PGA Championship Pairings… Will you take a 1/2 day off work Friday to watch THE pairing??
As noted here, on the PGA.com website for the 2006 PGA Championship, THE pairing will be Phil, Tiger, and Geoff Ogilvy. The rest of the tee-times can be found here in .pdf format.
Phil, Tiger, and Geoff will be starting on #10 at 8:30 am on Thursday and will be starting on #1 at 1:35 pm on Friday.
Granted, it will be nice to have the three major championship winners playing together. However, I am not all that excited about this foresome.
First, it is the first two rounds. And, the goal during those rounds is typically to set yourself up for Saturday’s “Moving day” and Sunday’s final round. Therefore, I doubt that Tiger and others do anything extremely special, except make a bunch of pars and an occasional birdie.
Second, playing with Tiger might make Phil change his game. Part of Phil’s “charm” is his ability to hit the miracle shot or to hit the “crazy”, “outlandish” shot that no one else would ever imagine (think 18th hole of this year’s US Open), but with Phil playing with Tiger, will Phil be afraid to hit the miracle shot for fear of being more deeply critized when Tiger plays the more “intelligent” game like he did at this year’s Open Championship?
Third, part of the fun of watching the majors is that many times the “big name” players play at opposite times. Therefore, allowing the viewing audience to view say Tiger and Ernie one afternoon live and then Phil and Vijay live the next afternoon. This year, with Tiger and Phil together, their afternoon counterparts would be Vijay, Daly, and Jeff Sluman, who tee off at 1:35pm off to ten and then, on friday start at 8:30 off of 1?? However, maybe the “big name” group playing Thursday afternoon is Sergio, Couples, and Els. (1:15pm #1 Th; 8:10am #10 Fri). Either way, if your big TV viewers are Phil’s Phanatics and Tiger’s Wannabees, wouldn’t it be better to have them playing in different waves to ensure more TV viewers?
Anyways, back to the point of this post. Granted, it will be fun to watch Tiger strategically play Medinah and Phil hit it all around Medinah, and quickly compare and contrast why either method is better. But, I will not be taking a 1/2 day from work to make sure that I will be able to watch all 18 holes of their 2nd round.
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