STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The PGA Championship begins today. It is golf's final major championship of the year and it'll be played at the Medinah Golf Club outside Chicago.
Phil Mickelson is defending the title that he won a year ago, while most of the pre-tournament attention is focused on his arch rival, Tiger Woods.
Commentator John Feinstein joins us now. John, good morning again.
JOHN FEINSTEIN reporting:
Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Wasn't too long ago that people were saying Mickelson, not Woods, was about to become the world's number one player.
FEINSTEIN: Well, standing on the 18th tee at Wingfoot at the U.S. Open in June with a one-shot lead about to win his third major championship in a row, it certainly looked that way, didn't it? Right after Tiger Woods had missed the cut, his first major cut missed ever in the wake of his father's death. And Mickelson, as we all know, blew up, double-bogeyed that hole, lost the Open. And since then Tiger Woods is on one of those rolls he gets on.
He won the British Open easily. He won at the Buick Open a couple of weeks ago, easily. His last eight rounds of golf, Steve, he's been 42 under par. That's roughly the equivalent of going a month in baseball hitting .500. And this is a golf course that plays to his strengths. He won the PGA Championship at Medinah in 1999. It's a par 72. That means four par fives, and that's a big advantage for Tiger.
INSKEEP: When Tiger gets on one of these streaks, does the rest of the field give up?
FEINSTEIN: They don't give up, but they're certainly intimidated. There's no question. Sergio Garcia played with Tiger Woods in the last round at the British Open and he had that deer in the headlights look from the first tee on. And I think it's because the other players know Tiger Woods at his best is better than everybody else. It's simple as that. And right now, it appears that he's at his best.
INSKEEP: Now, what happens to Phil Mickelson? He's a guy who had a reputation for losing tournaments at the end. Then he started winning. And then he had this disaster at the U.S. Open you were describing.
FEINSTEIN: Yeah. That's a very good question, because it looked like he was, again, on this role. He'd won three majors out of nine, looked like he was going to make it four, then he blows up. He was a non-factor at the British Open. He's been a non-factor since June. I'm always concerned, Steve, when I hear an athlete say, well, my children still love me, because that's irrelevant to the conversation. Of course his children still love him.
And when you hear an athlete sort of rationalizing defeat that way, it says to me that he hasn't dealt with the loss yet. And until he looks the loss right in the eye and says I screwed up, he's not going to be a factor again. We'll see what happens this weekend in Chicago.
INSKEEP: You know, looking at that U.S. Open a couple of months ago, I mean the guy played terrible the entire day. It was amazing that he was still in contention at the end. It was heroic that he was still in contention at the end.
FEINSTEIN: Well, it was a brutally tough golf course. And remember, the winning score was five over par. So everybody struggled that day, you're right. He only hit two fairways, which is why it was so ridiculous for him to hit the driver on the 18th hole.
And his initial reaction, Steve, I thought was encouraging: I was an idiot. But since then, he's sort of backed off on that. And he's sort of made excuses. It reminds a little bit of Greg Norman when he blew the sixth shot lead at the Masters in '96 and initially said, oh, you know, I blew it, and then came back and said, well, I only hit two bad shots all day. That's rationalizing.
INSKEEP: Now, after the PGA tournament, which begins today, the U.S. selects its Ryder Cup team to play against the Europeans. How's that shaping up?
FEINSTEIN: Well, interestingly, because there are a lot of names most golf fans aren't familiar with who right now are in the top 10, and the top 10 players automatically make the team. Guys like J.J. Henry and Lucas Glover and Vaughn Taylor. And guys like Freddy Couples and Davis Love right now are on the outside looking in.
Tom Lehman can select them with his two captain's picks, but he would rather have more flexibility, have those guys automatically on the team. So this might be a very inexperienced United States team that goes over to Ireland next month to play Europe in the Ryder Cup.
INSKEEP: And we'll be listening for your analysis of that. John, thanks very much.
FEINSTEIN: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: The comments of John Feinstein. His new book, Vanishing Act: A U.S. Open Mystery, will be published next week. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
