Singh's caddie a vanishing breed

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – There’s something eye-catching about Jeev Milkha Singh’s caddie, and it’s not the brand-new, rainbow-colored Nike running shoes.

Janet Squire, 38, is one of only two female caddies at the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills, and is believed to be just one of two fulltime female loopers on all the major professional tours. Fanny Suneson, who gained fame as Nick Faldo’s caddie, and now works for Henrik Stenson, is the other.

“There were a few around, about six or seven of us 10 or 12 years ago,” Squire said as Singh signed for a 74 Friday to go into the weekend at 2 over par, three off the lead of J.B. Holmes. “Jarmo’s girlfriend used to caddie, Patrick Sjoland’s girlfriend, Stephen Ames’s wife caddied.”

Neither a wife nor a girlfriend (although she “might” have a boyfriend somewhere, she says), Squire, a 15-year caddie on the European Tour, got the call from Singh in April.

“She’s been on the tour for years, and I’ve seen her around,” Singh said. “She wanted to come to the U.S. Masters, she’d never been. I said, ‘Jan, let’s go.’ I finished 25th, so it was good. We’ve had two wins in five weeks. I think Janet’s been great, she keeps me calm out there, she’s very positive. It’s been a good relationship so far.”

A resident of Sunningdale, England, Squire began learning the trade at 13 “with the boys” at her town’s famous club. “They’ve shown me the way,” she said, and so have some world-class golfers. Before Singh, Squire spent eight years working for Jamie Spence, two for Matthias Gronberg and two for Mark Roe.

All of which makes her not so different from every other caddie in the professional game. Singh has had female house caddies while playing in Asia, but Squire is his first fulltime professional female caddie. He says it’s no big deal, except for one thing.

“Sometimes when you get angry, and there’s a woman on the bag, you want to watch your language then,” he said, laughing.

(Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

PGA Championship still a non-starter

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- With the 90th PGA Championship being played just outside the Motor City, it must be said that the tournament so far is like a promising-looking car whose engine refuses to turn over.

Sergio Garcia birdies the par-5 12th hole, then sticks his tee shot on 13 to around six feet for possibly his second birdie in a row and a share of the lead. Of course he misses the putt.

Phil Mickelson reaches a greenside bunker on 12 with his second shot, but fails to get up and down, cards a dispiriting par and stays at 1 over.

Here's what the Detroit Free Press printed about its own hometown tournament today:

With Tiger missing in action, unknowns taking the lead, a weather delay and the mayor's jail time dominating the news, the first round was one of the most forgettable in major history.

What it didn't mention was the beginning of the Beijing Olympics, but you get the point.

The Detroit News chimed in with a column by Lynn Henning headlined: "Opening round is very quiet."

The piece cited the depressed local economy, the lack of Tiger and the lack of birdies on a course that recalls not so much a normal PGA but a U.S. Open.

Mickelson was practicing his putting at 10:30 a.m. Friday, well before his tee time, calmly stroking ball after ball for several minutes. He was watched by 14 people, some of them volunteers.

But wait! Mickelson just birdied 13, just one off the lead; maybe this baby will turn over yet.

Sergio's Stubble

I find it highly ironic on the day that the New York Times has a review of the Central Park revival of "Hair" that Sergio Garcia sports the unshaven look. Maybe there's the Samsonesque thought that the whiskers will add 10 yards to his tee shots. (Maybe he should trim them back and hope that a clean shave will help him find more fairways.)

The odd Frank Nobilo and Dave Pelz aside, facial hair has been largely out of vogue among golfers since Old Tom Morris passed from the scene. Those of us with beards are sometimes made painfully aware that we are going very much against the grain of the well-scrubbed, clean-shaven country-club look. And when it comes to smooth faces, the PGA Tour rivals the New York Yankees clubhouse.

So...what do you think? Should Sergio run for his razor and give himself a clean, close shave before his next round?

(Photo: Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

J.B. Holmes bludgeons Oakland Hills with driver

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- On an Oakland Hills course infamous for its gnarly rough, the clubhouse leader J.B. Holmes bucked convention by swinging for the fences. Bombing his driver "exactly where I was looking" every time he swung it, Holmes made five birdies and shot a second-round 68 to get to one under overall.

"I hit a couple out there that might've got close to 400 [yards]," said Holmes, who is averaging 337.5 yards off the tee on measured drives this week, first in the field.

