Some golfer you may have heard of — yes, the one with his own video game — has a one-shot lead over Padraig Harrington through the first 18 holes of the PGA Championship in Minnesota's Hazeltine National Golf Club.
Woods had himself a hell of a round, bogeying nary a hole and recording five birdies. For bonus points — which technically don't exist except in the hearts and minds of golf zealots — he was one of only five golfers to circle the most difficult hole, the 12th. Before too much gushing ensues, remember who won last year's PGA? Think hard, try to recall, check Wikipedia ... yes, it's that guy in second place.
With Woods and Harrington, the top of the leaderboard is rather decorated. Recent first-round leaders are relative unknowns and/or taper off come the weekend. Here are the Thursday clubhouse leaders of the PGA Championship in recent years, and their overall finish after 72:
2008: Robert Karlsson (T-20th), Jeev Milkha Singh (T-9th)
2007: Graeme Storm (T-62nd)
2006: Chris Riley (T-41st), Lucas Glover (T-46th)
The last wire-to-wire PGA Championship winner was Phil Mickelson in 2005, who had a share of the first round lead.
More statistical nonsensery! Were Woods to hold onto the lead and win, it would be the first major he'd win five times. Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen also have a quintet of PGA titles.
Leaderboard
Tiger Woods -5
Padraig Harrington -4
Robert Allenby -3
Mathew Goggin -3
Hunter Mahan -3
Alvaro Quiros -3
Vijay Singh -3
David Toms -3
Paul Goydos -2
Thongchai Jaidee -2
Graeme McDowell -2
Lee Westwood -2
Michael Bradley -2
John Merrick -2
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano -2
Soren Kjeldsen -2
Ben Crane -2
Persons Of Interest
Sergio Garcia -1
Phil Mickelson E
Steve Stricker E
Kenny Perry +2
John Daly WD
(Leaderboard only includes those who finished the first round as of 6 p.m. CST.)
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