England’s Chris Wood finished off his week at the 91st US PGA Championship with a back-nine 42 on the way to shooting a 79 and a total +15, leaving him tied 76th of the 79 players who made the weekend.

“Couldn’t get anything going, can’t wait to get on the plane and getting home,” he said. Wood didn’t get off to a very good start to his week, either. He was detained at Immigration in Minneapolis because officials didn’t believe he was a professional golfer. Hope no one spots him at the airport or he could get detained for further questioning after posting rounds of 74, 73, 77 and 79. He might have to work
hard under interrogation to explain why he bagged only nine birdies against 43 pars, 16 bogeys and four double bogeys.

This was Wood’s first ever visit to the States and he spent the first 40 minutes trying to convince Immigration officers that he was who he said he was. “They didn’t believe me,” he said. “I was in this room and they kept tapping stuff on a computer and asking me loads of questions. It was a bit of a shock. Not a very good welcome to America. They weren’t very nice. It wasn’t a great experience.”

The 21-year-old from Bristol said he never really got used to dealing with the jet lag and didn’t feel himself this week. It was all very different in July when he tied for third at the Open, following up his fifth at the 2008 Open as an amateur. So it is understandable that his memories of Hazeltine don’t quite match those he has from Turnberry and Royal Birkdale.

“The USPGA just feels like a big tournament but it’s nothing like the Open,” Wood said. Next week he’ll be teeing it up at the KLM Dutch Open, which, he will quickly realise, is nothing like a big tournament.

He’ll also realise that it is the performances at the big tournaments that count. And he has already proved he has the game and temperament to compete at the Major championships. Wood is a young man who admits that he is still on a learning curve. The USPGA was a major disappointment. The KLM Dutch Open will be the perfect place to get back to shooting under par and to get his name back on a leaderboard again.

Where next?

- Enter Golf Monthly competitions
- USPGA Championship news
- USPGA history and records
- Golf blog from Hazeltine
- USPGA pictures from Hazeltine

There was an Englishman who sneaked through the four days of the USPGA at Hazeltine without much fanfare or press coverage, but who will one day remember this tournament as the start of something big.
 
That Englishman was Chris Wood. The 21-year-old from Bristol finished the four days tied 76th which meant only Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth was behind him.  But Chris should not be discouraged; this was his first golf tournament in America. In fact, his first golf of any kind ever in the States.  And he made the cut whereas the likes of Nick Dougherty, Steve Webster and Anthony Wall (English hopefuls with much more experience) had already left Minneapolis and headed home.
 
Chris was desperately disappointed with his performance when I spoke to him afterwards and he looked jaded.  I had followed him all four days and he found it difficult to see the big picture just minutes after walking off the 72nd hole of only his third major tournament. He was proud to play all four rounds, but that will not be enough for the player the Americans dubbed “The Tall Guy”.
 
There were funny moments amidst the disappointment.  No 1 - Chris was given the keys to a brand new Mercedes Benz when he arrived at Minneapolis International Airport which sounds good, but he had never driven a car in America and had a 30-minute drive to his hotel. Thank God for his sat-nav!  No 2 – he put on his waterproofs when his ball was all-but in water on Sunday at he 17th hole and then got wolf whistles from the girls when the waterproof trousers were removed.  No 3 (not so funny) – Chris was detained for 40 minutes by US customs officials when he arrived in Minneapolis because his visa looked amiss, plus they didn’t believe someone who looked so young was playing in the USPGA.

On the downside, Chris didn’t cope well with the jet lag and his whole body never adapted; tight hamstrings were causing muscle spasms in his back, so add those problems to a cold putter and you can see why the 21-year-old was glad to get the USPGA over and done with.
 
When Chris gets home and talks to his coach Paul Mitchell in a couple of weeks, they will know that the learning will stand him in good stead for the WGC Matchplay next year, let alone the Masters. Plus, Chris has to remember that only last November, he was battling through Q School.
 
Now, it looks like this elegant ball striker is – along with Rory McIlroy – probably our brightest young British hope. He is intelligent, focused and outrageously determined. Chris never settles for just OK and he will soon be rivaling Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington in the time-on-the-range contest.
 
The Tall Guy is a good bet to one day become The Main Guy.  
 
Ross Biddiscombe writes extensively about Chris Wood in his latest book, Golf On The Edge 2: Q School Complete available at golfonthedge.co.uk.

Where next?

- Enter Golf Monthly competitions
- USPGA Championship news
- USPGA history and records
- Golf blog from Hazeltine
- USPGA pictures from Hazeltine

Have you heard the one about the Irishman, the Swede and the Dane chasing an American around a field in Minneapolis?

Europe’s challenge to Tiger Woods at the USPGA has come down to Padraig Harrington, Henrik Stenson and Soren Kjeldsen.

