."
Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen, and 2012 major winners Webb Simpson (US Open), Bubba Watson (Masters), Ernie Els (British Open) are other players to watch out for this week.
World number one Donald of England said there is so much more parity on the PGA Tour now. "There isn't one guy that is really distancing himself from the rest," Donald said.
"The longer the streak goes, the more encouragement it gives to those guys who haven't won a major, like myself."
Aussie Adam Scott will be looking to rebound from his Open disaster two weeks ago where he closed with four consecutive birdies to lose a four-shot lead to South Africa's Els.
Jim Furyk is also hoping for a quick turnaround from the anguish of blowing a late lead. Furyk led Sunday's final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational for 71 holes before suffering a meltdown on the par-four No. 18.
Furyk's double bogey on the last hole, combined with a 15-foot putt to save par by Bradley, allowed Bradley to claim the final tune-up tournament heading into the PGA Championship.
It meant that Bradley heads into his defence of his PGA Championship title this week with a lot more confidence than he had two weeks ago.
"Anytime you win it is a great feeling," Bradley said. "A little less pressure than you normally have. I have got a great course here and I feel like it suits me well and I want to defend my title as best I can."
Donald thinks the weather is going to play a huge factor this week.
"The conditions are changing from hour to hour," Donald said. "This is a very tough test."
Woods Seeks to Snap Major Title Drought
KIawah Island, South Carolina, Aug 7, 2012 (AFP) - Tiger Woods has won more tournaments than any other golfer on the PGA Tour this year with three, but the 14-time championship winner is still chasing his first major title of 2012.
The 36-year-old American has wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial and AT&T National, but he needs another major victory before people will say he is truly back to his top form.
"I've played in three major championships this year and I didn't win any of them," Woods said Tuesday.
"So that is the goal. I was there at the US Open after two days and I was right there with a chance at the British Open. Things have progressed, but not winning a major championship doesn't feel very good."
World number two Woods said that if he can just hang in there until Sunday that nothing gets his competitive juices flowing like a good battle down the stretch.
"I just love being there. To me it is a chance to make history, to go out the next day and win a tournament," Woods said. "You are part of history. So that to me is exciting.
"So pressure, absolutely. And that is the fun of it. It is fun feeling those nerves, it is fun feeling the adrenaline. That to me is a joy and one of the reasons why I bust my tail and practice, to put myself there. I have always loved that spot."
Woods finished tied for 40th at the Masters, tied for 21st at the US Open and tied for third at the British Open so he does appear to be getting closer.
If he fails to win the PGA Championship it would be the fourth straight season he has not won a major. His last major title was the 2008 US Open.
He has been showing flashes of ball-striking brilliance in every tournament he plays but he just doesn't putt as well as he used to.
He needs four more major titles to equal Jack Nicklaus' all-time record of 18.
Woods said he doesn't feel any sense of urgency to get it done quickly and is willing to play another decade if that is what it takes to catch Nicklaus.
"I figure it is going to take a career. It is going to take a long time," Woods said. "Jack didn't finish until he was 46 so if you go by that timetable, I've got 10 more years.
"Four more majors is a lot. I've got plenty of time."
Woods also hinted that another long-range goal for him is to own a professional sports team. Another reason to keep playing golf, he said.
Told that Phil Mickelson was part of a group that has reached an agreement Tuesday to buy Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres for $800 million, Woods said he would like to do something similar down the road.
"Absolutely. I just need a lot more money. My teams are the Lakers, Dodgers and Raiders, so I've got to play really well," said Woods who grew up in Los Angeles and cheers for California sports teams.
That might be an understatement as Woods has been the world's highest paid athlete over the past 10 years.
Woods also said he has been watching the London Olympics and was particularly impressed with the US women's soccer team's controversial win over Canada and is looking forward to seeing how the US 4x100 metre relay team does in track and field.
