SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Tiger Woods ate breakfast three times before he teed off in the first round of the PGA Championship. It was time for dinner when his second round began Friday.
Bubba Watson walked off Whistling Straits atop the leaderboard after opening with a 68. He waited 30 hours for his next shot.
And then there’s Nick Watney.
“I was talking with my caddie this afternoon, and we were talking about something that happened this morning,” Watney said. “But we both thought it was yesterday. So it’s been a long day. I’ll have no trouble sleeping.”
After two days — but not two full rounds — Matt Kuchar was atop the leaderboard after another rock-solid round on a soft course. He nearly holed out from the 13th fairway again during a stretch of three consecutive birdies that led to a 3-under-par 69.
Kuchar was at 8-under 136, one shot ahead of Watney (68).
Kuchar woke up at 4 a.m. to get to the course and resume his second round at 7 a.m. But while it was clear on the practice range, it was soon tough to see the clubhouse 200 yards away, and players had to wait 2 1/2 hours to start. Kuchar birdied his first hole — the sixth — to take the lead, finished up his 67, had a quick lunch and played the second round.
“Sitting around right now, it’s nice to be done,” said Kuchar, who left the course about 12 hours after he arrived.
Woods finally teed off at 5:45 p.m., leaving him enough time to play six holes and make six pars. He had to scramble for par off a cart path, out of grass up to his knees and from a grassy knoll that made it tough for him to keep his balance.
After the siren sounded to suspend play, Woods opted to finish the sixth hole. He chipped out of deep grass below the green and left himself a 5-foot birdie putt that spun 270 degrees around the cup and sent him home somber.
The fog played havoc on the starting times. Whistling Straits delivered its own share of misery, too, starting with European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie. He played in the same group with Kuchar and was 26 shots worse over two rounds, going 79-83.
Phil Mickelson scrambled his way to a 69, putting him at 2-under 142 and very much alive in his quest to move to No. 1 in the world for the first time.
Bryce Molder, who played on the same Georgia Tech team as Kuchar, made an impressive debut in his first PGA Championship. He made five birdies in a six-hole stretch and wound up with a 67. That put him in a large group at 5-under 139 that included 19-year-old S.Y. Noh (71), 21-year-old Rory McIlroy (68), short-hitting Zach Johnson (70) and big-hitting Dustin Johnson (68).