“To get a win, you’ve got to beat Tiger by three tomorrow; that’s a tall order,” Harrington said, -6 after a third-round 69 and tied 2nd with Korea’s Y E Yang, two shots adrift of leader, Woods.

“Everybody wants to see a battle.  Everybody hopes the underdog catches up. But when he catches up, ultimately, they want the hero to win, as usual. That’s the way all the storybooks are written. I get the impression there’s a lot of people cheering me on, wanting me to push him along, but they still want Tiger to win,” he said laughing. “I’m happy to fill that role, and you never know what happens over the last nine holes.”

Keeping Harrington company on the leaderboard is Sweden’s Henrik Stenson. He is -4 after a third-round 68 and tied 4th. And he did it all without once having to strip down to his underwear. “If I can be up there within three of the lead when we turn into the back nine, it’s time to play a little bit more aggressive, make a couple of putts and see what happens,” he said.

Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen is at -3 and tied 6th. He’s Europe’s sleeping giant, walking quietly about his business but carrying a bag of big sticks. He has won four times in Europe, including this year’s Andalucia Open but the only interesting fact about him is that he ran a marathon in 1997 just for the, ahem, fun of it. His time: three hours, 54 minutes. Which is about the same time he’ll take on Sunday to find out if he’ll become his country’s Great Dane. He’ll probably hit the wall somewhere on the back nine.

But where have all the Brits gone? At the start of the third round, England had Ross Fisher tied second, and Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter tied third. By Saturday night, a +1 par 73 left Westwood tied 13th at -1 and Fisher fell back into a tie for 8th at -2 after a third-round +1 par 73. Poulter tweeted on Saturday morning: “Just ironed my outfit for the day and put my laundry on for the week.” After a 76, he’s all washed up at +2 and tied 26th.

Still, at least his beloved Arsenal won. “Go on the Arsenal 6 - 1 today,” Poulter tweeted. “Great first game of the season, can’t wait to watch highlights, better than watching my lowlights of the day.” Well, yes. Point well tweeted.

Buckle up, Tiger stats fans. Essential stuff you need to know going into the weekend.

1. There’s always a defining moment at sports events. It normally comes on Sunday afternoon at golf tournaments. The Majors don’t start until the back nine on Sunday, say the players. Well, the 91st USPGA was all but done on the back nine on Friday. This week’s defining moment came when Tiger Woods was still leading at the halfway stage. He’s eight from eight when leading after 36 holes at the Majors. When leading PGA tournaments after the second round he has won 32 out of 38 times. After three rounds it’s 47 out of 50. Worldwide in all tournaments he has won 50 out of 56. “He’s plays nice golf,” as Padraig said here. Yes he does, doesn’t he?

2. Tiger is marching to Major No.15. If Tiger does win the PGA, then follows up next year with the Masters (Augusta) and US Open (Pebble Beach), he has a chance to tie Jack Nicklaus at the Open at the home of golf, St Andrews, the course where Jack retired from in 2005. How’s that for an historical coincidence. Tiger could then erase Jack from the record books by winning the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits to complete a calendar Grand Slam. OK, that’s a lot of ifs and buts, but it is Tiger we are talking about here.

3. Tiger versus Jack: who’s the greatest? This is Tiger’s 50th Major. He’s won 29 percent of his 49 starts. Jack won 24 percent of his first 49 Majors.

4. Tiger won his 70th Tour event at last week’s WGC event at Bridgestone, aged 33. Jack was 40 when he got to 70 victories He was 46 when he won his 73rd and last. Tiger could quite possibly topple that stat this year. Then he’ll be chasing Sam Snead’s 82. After that, there’s just immortality.

5. This is Tiger’s 12th year on tour. He has won 30 percent of the tournaments he has played in. That’s 70 out of 234. In Jack’s first 12 years, he won 21 percent (52 out of 253). Tiger has five victories this season already (and counting).

Right, I’ve now got headache after all that number-crunching. Time for an ice cream.

In the media hotel time for a cold shower. Dozens of delicious models have checked into the media hotel. Imagine their excitement at seeing before them a throng of overweight, middle-aged hard-drinking golf hacks who have been away from home for too long, eyes on stalks and tongues on the floor. Maybe they’re a gift from the PGA. It sure beats another polo shirt.

Opposite the media hotel it’s hell on earth. The largest shopping mall in the States is across the car park. It’s a squillion metres of piped musak, brightly coloured
family-friendly restaurants and enough shops to reduce Paris Hilton to tears. It gets worse. It’s so huge, there’re enough space in the middle for a water flume, rollercoaster and big wheel – for husbands to hurl themselves off. Think Alton Towers in the middle of Bluewater. Nurse!

