PGA Clippings, Friday Edition

The early stories all focus on the Tiger-Phil-Geoff pairing. Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian is the most entertaining:

High noon fell at 8.30 yesterday morning in the western suburbs of Chicago, where the 10th tee of Medinah country club sits next to the busiest road junction this side of Hanger Lane. The two protagonists met under the shade of a Homebase gazebo, next to a basket of bananas. "Phil," said Tiger Woods. "Tiger," said Phil Mickelson. They shook hands and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. The bananas straightened in anticipation.

John Garrity had several interesting posts at SI.com. First, he had these remarks from Phil Mickelson (ASAP has not posted a press conference with The People's Champion, but I assume the remarks were made there).

...Phil Mickelson said after his round that he wasn't surprised by the scoring onslaught.

"I think we knew the scores were going to be low because the greens are receptive and they're putting so true," he said. Phil then went on to praise the PGA for its course set-up -– a sure sign that today's conditions are softer than cookie dough. "There's nothing ridiculous about it," he said, "no pin placements that are on slopes, no fairways that are eight yards wide. It's just a good straightforward test of golf, and the low score wins."

It's a miracle! Someone other than Geoff Ogilvy pointing out the absurdity of the USGA's fairway widths.

Garrity also had this interesting post on Phil's unusual post-round range work.

Douglas Lowe's Scottish Herald story looks at Tiger's "attack" on the Medinah greens, which seems a bit excessive. Doesn't Tiger say the greens are bumpy at just about every major?

Ed Sherman has some fun blog riffs on the Geoff-Tiger-Phil pairing and another on the vulnerability of the course.

TGC's Mercer Baggs also offers sights and sounds from the Mickelson-Woods-Ogilvy pairing. I really need an abbreviation or acronym for this pairing.

Iain Carter Daly reports on the false rumor that circulated on the Medinah grounds about John Daly's passing.

And finally, PGATour.com is running a complicated Ryder Cup bubble watch. Only player's friends and family should be trying to figure this out.