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Fog is big winner in opening round of PGA Championship

KOHLER, Wis. - This is what can happen, besides those annoying mosquito dive-bombs, when you hold a golf tournament on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Bo Van Pelt hits a shot into the fog on the first hole during the first round of the PGA Championship.  (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Bo Van Pelt hits a shot into the fog on the first hole during the first round of the PGA Championship. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Read more

KOHLER, Wis. - This is what can happen, besides those annoying mosquito dive-bombs, when you hold a golf tournament on the shores of Lake Michigan.

There was fog yesterday morning at Whistling Straits, and it pushed back the start of the 92nd PGA Championship, the final major of the season, for a little more than 3 hours. More is forecast for early today. Tomorrow, the problem supposedly could be early thunderstorms. Lovely.

The good news is, Sunday looks promising. Which should bode well for completion of the third round.

Other than that . . .

Keep a hopeful thought. Hey, it could always be worse. Think Bethpage, 2009 U.S. Open. The last time there was moisture like that, Noah got busy.

What can you do except play on, for as long as possible, once that all-clear horn sounds? And when things did clear up, it was a postcard afternoon.

"I woke up at 4," said Jason Day, who was part of the first group off No. 10, originally scheduled to head out at 7, along with Tim Petrovic and Rich Steinmetz, head pro at Spring Ford Country Club, one of 20 club pros in the field. "We knew there was going to be a delay, because the fog was so thick, and it was just a matter of time before it burned off.

"We were sitting on the range for about 2 1/2 hours and I was just hitting balls next to Stuart Appleby, and we were just talking, having a few jokes . . . It was kind of hard to judge when you start your [preround] routine. You really don't want to change anything too much. You want to feel as comfortable as possible, like it's any other event. You don't want to start thinking that it's something bigger."

But of course it is.

Day, who's making his PGA debut, shot a 3-under-par 69, which left him in a six-way tie for second, one behind Bubba Watson and Francesco Molinari. Matt Kuchar and Ernie Els are at 4-under with four holes each to play, and so Nick Watney, who has seven to go.

In all, 78 players have to finish their first rounds. A lot of guys were still on the course when darkness arrived. They'll have to come back to finish their rounds this morning. As long as Mother Nature cooperates.

Day's playing partners both had 75s. This is the second PGA for Steinmetz, who missed the cut in 2005 at Baltusrol.

"More nervous than expected," he acknowledged. But he settled down to shoot 35 on the back.

The big-hitting Watson got his first PGA Tour victory in late June in Hartford and broke down afterward when talking about his father's battle with cancer. He nearly did so again yesterday when the subject came up.

"I didn't tell many people, because it's really nobody's business," he said. "I'm not here to get sympathy. I'm here to play golf."

He then revealed that his wife Angie also had a health scare recently. It turned out to be an enlarged pituitary gland, not a tumor. But it took 2 months and a second diagnosis to find out.

"Before, I had fun [talking]," he said, his voice cracking. "But now I'm not . . .

"It was scary. Why do I want to go hit a golf ball around? So that's where the emotions come from. Hopefully you all don't think I'm a sissy. You know, I do hit the ball a long way.

"My wife went to the hospital the day before Christmas, when I was in Pensacola [Fla.] seeing my dad. She had a headache. She's an athlete, so I know something's wrong. And we come to find out she was just really dehydrated. But my dad said, 'Look, I lived my life; you go home, go get your wife and straighten her out, see what we got to do.' So it's kind of emotional. Aren't we talking about golf?"

Molinari, who right now is qualified for the European Ryder Cup team, birdied two of his final three holes to grab a piece of the top spot. He tied for 10th last year at Hazeltine, in his first PGA.

"Today everything was going pretty much according to plan," said Francesco, whose older brother Edoardo won the 2005 U.S. Amatuer at Merion. "But obviously the week is very long, and it's not going to be so easy for me all week.

"I think that it seems the same like courses in Europe, but obviously it's playing a lot softer than what European courses are usually. I'm just trying to focus on doing as good as I can in this tournament and then see what happens [with the Ryder Cup standings]."

The two previous majors were won by Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell and South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen. Can an Italian be far behind?

"If you see those guys [doing it], then you know that you can," Molinari acknowledged. "But still it's really hard to win a tournament like this. It happens a few times that maybe somebody who is not really in the top 10 players wins, but I think it's not going to last forever. I mean I don't know how to say it, but I think obviously Tiger [Woods] is going to get back to his standards, and Phil [Mickelson] is going to win more majors. So you just need to play really well and try to grab the occasion when you have it."

Weather permitting.

Tap-ins

Tiger Woods shot 1-under 71 and is in a tie for 24th with 32 others Jim Furyk opened with a 70, only the second time in his last dozen rounds in this major he's shot that low. It's also his low round in a major this season . . . Mark Sheftic, the teaching pro at Merion, had an 82. He missed the cut last year in his first PGA . . . Vijay Singh, had a 73, actually one fewer than he shot in the final round in 2004 before winning a three-way playoff . . . Among those at 3-under is Charles Howell III, who has one top-10 finish in 30 majors . . .

Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who revealed on Tuesday that he's being treated for an arthritic condition that's affected him for 2 months, birdied his last two holes to get to 1-under through 11. He is playing with U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell, who is plus-2, and British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen, who is even . . .

West Chester's Sean O'Hair is 2-over after nine . . . Philadelphia Section veteran Stu Ingraham, at 50 the oldest club pro in the field, began with two birdies but is 1-over through eight. It's his sixth PGA, but first since 1996 . . . Ryan Moore got to 5-under through 15, but finished at 3 . . . Darren Clarke, who hasn't been a factor in a major in forever and has missed the cut in eight of his 11 PGAs, is at 3-under after 13. *