"I think we (USA) have done a fantastic job," he said. "What you saw last night was pretty amazing with the women's soccer. I am really excited for Saturday and watching the 4x100 and seeing what the time is going to be ... if they get warm enough weather and right conditions and whether or not they break their own world record."
Woods said he is looking forward to golf being included in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
"It'll be something else to be able to represent our country like that in the Olympic Games," Woods said. "I hopefully will be able to have qualified at that point in time. I will be 40 years old.
"It will be exciting to go down to Brazil."
Bradley Won't Rest on Golfing Laurels
Kiawah Island, South Carolina, Aug 7, 2012 (AFP) - Keegan Bradley breathed some life into the defence of his 2011 PGA Championship title with his surprise victory on Sunday at the PGA Tour's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
A 15-foot par putt on the final hole helped the American beat his countryman Jim Furyk by one shot, securing the final tune-up tournament for the PGA Championship at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort starting Thursday.
Wearing two hats at this week's event is something new for Bradley, 26, who up until two days ago had not won on the PGA Tour since becoming just the third player ever to win a major championship on his debut.
"You know, after I won last year at the PGA, it was a life-changer for a lot of different reasons," Bradley said during Tuesday's practice round.
"A lot more people knew who I was. It kind of validated my position out here on Tour as one of the top players.
"It just was a lifelong dream to win a major championship, and it kind of put me in a different category with some of my idols."
Until the Bridgestone win, however, Bradley had struggled to get back to the top of the leaderboard. He tied for 68th at the US Open, tied for 34th at the British Open and finished in a tie for 27th at the Masters.
"After I won the PGA last year, it was almost like I couldn't catch up with my rest," Bradley said. "No matter what, I was tired.
"I kind of settled down towards the end of the (PGA Tour) playoffs and was able to relax and played very well through Augusta, and then went on another little streak where I might have been putting too much pressure on myself.
"And it's just a matter of getting back to what you've always done, and that's just play golf and not put extra pressure on yourself."
Bradley will tee off on Thursday with a lot more confidence than he had two weeks ago, having won the preceding US tour event.
"It's just a matter of getting rested and ready to play," he said.
Despite all his success, Bradley says he still goes into tournaments feeling like he is an underdog.
"In my head, I still am," he said. "I'll always think that," though he does not have to look far to find motivation.
"I've always set out when I play golf to be the best player I can be, and I really feel as though I want to be one of the best players in the world.
"There's always something to play for, whether you're trying to make the Ryder Cup team or trying to make the Presidents Cup team, try to get top 10 in the world, No. 1 in the world; there's always something.
"It's very difficult for me to think that I won't have something to play for because even right now I have 100 things that I'd like to do."
'B' Grade McIlroy Has Room for Improvement at Kiawah
KIAWAH ISLAND, South Carolina, Aug 8, 2012 (AFP) - Rory McIlroy is hoping he can produce his very best golf at the season's final major, the PGA Championship, starting here Thursday, after giving himself a 'B' for his year so far. 
The Northern Irishman, who arrives at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island ranked third in the world, is one of 16 different players to win the last 16 majors thanks to his stunning victory in the US Open at Congressional in 2011.
He looked ready to dominate the sport after that win, but has had something of an underwhelming season thus far.
After finishing 40th at The Masters in April, McIlroy made an early exit from the US Open during a miserable run of four missed cuts in five starts.
Then, after a promising first day, he fell away to 60th in The Open at Royal Lytham.
But there were signs that he is approaching his best form again at last weekend's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, when a consistent performance over the four days saw him finish tied for fifth, five shots behind winner Keegan Bradley, the defending PGA champion.
That has allowed the 23-year-old to view his year -- which started with a climb to the top of the world rankings -- from a more positive perspective.
"It's been good. You know, there was a few goals I set myself early at the start of the year, which I achieved; getting to No. 1 in the world, and playing well, winning a tournament early," he said, in reference to his Honda Classic victory in March.
"And then the second half of the season has been -- it's still been pretty good. It's been a little bit more of a struggle.
