Players’ practice limited by the Oklahoma heat

Temperatures soared toward 100 degrees as the PGA Championship approaches.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — High noon at Southern Hills looked more like a ghost town.

The Wednesday before a major championship usually is bustling with activity, especially at the PGA Championship, the last chance for players to win a major until the azaleas bloom in April at Augusta National.

But it’s particularly quiet at Southern Hills, so quiet you could almost hear drops of sweat sizzling on the sidewalk.

“My guess is a lot of guys are playing practice rounds at 4 a.m.,” Paul Goydos said.

British Open champion Padraig Harrington was among the brave.

He teed off shortly before noon to play 18 holes as the temperature climbed toward 100 degrees, and it looked even hotter with a flame shooting from the top of a refinery on the horizon.

An elderly gentleman approached to say he was from Ireland, and Harrington looked toward the blazing sun.

“You’re a long way from home,” he said.

They are a long way from the gray skies and cold rain of Carnoustie, where Harrington won three weeks ago.

Heat can be factor

Heat figures to be as intimidating as anything defending champion Tiger Woods might do at Southern Hills, which has a history of hosting some of the hottest majors. Retief Goosen, who won the U.S. Open here in 2001, played nine holes and went through five bottles of water.

Not too many players went more than nine holes, if that much.

“I can’t imagine anyone practicing a lot,” Chad Campbell said. “You don’t want to wear yourself out.”

Woods stopped playing a practice round on Wednesday at the majors a few years ago, and he must have been especially glad to have changed his routine at Southern Hills. He arrived about 8 a.m. and hit balls for an hour before heading for the putting green.

The world’s No. 1 player has one last chance to add a major to his collection this year, and there are mixed feelings about his chances. Woods has not played Southern Hills particularly well in two recent trips, although he points out that he was an emotional wreck in 1996 with his father in the hospital, and didn’t know where the ball was going at the 2001 U.S. Open.

Doesn’t play favorites

And while Southern Hills has a history of wire-to-wire winners, there is nothing about the Perry Maxwell design that tends to favor a particular style, whether it’s long or short, great irons or great short games.

“If Tiger wins this week — if he can dominate on a golf course like this — then we’re all done,” Goydos said.

The Bermuda rough is only about 3 inches, deep enough that balls sink to the ground and can be hard to find, but not so much that players have no choice but to hack out onto the fairway. The greens are pure, but not linoleum slick like Oakmont.

The PGA Championship has earned a reputation in recent years as being the most fair major.

And given its spot on the calendar, the hottest major. That explained why it was so quiet on the eve of the final major.

Twenty minutes after Harrington teed off, the first fairway remained wide open. In recent years, the biggest problem with practice rounds at the majors is that they take up to six hours with so many players hitting putts and chips from every conceivable angle.