Woods a Louisville Slogger

What does this all mean? The first round of the PGA Championship is sunny and the course is dry and Tiger Woods shoots a 66. The second round is mostly overcast and the course is soft and Woods shoots a 67.

Well, if it snows today, Woods is liable to do something really crazy, like putt with a ski pole, birdie every other hole, make root beer floats at the turn and slalom across the finish line with the trophy in one hand.

Hey, don’t think he couldn’t. It’s becoming so that you have to believe Woods is capable of nearly anything, which in this case is leading a major championship.

On Friday at Valhalla Golf Club, Woods was at it again. He came back after a rare bogey at the 17th to make a birdie at the last hole that was worth a one-shot lead at the halfway point of the 82nd PGA Championship.

Woods’ total of 133 is 11 under par and one shot better than Scott Dunlap.

So, what is left for Woods? What separates him from winning his third consecutive major, his fourth in the last five and tying Ben Hogan’s record of three majors in one year? Only two days and 36 holes.

At this point, Woods doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.

“I feel very good,” he said simply. “My game is coming around.”

Coming around? If it was coming around any more, they might call this thing off. But Woods said he isn’t playing quite as well as he wanted to.

“You know you’re not going to hit it great every day,” he said. “You can’t hit it perfect every time [but] it all evens out.”

Dunlap turned in a 68 and tried his best to sound as if he isn’t preoccupied by Woods. So Dunlap tried humor.

“He’s won more majors than I’ve made the cut in,” Dunlap said.

Woods had a chance for a little more breathing room, but he slipped slightly with a bogey at the par-four 17th, where he missed the fairway and later saw his four-foot putt for par spin out of the hole.

That missed putt dropped Woods into a tie with Dunlap, but not for long. At the 18th, Woods dropped his second shot into a bunker and his ball was buried. But he spanked it out to about 15 feet below the hole, then rolled it confidently into the hole for his sixth birdie of the day.

Woods’ playing partner, Jack Nicklaus, also made a birdie on the last hole after nearly holing out from the fairway, but it wasn’t enough for him to make the cut in spite of his 71.

Nicklaus and Woods, followed by the largest gallery of the day, were paired together for the first time in competition during the first round.

Woods said most of the attention rightly belonged to Nicklaus.

“I just quietly shot my 11 under par and nobody noticed,” Woods joked.

More than three inches of rain fell Thursday night and the process of getting the course ready caused a one-hour delay in the start of play. Light rain fell in the morning, but the sky cleared by the afternoon and Valhalla wound up playing softer and a lot longer.

Of course, that didn’t seem to bother Woods much.

But he still isn’t out of the, well, woods. Play was called because of darkness with 11 players still on the course. Davis Love III, who bogeyed the 17th and 18th as darkness fell, finished with a 69.

Joining Love at seven-under 137 are J.P. Hayes and Fred Funk, who each shot 68.

Bob May is sixth, five shots behind Woods, and Stuart Appleby is six shots back.

Hayes said he thinks Woods is dialed in right now.

“I don’t think Tiger is too concerned about anybody else,” he said. “I mean, everybody else looks at him and you can just tell that he is not looking at anybody else.”

Funk, who worked with short-game guru Dave Pelz this week, said he has been reading a lot of stories about how players are scared of Woods. Funk disagreed.

“I don’t think we are scared of Tiger,” he said. “We are amazed at Tiger.”

May is making the most of his first appearance in the PGA Championship. The 32-year-old shot a six-under 66, the same score he shot in the third round at the British Open, where he tied for 11th.

Until Woods played the Nissan L.A. Open at 16, May had been the youngest to play the tournament. Other than that, Woods has about a $17-million lead and 21 tournament victories on May . . . not that May is counting.

Like everyone else, May is impressed by the way Woods has handled the majors this year.

“Majors are usually set up pretty tough,” May said. “Sometimes Tiger doesn’t make them look too tough.”

Dunlap is from Duluth, Ga., and has won tournaments before, just not any you have heard of. His last victory was the 1999 in the Argentine Open.

“I don’t think there will be many bookies tonight taking bets on Scott Dunlap,” he said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MAJOR IMPACT

Tiger Woods has posted par or better in 13 of the 14 rounds he has played in major championships this year. A round-by-round look with his score and relation to the tournament lead:

MASTERS

Augusta National

PAR 72

*--*

Rnd. Score to Lead 1. 75 -7 2. 72 -9 3. 68 -6 4. 68 -6

*--*

U.S. OPEN

Pebble Beach

PAR 71

*--*

Rnd. Score to Lead 1. 65 +1 2. 69 +6 3. 71 +10 4. 67 +15

*--*

BRITISH OPEN

St. Andrews

PAR 72

*--*

Rnd. Score to Lead 1. 67 -1 2. 66 +3 3. 67 +6 4. 69 +8

*--*

PGA

Valhalla Golf Club

PAR 72

*--*

Rnd. Score to Lead 1. 66 Tie 2. 67 +1

*--*

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Tiger Woods 66-67--133 -11

Scott Dunlap 66-68--134 -10

Fred Funk 69-68--137 -7

J.P. Hayes 69-68--137 -7

Davis Love III 68-69--137 -7

Bob May 72-66--138 -6

Stuart Appleby 70-69--139 -5

Thomas Bjorn 72-68--140 -4

Greg Chalmers 71-69--140 -4

Darren Clarke 68-72--140 -4

Phil Mickelson 70-70--140 -4

David Toms 72-68--140 -4

Jeff Sluman 73-69--142 -2

Ernie Els 74-68--142 -2

Tom Kite 70-72--142 -2

Curtis Strange 72-70--142 -2

*

Sitting It Out

Rocco Mediate withdraws from the PGA Championship after suffering injuries when a chair he was sitting in collapsed.

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LEADERS’ CARDS 8

HOLE OF THE DAY 8

SCORES 8