Inside the media center (sic) Déjà vu all over again. The Golf Channel has been airing Tin Cup every morning on the giant plasma screen in the media center (sic again). It’s all very well but I no longer know what day it is. I’ve seen Kevin Costner
hit more shots this week than any other golfer here.

More inside the media center (sic thrice) Happy finish? There is a booth at the back of the interview room offering massages at $1 per minute. “Sit back and relax,” says the sign on the window. What sort of a sordid cheap gin joint is the PGA of
America running here? I would be tempted – except the two fine ladies inside have hands like shovels that look capable of breaking limbs. The look in their eyes also suggests they would enjoy the snapping sound, too.

In the championship Fashion news: In a tribute to the late, great Payne Stewart, who won his first US Open at Hazeltine, the cut has fallen here at plus-4. There’ll be 19 plus-fours on show at the weekend. They won’t include Sergio Garcia, who double-bogeyed his last hole to miss the cut by one shot. And who ever looked dapper in plus-fives?

It's a wonder Ian Poulter can find any time in the day to spike up his hair. When he's not playing golf, he seems to be constantly twittering on about this, that the other on his twitter page.

This is what he twittered (twitter.com/ianjamespoulter) but didn't say to reporters after his first round on Thursday. "Level par just doesn't sound right after playing so well. Oh well shit happens." And this after his second round of -2. "Sitting on the sofa, feet up, watching the golf, diet coke in hand. The wind has got up. It's going to be fun to watch.

I even know what Poulter had for breakfast: raisin bran, two poached eggs on toast, bowl of fruit, cup of tea, glass of fresh orange. "Happy days" Poulter twittered. "Friday is about to begin. Come on!"

The bran flakes clearly got him up and running fast (sorry about that). He got to -3 before the Curse of the Association of Golf Writers struck him down. As soon as I caught him up at the 17th (his eighth), wham, bogey, then bam, double bogey at the 10th. He missed the fairway, then flew across the green into the rough, then stabbed a chip two yards further into the rough, then scuttled the next chip four feet passed the hole and missed the putt. Phew. "I made a little bit of a mental error on the par chip, hit it too hard," he said. I made a mental
error forgetting about the Curse. I stopped watching to give him a chance to recover.

Curse duly lifted, Poulter bagged two birdies coming in to get into a top-10 position going into the weekend. "It's just a shame I didn't take advantage of the par fives today," he said behind the 18th green. "I just think that a couple of par fives out there which may only be in range for probably five
players."

Back in the house he is sharing with Ross Fisher and Graeme McDowell, Poulter is getting a pasting from Fisher playing tennis on their Xbox. "He's killing me. "He's doin my head in," Poulter said. "I will slap him if he keeps doing it," he twittered.

And with that he disappeared into the clubhouse to eat and tweet. Feet up, laptop on, golf on, just been fed, had my massage, might dose off on the sofa. That's Poulter, not me.

Give a hand to those plucky club pros. Bless 'em. The PGA Championship is their favourite Major. They get a chance to tee it up in the same tournament as Tiger and Phil and Paddy (as they call Harrington here) to see how they measure up. And to pretend they coulda been contenders. News flash: they don’t measure up and they couldn’t ever have been contenders.

There are 17 of them at Hazeltine. For them, it’s two days of glory then it’s back to the day job stacking polo shirts and trying to teach hackers how to cure their slice. Dead last at 156th, from New Hartford, New York, is 41-year-old Kevin Roman. He came, he saw, he conked out with a +15 87. Heck he’s not even the head honcho. He’s assistant pro at the beautifully named Cherokee Town and Country in Atlanta, Georgia. He got to the 91st PGA Championship via a two-hole play-off after finishing tied 16th at the PGA Professional National Championship. It took poor Roman until his 16th hole (the 7th) to bag his only birdie to light up a day blighted by seven bogies, three doubles and one triple. Still he’ll get to tell his grandchildren the story of the day he played two rounds at the USPGA with, ahem, Louis Ooosthuizen from South Africa (even par 70) and Matt Kuchar (five over 77) from Augusta, Georgia.

This is not Roman’s first campaign among the tour pro ranks. He played in the 1993 US Open and missed the cut and has had four stabs at the BC Open and missed all four cuts. Begging the question, what has the Roman ever done for us? Top club pro after the first round is 31-year-old Grant Sturgeon from Cave City, Kentucky. Sounds like he had a tough upbringing with the Flintstones as neighbours. Sturgeon bogeyed the 1st then ran out 17 pars for a one over par 73. He’s tied 44th and can dine out for the rest of his life telling tales of how he matched the scores of Open champion Stewart Cink, US Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin, as well as Anthony Kim, Henrik Stenson and Jim Furyk.