"But you know, I feel like I'm playing pretty well, so, I mean, if I had to give my season a grade to this point, I'd probably give it a B."
McIlroy, who knows that a top-two finish could see him dethrone Luke Donald at the top of the rankings again, will play with American duo Dustin Johnson and Jim Furyk in Thursday's opening round at the former Ryder Cup venue.
And he hinted that he may just have rediscovered the right sensations in the run-up to the tournament.
"I started to feel quite comfortable last week, started to hit the ball the way I usually do, hitting a few fairways and hitting a lot of greens," he said, putting his Open frustration firmly behind him.
"My greens in regulation was down for a couple of months there, so to see that come back up was nice.
"Ball striking has got better, and from there, you're giving yourself a lot of chances for birdies, which is good.
"It would be great just to give myself a chance this week, get into contention and just feel that buzz again of getting into contention in a major and remembering how it feels."
You can get odds of around 20-1 on McIlroy, who is second favourite behind Tiger Woods to win the 94th PGA Championship.
But he knows that the conditions will be testing, with the hot, humid South Carolina weather set to impact on what is a very long course, and where the long grass found in these parts of the United States prevents the ball from running along the ground.
"The ball, it doesn't run very far when it pitches. Even if you get the greens firm here, the ball is still going to grab on this grass," he admitted.
"Even though this is a very long golf course, mentally you've really got to be on the top of your game. And if the wind and the rain comes, it's obviously going to be more about how you mentally approach that than physical, yeah."
McDowell Seeks to Keep Major Hot-Streak Going
KIawah Island, South Carolina, Aug 8, 2012 (AFP) - Graeme McDowell says with some last-minute practice time on Wednesday he should be able to catch some of the others napping ahead of the first round of the 94th PGA Championship.
"It's been quite a quiet, surreal, kind of un-major-like kind of buildup so far." the former US Open winner McDowell said.
"I have some rounds under my belt so I'm ready for this golf course. When the gun goes off tomorrow, everyone will be fizzed up and ready to go but perhaps not as ready and prepared as they would like to be for a major championship.
"I want to go and play the back nine for the third time and be ready for tomorrow, but guys are scrambling around to get their preparation done.
"Thankfully I feel like I have done enough so far."
The 33-year-old McDowell, of Northern Ireland, said the season's final major championship doesn't have the same buzz surrounding it as the other three, possibly because there are a lot more distractions at this time of the golf season.
"It's tough; where does this major rank among the four? There's no doubt it's firmly the fourth major, unfortunately," McDowell said. "I guess it's right in the middle of such a busy stretch of the season.
"We've just come off the US and the British and looking towards the FedEx and The Ryder Cup and there's a lot of golf going on.
"Somehow the buildup to this one seems a bit surreal with the weather and the stop/start nature of it."
Still McDowell says he would give anything to win a Wannamaker Trophy and the $1.44 million first place prize money that goes with it.
"Taking nothing away from this event; it is a fantastic major championship. I was going to say I would give my left arm, but that wouldn't be much good to me."
McDowell has had a sound major championship season so far with his best showing being a tie for second at the US Open. He tied for fifth in the British Open and tied for 12th at the Masters.
"It has been a strong year for me in the majors," he said. "I am very happy with my performances so far."
McDowell is competing in his eighth PGA Championship and has cracked the top 10 once in 2009 at Hazeltine.
But he still hasn't won since beating Tiger Woods in a playoff at the Chevron World Challenge in California to close out a superb 2010 season.
The sea-side Ocean Course will be playing long this week so when he tees off Thursday in a group with Scott Piercy and Matt Kuchar, McDowell will need to have his driver going.
"It is going to be a great test," McDowell said. "When it blows here, the wind is a massive factor. It is a great setup and a very good golf course and fingers crossed we will give a good run at it this week."
Els Feeling Like His Old Self Again
KIawah Island, South Carolina, Aug 8, 2012 (AFP) - Four-time major winner Ernie Els may still be fresh off his British Open victory, but don't think he isn't ready to contend at this week's 94th PGA Championship.
