He swore he wouldn’t be nervous, that his experience playing all over the world and winning in such locales as Manitoba and Argentina and South Africa had prepared him for this moment.
But as Scott Dunlap strode to the first tee Saturday afternoon at Valhalla Golf Club, preparing to tee off in the final pairing of the third round of the 82nd PGA Championship with Tiger Woods, some of those lessons faded. Nerves jangled. Eyes burned holes in the back of his head.
Hitting a golf ball is hard. Hitting a golf ball while battling butterflies the size of Woods’ endorsement contracts is impossible.
And then a funny thing happened on the way to Chokesville. Dunlap birdied the second hole. Gallery support swelled. He found himself enjoying the immense pressure and the eye-widening life experience.
“It was going to be fun if I played well or miserable if I didn’t,” he said. “Much like the rest of the golfing world, I was one of the people wondering how I was going to do.”
When his final putt dropped for birdie on No. 18, Dunlap had done quite well. The journeyman pro found himself in exactly the same position as when the day began, one stroke behind the leader, Woods. His 2-under-par total of 70 matched Woods’ round and moved him to 12-under 204 entering Sunday’s final round.
Bob May, who tied for 11th at the British Open but is making his first PGA Championship appearance, fired his second straight 6-under 66 and is also 12 under for the tournament. And so another relative unknown gets the knee-knocking privilege of playing in Woods’ final pairing. Dunlap will play with J.P. Hayes, whose third-round 68 left him 11-under, two behind Woods.
Combined, three of the final four players own one PGA Tour victory–Hayes’ triumph at the 1998 Buick Classic. That’s usually a weekend’s work for Woods. Then again, the PGA Championship has a way of turning no-names into big names. Just ask John Daly.
“There is not a whole bunch of pressure on me,” said May, who, in one of those too-strange-not-to-be-true facts received financial backing from actor Joe Pesci early in his career. “I’m not supposed to win. Tiger is.”
Indeed, Saturday was supposed to be another day in the coronation of Woods, who is trying to match Ben Hogan’s 1953 feat of three majors wins in one year and also become the first repeat PGA champ since Denny Shute in 1937.
When Jose Maria Olazabal fired a course-record 9-under 63 and Tom Watson and Franklin Langham tied the old one with 65, everyone expected Woods to go low. In fact, 53 of the 80 golfers broke par Saturday, setting a PGA Championship record. And the single-round scoring average of 71 was also a PGA mark.
Early on Woods seemed poised to follow the pattern. He went out in 33 shots and birdied the par-5 10th, holes he has played in 11 under thus far.
Carrying a three-shot lead into No. 12, a difficult, 467-yard par-4, Woods was 4 under. But his 3-wood off the tee found the left rough. His 8-iron fell short of the green. His flop shot left him 8 feet for par, and–somehow, some way–he three-putted for double bogey.
Dunlap’s putter, so hot during Friday’s second round, mostly deserted him. He missed three putts of 5 feet or less for birdie. But he rolled in a 7-footer for birdie on No. 12, a three-shot swing.
“I figured I’d have two tests to pass,” Dunlap said. “Was I going to fall by the wayside or was I going to hopefully have enough guts to stand in there and go toe to toe and play a good round of golf? I passed the first test. [Sunday] is a whole new one. But getting through this one was pretty big.”
All in all, Woods had to grind out his 70. He grimaced more than a root-canal patient after some shots. Some would have blushed at his vocal reaction to his botched approach on No. 15, which led to another bogey.
“I hit a couple of shots where I think I almost hit my right foot on the way down,” Woods said.
Then he paused for some perspective.
“Seventy is a pretty good score considering how bad I felt over each and every shot,” Woods said.
Woods led the U.S. Open by 10 shots and the British Open by six after three rounds. With a one-stroke lead and seven players within four shots, Mr. Major finally has a challenge.
“I’m going to have a good time [on Sunday],” Woods said.
The field has been warned.
“He’s close enough to be netted,” said Stuart Appleby, who is four back. “It’s like a fishing trap with a marlin. He’s still pretty green and you don’t want to get him in the boat yet because he still has a lot of power. But hopefully, all the boys can gather together and put some heat on him.”
