Things Not Right at PGA, as Cochran Leads by Two

Three hours away, down there on the banks of the Ohio River, is a small Kentucky city called Paducah, until now famous mostly for mud, but Russ Cochran is working hard to change all that.

Russ who? Well, he’s the left-handed golfer who didn’t swing his clubs as if he was beating a rug, which the more famous lefty did Saturday at Valhalla Golf Club.

All Cochran did was throw a course-record 65 at the place and take a two-shot lead over some of the best-known players in professional golf as the last round begins today in the 78th PGA Championship.

And for anyone who finds this even the least bit surprising, well, Cochran says, just move over and make some room.

“I haven’t figured this crazy game out,” Cochran said.

Maybe, but for one day he surely had Valhalla’s number.

It’s not often that you shoot a course record. And it’s not every day that you are the 54-hole leader at a major.

In fact, in Cochran’s case, it’s never before. He certainly didn’t feel anything special was stirring.

“You never know when a great round is going to come,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have thought that I’d be leading at all.”

Well, that’s what you get for thinking. Cochran, whose 205 total is 11 under par, is pursued most closely by Mark Brooks and Vijay Singh. They shot matching 69s and are at nine-under 207 after three rounds.

Brooks holed out from the fairway from 171 yards on the 15th hole for an eagle and that put him in the middle of things in a hurry. Not that he minded, of course.

“You’ve got guys up here who have won, won majors, so your guess is as good as mine what will happen,” said Brooks, who has won six times, but none a major.

Meanwhile, nobody could have guessed what happened to Phil Mickelson.

The more accomplished left-hander in the field flubbed his way to a two-over 74 and fell to a tie for fourth place at 208. He is joined there by defending champion Steve Elkington after a 67 and two-time PGA champion Nick Price, who had a 69.

Greg Norman, Justin Leonard, Kenny Perry, Jesper Parnevik and Mike Brisky are four shots behind at 209.

Mickelson’s day smelled a lot like that pool of brackish water over by the ninth tee. He said goodbye to the lead at the 13th when he double-bogeyed the par- four after knocking his second shot into the water, then bogeyed the 15th.

Among the top 19 players, Mickelson was the only one who shot over par Saturday.

“I wish I was that other lefty right now,” Mickelson said.

It has been a long, hard road to the front row of a major for Cochran, 37, who started playing at the age of 10 with a set of borrowed women’s clubs because those were the only left-handed clubs he could find.

Cochran turned pro in 1979, didn’t get his tour card until his third try at qualifying school, won the Western Open in 1991, but lost his PGA Tour card last year when he finished No. 131 on the money list.

The cutoff was at No. 130. Cochran had missed by $696.

So, at 37, he had to go back to qualifying school again last fall. This time, he earned his playing privileges again, but he didn’t make much of the opportunity.

Cochran didn’t have enough prize money to qualify for the PGA until two weeks ago when he finished second at New England and won $129,600.

Cochran’s best finish in a major is a tie for seventh at the 1992 PGA, so he doesn’t exactly have anything to compare this experience to. But when pressed to come up with something, he decided it was pretty close to the excitement of a Kentucky Wildcat basketball game.

So Cochran slam-dunked the first two holes and birdied four of the first six, including a curling 20-foot birdie putt on No. 4. While Mickelson was struggling behind him, Cochran moved to 10 under and into the lead with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 13th and a six-footer for birdie on the 15th.

With a pro-Paducah crowd cheering, Cochran showed he knew how to close. He chipped to two feet on the par-five 18th, gently rolled in the birdie putt and then remembered how badly he used to feel standing on the greens.

“I’ve played tournaments even four weeks ago where I couldn’t make it from three feet, you know, two feet,” he said.

“I’m sure I’ll be nervous Sunday, but I’ve tried my guts out and played poorly before, and you just go out and say, ‘The heck with it. Just go hit it.’ ”

Actually, he isn’t the only Cochran in the family saying things about how he’s playing the golf tournament. Jackie Cochran is writing a daily guest column for the Lexington Herald-Leader about her husband.

In her column Saturday, Jackie revealed that Russ and the kids watched “Gilligan’s Island” in the morning.

That’s probably as good a preparation as any, especially for a guy who has missed 11 cuts in 20 tournaments this year and whose PGA Championship scorecard reads 10 trips, six cuts.

Part of his problems recently have been because of a disk injury, which caused him to miss three months and still have a residual effect.

“After you come back, the pressure is on to make a lot of money,” he said. “It’s kind of relentless, to be honest.”

Price, who won the PGA in 1992 and 1994, doesn’t believe that Cochran will dry up and blow away. But that doesn’t mean the pressure will be elsewhere.

“All eyes are going to be on him,” Price said.

He’s that left-handed guy from Paducah.

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PGA Leaders

Russ Cochran: 68-72-65--205

Mark Brooks: 68-70-69--207

Vijay Singh: 69-69-69--207

Steve Elkington: 67-74-67--208

Nick Price: 68-71-69--208

Phil Mickelson: 67-67-74--208

5 tied at 209