O'Neill: Southern Hills isn't favorable for Tiger

The 89th PGA Championship represents Tiger Woods’ last chance for a major this season. And plenty of people are picking Woods at Southern Hills after he ran away with the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone last week.

But before you hand Woods the Wanamaker Trophy, consider a few things:

Southern Hills will be played as a par-70, at some 7,000 yards in length. While it’s true Firestone also was a par 70, Woods has won six times there. One might suggest he would win at Firestone regardless of the value of par.

The par-70 at Southern Hills, on the other hand, will be in major championship play. Woods has won only once on a par-70 major championship course — the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage.

Statistically speaking, a par-70 layout does not favor the game’s No.1 player. The configuration features only two par-5s, as opposed to the more conventional four. Woods ranks 11th on the PGA Tour in making birdies on par-5s, which he has played at 63-under par.

On the other hand, he is over par on both par-4s and par-3s. In short, a par-70 layout takes strokes out of his bag.

At the same time, Woods came from behind on Sunday to win at Firestone. To this point, he has never done so at a major. All 12 of his major championship wins have come when he has had at least a share of the lead after 54 holes.

He has competed professionally at Southern Hills twice previously and has yet to crack the top-10 there, finishing tied for 12th at the 2001 U.S. Open and tied for 21st at the 1996 Tour Championship.

Woods currently ranks 169th on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy. While he won’t have to hit a driver often at Southern Hills, he will have to be accurate. And when he is not, it will be potentially more troublesome than it was at Firestone. Southern Hills features Bermuda grass rough, which can swallow errant shots whole.

That said, if the PGA Championship comes down to a fitness test, the chiseled Woods might have an advantage. Officials are calling for temperatures to reach 100 during the first two rounds.

NO MORE OCHOKA
Lorena Ochoa’s victory in the final LPGA major of the season, the Women’s British Open at historic St. Andrews, seemed especially appropriate.

The No. 1 player in the game the past two seasons, Ochoa had been frustrated by her inability to close out a major championships. She was 0 for 24 coming into the British, with several near misses. It was fitting for her major breakthrough to come at the birthplace of golf.

“It’s a long way, 24 majors, and finally I have this [trophy] here, and I think it's for a reason and I couldn't be more happy,” she said after her final-round 74 closed the deal. “I believed I would win this tournament Monday, when I started practicing.

“I wanted to win this tournament so bad. Everything I did, my thoughts [before the tournament] were very positive and very clear to me. I saw myself on the 18th green, lifting the trophy. It was clear, it was great and even better now that we did it.”

Ochoa tied for second at the U.S. Women's Open a month ago, outplayed on Sunday by Cristie Kerr. The win at St. Andrews was her fourth victory of the year to go with six last year, and she surpassed $2 million in earnings this season. The win was historic in several ways.

She won the first women's professional tournament to be staged at St. Andrews, which is home to the exclusively male Royal & Ancient Club. She also became the first player to win their first major at St. Andrews since Tony Lema won the men's British Open in 1964.

BATTING .500
There are 26 rookies on the PGA Tour this year and if the season ended today, 13 of them would qualify for the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedExCup.

PRESSING THE FLESCH
While winning last week’s Reno-Tahoe Open, Steve Flesch led the field in Driving Distance, was third in Driving Accuracy and was second in Greens In Regulation. Not a bad combo, eh?

The victory gave Flesch a big bump in the FedExCup standings, as he went from a precarious 140th all the way to 79th.

MAKE IT SINGH
Vijay Singh could be the man to watch this week at Southern Hills. The Tulsa course has played host to four events over the past 15 years — 1994 PGA Championship, 1995 and 1996 Tour Championships and 2001 U.S. Open.

Singh has finished in the top-10 in three of those four tournaments. He was 6th at the 1995 Tour Championship, tied for 7th at the 2001 U.S. Open and tied for 9th at the 1996 Tour Championship.

RARE HAT TRICK
How unique was Tiger Woods’ third consecutive win at the Bridgestone Invitational? After Tom Watson won his third consecutive Byron Nelson Classic in 1980, no one had turned the trick until Woods won a third consecutive Memorial Tournament in 2001.

Now Woods will begin the 2008 PGA Tour season looking for his fourth consecutive win in three different events — the Buick Invitational, the World Golf Championships-CA Championship and the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.

DISTANCE CONTROL
None of the players ranked top 10 in Driving Distance on PGA Tour stats have won a tournament this season. But among players ranked in the top-10 in Driving Accuracy there are four wins. Zach Johnson has two wins, while Fred Funk and Jim Furyk have one each.

40-OR-OVER LEAGUE
Look for a player in his 40s to win the Nationwide Tour Northeast Pennsylvania Classic. Players 40 or older have won four of the previous seven events in Pennsylvania.

HOT HAAS
Jay Haas’s second-place finish last week at the 3M Championship was his eighth consecutive top-10 finish on the Champion’s Tour.

CALL THE D.A.
No surprise that D.A. Weibring won last week’s 3M Championship. Prior to last week, Weibring had nine sub-par rounds in nine starts at the event. He added three more last week.

The Quincy, Ill. native has won a combined nine PGA Tour or Champions Tour events in his career and six of them have come at Midwest locales, including four in Illinois.

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