Weir stays in hunt
By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- At a major championship the best players, the smart players, seldom chew up par.
No, they cherish it. They respect it. They seek it out.
Success here is not measured in birdies and eagles. It is measured by white-knuckle par-saves manufactured by guile and guts.
For most of the first 36 holes of this PGA Championship played over one of golf's great thrill rides here at Oak Hill Country Club, nobody has nurtured par with more care and imagination than Mike Weir.
He has struggled at times with his ball-striking and for most of the players in this championship that would have been a recipe for disaster. At Oak Hill, punishment is severe and immediate for those who hit wayward shots. The rough is like barbed wire and now, after days of sunshine and warm breezes, the moisture is leaving the greens, making them firm and fast.
For Weir it has been a high-wire act that showcases his remarkable ability to create a shot when none seems obvious.
Yesterday's round was ugly to start and even uglier to finish but, in between, Weir demonstrated the same magic that earned him a green jacket at Augusta National last April.
It also allowed him to stay right in contention for his second major title of the year. Until he stumbled at the final two holes of his round, making back-to-back bogeys, Weir was nursing a small lead but Shaun Micheel swept past him.
Three times now in this tournament, Weir has chipped in from thick greenside rough, including once yesterday for birdie at the par-4 15th. At other times he has got up and down for key pars when bogey looked inevitable.
"It's really important to be able to get the ball up and down, even from some difficult spots," Weir said. "It's especially important when you're not hitting it that great.
"You're going to go through patrches on this golf course when you're not hitting the fairway. You're going to miss some greens and some of them are going to have to be creative ups and downs. I made some nice ones (yesterday)."
Early on yesterday, Weir was sloppy off the tee, putting himself in some tough spots. He saved a par at No. 10, his first hole of the day, with a remarkable flop shot from a difficult lie behind the green. He made a bogey at 12, again missing a fairway and paying for it, then made a sloppy bogey at the 14th.
"I had an easy little chip and it went about 10 feet by," he said. 'I felt like I wasted one there.
"Then I go on to 15, hit it into a horrible lie and then knocked it in. That calmed me down and I started to play some really good golf after that."
On the front side, Weir made birdies at the second and fourth holes and, while others all around him were floundering with the difficult conditions, he opened up a two shot lead before coming back to earth just as Micheel caught fire.
At his 17th hole, (No. 8) with a two-shot advantage, Weir ripped his drive long and straight, 290 yards right down the middle, allowing himself a chance to entertain thoughts of a birdie to increase his lead.
But his wedge from 137 yards was not only short of the flag, it finished 10 yards short of the green. After he pitched it up to five feet, he missed the par-saving putt.
"I caught a big gust of wind," Weir said.
Then, at the ninth, his last hole of the day, he left his drive in the left rough then, inexcusably, didn't get back to the fairway when he tried to wedge it out. He left his third shot just off the front of the green, some 80 feet from the hole. He chipped it to four feet and made the bogey putt, losing any chance for some breathing room.
Indeed, when Micheel poured in birdie putts at three of his last four holes, Weir and Billy Andrade were relegated to second spot but well-positioned to handle the pressures of the coming weekend.
"I've become more and more comfortable with these situations and have obviously succeeded in the past," Weir said. "I'm really looking forward to the next two days."
Given the pained looks on many of the players' faces here yesterday, not everyone agrees. Then again, not everybody here has a green jacket.