The 42-year-old South African says he had a bit of a lull after his stunning victory at Royal Lytham and St. Anne's, but now his mind is clear and his focus is back.
"It is really nice to be here as a major champion again," Els said during practice on Wednesday. "It has been quite a few years.
"I feel whenever you have a good routine, the pre-shot routine into your golf shots, and you're clear in your mind of what you want to do, there's not too many things flying around in your head.
"And I think that obviously started at the US Open. I felt that and obviously it was a lot better at the (British) Open."
Els said he was on a high and there were a lot of distractions immediately following his British Open victory. But now he has had a couple of weeks to settle things down and round his game back into shape.
"After I won at the Open, I went to the Canadian, I wasn't quite ready to play golf. But now it's been two good weeks.
"Obviously I would have loved to have been home instead, either in London or in Florida. But I had my schedule, didn't play great golf, but over the weekend at Firestone, I started doing some really good work again and could feel my energy coming back and I really started setting my sights on this event.
"I've had really good preparation here this week."
Els is renting a South Carolina beach house with his family just down the road from the Kiawah Island Golf and Country Club. The beach house is also the temporary resting place of the Claret Jug which goes everywhere with Els these days.
"It is travelling with me," said Els, who went a decade between his two British Open titles.
Els, who is ranked 15th in the world, is playing in his third major of the season. He finished ninth at the US Open and did not compete in the Masters.
He has the difficult task of trying to follow a British Open title with a PGA Championship win. The last player to do it was Padraig Harrington four years ago.
Winning back-to-back majors is a rare feat indeed, but in recent years no-one is even winning two majors in a single season. The last 16 majors have had 16 different champions.
Els says with so many good young players coming into their own that pattern may not last very long.
"It seems like a generation comes through every ten years," he said. "And within that ten-year span of a generation, you get certain players that pop up. In our generation, obviously Tiger Woods popped up and he won quite a few majors in his ten-year span.
"I think we are on the brink of getting to the next generation. Who knows, the Keegan Bradleys, Rickie Fowlers, Dustin Johnsons, Adam Scotts, they have not started winning a lot of majors. Keegan has won one and he can win a couple. The next ten years we could see similar guys win majors again."
Scott Says Better Equipped to Deal With Pressure
KIawah Island, South Carolina, Aug 8, 2012 (AFP) - Australia's Adam Scott, who suffered a final round collapse at the British Open three weeks ago, says he is now better prepared to handle the stress of trying to win a major. 
The 32-year-old from Adelaide has vivid memories of handing the victory to Ernie Els by making four consecutive birdies to lose a four-stroke lead in the major championship, but says he has learned from his mistakes.
"This is a great chance for me to kind of get the victory after a tough loss," said Scott, who will tee off Thursday in the first round of the PGA Championship.
"I played the best golf of my career (in the British Open). Unfortunately, I didn't get the win."
World number six Scott heads into the season's final major after finishing tied for 45th at last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He says playing at the Bridgestone helped him iron out some problems with his game.
"I have to take the positive from it and I am getting somewhere now. It took last week, by getting back out and playing, to shake it off fully.
"I was ready to play last week and I didn't play that well. I lost my rhythm slightly throughout the week with my swing.
"I've got one tournament out of the system after the Open. It certainly feels great to have another crack at a major so soon.
"That great play wasn't that long ago so it won't be hard for me to find it again."
Scott has eight top 10 finishes in major championships, including three at the PGA Championship. His best finish was a tie for third six years ago.
In his other major appearances this season, Scott tied for eighth at the Masters and tied for 15th at the US Open.
Winning a major after blowing a lead in the previous one is not unheard of on the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy lost a four-stroke lead at the Masters and turned around and won the following major.
Asked if he had taken time to watch the tape of the British Open, Scott said there was no need.
"I haven't watched the tape," he said. "Not because it's too painful, but because I pretty much know what happened out there. I can re-live it quite clearly."