Welcome to the first breakfast version of Lunch Break.
In almost 40 years as a sportswriter, I can’t recall any organization doing as through a job supplying information as the PGA does for the fourth major. (Next year it will move to the second major, after The Masters, and will be played May 16-19 at Bethpage Black).
Consider some the facts and figures provided by the PGA staff after the third round about Gary Woodland and his playing partner today for a 1:35 p.m. tee time:
Woodland hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation in the first two rounds, but just 10 of 18 in the third round.
He made 152 feet, 5 inches of putts Thursday, 72 feet, 5 inches Friday, and 49 feet Saturday.
This is his seventh PGA. His best finish, tied for 12th, was in 2011. It’s his best finish in a major and this is his 28th.
He ranks sixth this week with an average drive of 317.5 yards, behind Rory McIlroy (330.30, Jason Day and Brooks Koepka (325.8), Ollie Schniederjans (323) and Byeong Hun An (318.5).
Woodland is second to Brooks Koepka (1.59) in the tournament in strokes gained off the tee (1.255).
Woodland is the only one to make a triple bogey on No. 10 in the event, but the par-4 hole was the hardest on the course Saturday with a 4.3 average, compared to the easiest, the par-5 17th (4.45).
Woodland would rather be leading, but in some ways it might be less pressure coming from behind. He knows what he’ll need to do to regain the lead.
“I’m going to have to play aggressive,” he said. “Going to have to make a lot of birdies. It’s going to take that tomorrow. All in all, we’ll play aggressive and just stick to what we’ve been doing.”
Woods had a similar outlook after his round: “Not just myself, but everyone’s going to have to shoot low rounds. Its soft, it’s gettable and you can’t just go out there and make a bunch of pars. You’re going to have to make some birdies.”
Information provided on Woods includes but is not limited to:
This is the first time Tiger has been in the top 10 after 54 holes in consecutive majors since the 2012 British Open (fourth-place finish) and PGA (tied for sixth).
The four-time PGA Championship winner made five birdies and one bogey through eight holes and finished with 10 consecutive pars.
He played 29 holes Saturday, including 11 holes of his second round.
In his third round, he hit 10 of 14 fairways, 15 of 18 greens in regulation, was 3 for 3 scrambling and stroked 30 putts.
This is his first PGA since 2015, when he shot 75-73 and missed the cut.
Can tie Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with the most PGA Championship titles (five).
Ranks 47th in FedEx Cup standings and the two-time FedEx Cup champion has not qualified for the playoffs since 2013.
That’s just a small sampling of information provided on every player in the field, including the 20 club professionals who qualified in the PGA Professionals Championship, won by former University of Kansas All-American Ryan Vermeer, 40.
Ben Kern, the only club professional to make the cut, shot a 67 Saturday to move to 3-under for the tournament. Kern was just one of three players who made it through his round without a bogey, joining Daniel Berger (66) and Jon Rahm (66).
Vermeer’s 6-over was fifth best among club pros. By winning the club pros championship, Vermeer not only took home a $55,000 check, he qualified for six PGA Tour events next season. So if Chris Thompson can finish strong in the final two weeks of the Web.com Tour regular season and finish in the top 25, there could be a few PGA tour events featuring three Jayhawks. Wonder if a tournament director might put them in the same grouping for the first two rounds? I think the three Jayhawks would enjoy that.