He left himself only 65-70 yards to the green on the 435-yard first hole, then reached the par-5 second with a driver ("that was close to 400, probably") and a wedge to 12 feet from the pin. His eagle putt grazed the edge of the hole but wouldn't fall.

Holmes drove the green on the 300-yard, par-4 6th hole and two-putted for birdie, and was left with only an 8-iron to reach the 593-yard, par-5 12th hole in two. He missed the green, but got up and down for birdie. He estimated after the round that he hit driver on 10 of 14 possible holes.

"I played great," he said. "I hit the ball well. I left a few putts out there, but overall it was a very good ball-striking round, is probably the best way to describe it."

 

Walker: Live blogging Round 2 of the PGA Championship

Stuck at the office with no TV? Fear not, Michael Walker Jr., senior editor for GOLF Magazine, is here Friday to fill you in on all the goings-on at Oakland Hills. Stay with him from 4-7 p.m. EST as he live blogs the broadcast. John Garrity, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, blogged the early coverage. Join the conversation by posting comments at the link below.

John Daly working with Rick Smith

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- With only four made cuts in 17 starts on the PGA and European tours in 2008, and a highly publicized he said/he said with coach Butch Harmon, John Daly needed a fresh start.

The oft-troubled two-time major champion got one when he called Northern Michigan's Rick Smith, the former coach of Phil Mickelson.

"We started working together Sunday out at Oakland University," Smith said while following Daly in the second round of the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills on Friday.

The practice session lasted seven hours, according the Greg Johnson of The Grand Rapids Press, who also had this quote from Daly: "I haven't been able to feel like I've finished a swing for months now, and Rick has me feeling it again."

On Friday, after trying to drive the green on the 300-yard, par-4 sixth hole, and ending up short and left, Daly chipped to six feet above the hole. He missed the birdie putt and the crowd groaned.

"Oh, he needed to make that," Smith said. Daly was at eight over par. The cut looked like it was going to be seven over.

Then came the killing stroke. On his 16th hole, the 449-yard, par-4 seventh, Daly pulled out a hybrid club instead of his trusty driver. It was one of his few conservative plays all day, but he still lost his tee shot right.

Smith: "Did that go in the lake?"

It did.

Daly made bogey to fall to nine over par, then bogeyed the next hole to drop to +10. It was slipping away.

Still, Daly-watchers could see a change. Smith has been trying to get him to fire his right side through the ball, and while Long John hit just two of 14 fairways Friday (compared to seven of 14 Thursday), he didn't miss by much. A handful of drives rolled just inches into the rough Friday, which spells doom at Oakland Hills. Other tee shots, such as his drive off the 435-yard first hole, were dead solid perfect.

Smith is also trying to change Daly's ball position with both the driver (he was teeing it too high and had it too far forward in his stance) and his putter (his eyes weren't far enough over the ball).

Daly shot 80-89 at the British Open last month, and he hasn't made a cut on the PGA Tour since the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico in late February. He tried submitting to the tutelage of the no-nonsense Harmon earlier this year, but the two had a falling out over Daly's off-course habits and feuded in the media about whether or not those habits constituted alcoholism.

So the prodigiously talented golfer with the prodigious appetites called Smith, who coached world No. 2 Mickelson while the lefthander was winning three majors, among several other tournaments. Whether or not Daly will last under Smith any longer than he did under Harmon remains to be seen, but he refused to give up Friday -- a good sign for a player who has tanked in the past. Daly stiffed his approach shot to the 219-yard ninth hole, his last of the day, and made the short putt for birdie. He finished nine over, probably a stroke or two south of the cut line but better than playing partner Vijay Singh (76-76, 12 over).

Daly signed a few hats and programs, then walked past a clot of waiting reporters.

"C'mon, Rick, let's go eat," he said. He walked to the door of the player dining room, took off his sunglasses and gazed back at the course. He'd shot 74-75, and hit a lot of good shots. He'd likely missed another cut.

(Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
   

Ben Curtis, a young lion

Ben Curtis doesn't get the same respect that most major championship winners do. It might have something to do with the fact that he's wearing Detroit Lions-logo gear this week.

"Yeah, I've heard a lot of comments," Curtis said Friday, sporting a black and Hawaiian-blue shirt and Lions-logo cap thanks to his endorsement deal with the National Football League. "They're like, 'No way he can win this week with the luck of the Lions.'"