News just in: And it's good news for Roman. He won’t finish last, after all. John Daly just posted a 78 and withdrew with a bad back. "Ah, listen up, kids, lemme tell you about the day I whipped JD..."

Where next?

- Enter Golf Monthly competitions
- USPGA Championship news
- USPGA history and records
- Golf blog from Hazeltine
- USPGA pictures from Hazeltine  

Lots of Blazers are getting jolly excited at Hazeltine with the announcement that golf has been recommended to rejoin the Olympics in 2016, after a break of 112 years since its last appearance in Paris in 1904. The Games will have to change their slogan: Faster, higher, further – slower.

But will Tiger Woods play? “If I’m not retired by then, yeah,” he said smiling. His playing partner today, Padraig Harrington, was also keen to get his hands on an Olympic gold medal. “It would be right up there with the majors,” Harrington said. “I would love to be an Olympian. Doesn’t that sound good?

Out on the course, the pairing of Harrington and Woods (oh, and Rich Beem) was the Gold Medal Stellar Show for Day 1. It was already 70F at 8am as fans were crammed five-deep outside the ropes all along the first fairway waiting for them to tee off at 8.35. Doesn’t anybody work in Chaska, Minnesota?

I’m beginning to see Olympic themes at every corner today. It’s Five Rings Fever, apparently. On the 11th hole, there was very nearly a bout of Greco-Romano wrestling on the green. Alvaro Quiros’ second shot to the par 5 came plopping onto the green just as Padraig, Tiger and, oh yeah, Beem, were putting.

Padraig sent Quiros a Death Stare back down the fairway. Luckily for Quiros, Tiger and, oh yeah, Beem, just laughed. Quiros is a tall athletic lad, but he would have been no match for Tiger’s biceps in a grapple. The Spaniard ran over to apologise. Phew, fisticuffs averted.

If juggling gets into the Olympics, that would be another gold medal event for Tiger and the USA. Waiting to tee off at the par three 13th, he was tossing his ball into the air, bouncing it off the biceps of his right arm and catching the ball again. Just the sort of thing we all do - without the biceps, obviously. And we’d drop the ball and have to retrieve it from down the side of the tee.

Special policemen are following the group. They have the letters ATF on their caps. What does it stand for? Aggressive, Tough, Fighters? Annihilate The Foreigners? Nope. “We’re the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,” growled one. Their Christmas parties must be legendary.

Big, bigger, biggest, biggester. Everything has to be the biggesterest in America. There’s a Stars and Stripes flag fluttering outside my hotel room the size of a tennis court. The ice-creams are as big as house bricks. The cars are as big as trucks. The trucks are as big as trains. The trains are…you get the picture.

And Hazeltine golf course in the longest in Major championship history, weighing in at a ludicrous 7,674 yards. And the PGA of America is handsomely proud of its bigness. Geoff Ogilvy isn’t. “Looking forward to playing a Major one day that doesn’t promote itself as the longest ever,” said the 2006 US Open champion. It does seem that golf’s championship committees have embarked on a macho testosterone war. You know, “My dad’s got a bigger car than your dad.” The previous owner of bragging rights to the longest Major course ever was 2004 USPGA course Whistling Straits, tipping the scales at 7,536 yards. Next year’s PGA returns to Whistling Straits. Bet they’re already buying up the neighbouring real estate to put Hazeltine back in its place.

But this year, there are three par 5s over 600 yards for the first time in a Major. “I noticed that. It’s kind of funny,” said medium-hitter Jim Furyk. He was being ironic. Then how’s this for showing how tough those PGA Blazer guys are: the 518-yards par-4 12th is the longest par 4 in Major championship history and the 13th is the longest ever par 3 at 248 yards. They come sandwiched between the 606-yard, par-5 11th and the, wait for it, 642-yard, par-5 15th. It’s exhausting just typing those numbers.

“We’re probably going to have an 8,000-yards course,” Furyk said. “That’s just the fad today. You know, longer, longer, longer is better. But longer doesn’t necessarily make it better.” Lee Westwood agrees. “We’re in the entertainment industry,” he said. “I would rather watch people make birdies than hacking out of the rough and making bogey. How about you? You’re maybe sadistic, I don’t know.” Tell that to the PGA Big is Best fetishists.

The only thing we Brits have at Hazeltine that can compete in the Big is Beautiful Heavyweight Contest bigger is, ahem, Colin Montgomerie. Europe’s Ryder Cup captain has piled on the pounds again to reveal a middle-aged belly overhang that suggests he has been enjoying rather too many executive lunches lately while schmoozing the International Olympic Committee into allowing golf into the Games in 2016. Big, quite frankly, is not always beautiful.

Where next?

- Enter Golf Monthly competitions
- USPGA Championship news
- USPGA history and records
- Golf blog from Hazeltine
- USPGA pictures from Hazeltine