Medinah, Ill. – There is theater and there is drama, and Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club illustrated the difference.
It seemed like the only Chicagoans, journalists or plain-clothed security personnel not crammed around the featured group of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy were those stuck in traffic trying to get in, those too lazy to make the hike out to the 10th tee, or perhaps those too busy pounding down one final doughnut.
The sizable throng on hand witnessed a threesome that played like the 2006 major champions they are. While each wobbled at some point – British Open headliner Woods opening with a bogey, Mickelson missing fairways with either of the two drivers he placed in his bag in a revival of “How I Won the Masters” and Ogilvy looking like a bloke who wondered whether taking the U.S. Open was really worth becoming a part of this particular show – each emerged with a 3-under-par 69.
“I’ve never played in a situation like that,” Ogilvy said. “I mean, there was the last round of the Open, there’s more tension and stuff involved (in that), but the atmosphere this morning was pretty incredible.”
By day’s end, the group was like the star-laden Broadway show that everyone has to see, although there may be a much more substantive work taking place down in SoHo. So if it was drama the teeming masses were after Thursday, hopefully they let their eyes wander beyond the marquee threesome.
To Davis Love III, for example. Facing his final chance at cementing a spot on the United States Ryder Cup team, Love, for 16 holes, played the way he promised he would before missing the three-day cut at The International. The veteran birdied four of his first five holes and added an eagle at No. 7, eventually getting to as low as 7-under. But on No. 17, it was Castle Pines revisited, Love suffering a triple bogey to finish at 4-under 68.
Meanwhile, Chris Riley, who virtually had disappeared from the game since becoming the poster boy for all that went wrong for the Americans against Europe two years ago, played like a man looking for a second chance at Sergio, Monty, et al.
Riley shot a 6-under 66, tying him at the top of the leaderboard with Lucas Glover, another American who has struggled to gain a place on Captain Tom Lehman’s squad. Billy Andrade was one shot back, while Love led a group of six at 68.
For Riley, his seven-birdie, one-bogey day added up to his fourth sub-70 in his past five stroke-play rounds, and three strokes better than the big boys.
“When I wake up in the morning and see that I beat Tiger and Phil, it’s got to put a smile on your face,” he said.
There were a lot of ear-to-ear grins after the field beat up a course that was very un-major championship-like. There were 20 players at 3-under or better on a day in which everyone felt free to fire directly at the pins.
Thursday wasn’t a day to dwell on negative thoughts, which leads back to Riley’s performance against all the current Ryder Cup commotion.
Two years ago at Oakland Hills Country Club outside Detroit, Riley appeared on the verge of becoming a bright spot for the U.S., teaming up with Woods for a Saturday morning four-ball victory. But asked to play again that afternoon in alternate shot, Riley begged off, citing fatigue and unfamiliarity with the format.
Instead, Woods and Love lost and the Americans went down 11-5 in what was ultimately a record-setting 18 1/2-9 1/2 rout.
In response, then-captain Hal Sutton, in one of the milder rebukes of Riley, groused: “If I, a 42-year-old with a fat belly, went five straight matches in ’99, I’m sure a 30-year-old flat-belly that’s hyper can go four.”
In the two PGA Tour seasons since, Riley has had 20 missed cuts and withdrawals and just three top-20 finishes in 43 starts.
“When I played in the Ryder Cup, it was like I made it to my ultimate goal,” he said. “Since then, I had a kid two weeks before and another since. I don’t like to make excuses, but golf is not my No. 1 priority anymore. It’s just I look at it different.”
Staff writer Anthony Cottoncan be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