The Lions have been hopeless, but Curtis isn't. The 2003 British Open champion and former Kent State University star is a legit threat to take this week's PGA Championship. This is his kind of course. He drives it straight, not long, has a great short game and makes a lot of pars. It was his scrambling skills that won him the British at Royal St. George's, and it was par saves on the last three holes Friday afternoon that finished off the 67 that got him to 140, even par, going into the weekend. Even par is usually a good score at Oakland Hills.

Curtis tends to make birdies in bunches when they do come, hence his wins at two memorably but defunct tournaments, the '06 Booz Allen Classic and '84 Lumber Classic. He doesn't contend on a regular basis, he isn't consistent, and that, plus his lack of glamour power, is why he tends to be overlooked. Anybody remember him finishing second at this year's Wachovia Championship? Didn't think so. Did you notice he was seventh at Royal Birkdale in all that wind? Doubtful.

The 67 was a nice bounce-back from a bad finish Thursday, when he played the last eight holes in six over par. He's not worried about winning another major. "I've proven myself out here, I don't have to prove anything to anyone," he said. He's not worried about making the Ryder Cup team, although he would love to. He's 20th on the points list but he has more pressing issues at the moment, such as figuring out ways to make pars at Oakland Hills.

The winners at this course known as "The Monster" have usually been big hitters or great scramblers. Curtis is the latter. Don't let the Lions wardrobe fool you. He can win this.

(Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Rough brushing a 'legit practice'

After a rough go at it in yesterday’s first round, Lee Westwood had a go at the rough, claiming that the maintenance team had made the grass unfairly penal by brushing the blades toward the tees. “I can’t think of a reason why they would do it other than to irritate the players,” said Westwood, after a seven-over-par 77. “[The rough] is five inches long. Why brush it back at us? It makes no sense.”

Actually, it makes perfect sense, says Matthew Burrows, the superintendent of another rough-choked monster, Winged Foot Golf Club. 

“I think it is a legitimate practice, and a really intelligent practice,” Burrows said this morning. “The idea is to have nice, dense upright rough, particularly at a major, and raking the rough provides a good amount of consistency.”

Raking, or brushing, he added, is all but a necessity given the number of spectators, golf carts and maintenance vehicles that trample the grass of a major site throughout the week.

Burrows was not the Winged Foot super when the U.S. Open visited the club in 2006, but he was on the Winged Foot team when the club hosted the PGA in 1997, when, he said, “We definitely had some guys raking up some rough.” 

Steve Cook, the Oakland Hills caretaker, wasn’t available for comment — out brushing, no doubt.

Friday's Hole Locations at Oakland Hills Offer No Breaks

The hardest hole on the course at Oakland Hills Thursday was the finisher, the 498-yard, par-4 18th. Uphill all the way, players have to hit a long-iron, hybrid club or fairway wood into a green with a spine splitting the putting surface into right and left sections. It played to a stroke average of 4.6122

The 227-yard, par-3 ninth was also brutal and played to 3.5238.

With scoring conditions as tough as they were, and players saying that the PGA Championship seemed to be morphing into a U.S. Open, there was speculation that the PGA of America might make the course a touch easier on Friday. After all, no rain is in the forecast, so the greens will likely get even firmer and faster.

Think again.

A quick glance at the pin sheet for Friday's second round shows that the flag on the ninth hole is nine paces from the front and four paces from the left edge. That means the bunkers that guard the left side will be in play, and competitors will aim well right, leaving themselves 30- and 40-foot snake-like birdie putts. That is, if they hit the green.

At the 18th hole, the cup will be nine paces in from the front edge and nine paces from the left edge. That means the enormous Y-shaped bunker on the left-front portion of the green will be looming, so many players will again bail out to the right, leaving a putt over the ridge in the middle of the green. And remember, guys will be hitting to this green from more than 200 yards, so getting on the dance floor in the first place won't be automatic.

Have fun fellas!

Garrity: Live blogging Round 2 of the PGA Championship

Stuck at the office with no TV? Fear not, John Garrity, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, will be here Friday to fill you in on all the goings-on at Oakland Hills.  Stay with him from 1-4 p.m. EST as he live blogs the broadcast.  Michael Walker Jr., senior editor for GOLF Magazine,  will be here at 4 p.m. to blog the late coverage. Join the conversation by posting comments at the link below.