Tiger and Harrington renew duel at the top
WORLD No1 Tiger Woods renewed his battle with Padraig Harrington as the pair started the US PGA Championship as they finished last week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational – on top of the leaderboard.
Woods wasted no time in throwing down the gauntlet in the final Major of the season, firing a five-under-par 67 to take the clubhouse lead.
But just as at Firestone just five days ago, he was hotly pursued by playing partner Harrington, who opened his title defence with a steady 68.
“The great thing when you play with Tiger is that you know you’re going to have to play the shots,” Harrington said. “It puts you under more pressure and you feel like you might as well go after it rather than hang back. It actually helps you focus and you know you have to be on your very best form. It motivates you to play well.”
These two players have taken five of the last nine Majors between them and Woods was satisfied with his start in pursuit of a 15th Major title.
“I was just very comfortable with what I was doing today,” he said. “The golf course is set up very fair. It’s difficult but as Paddy Harrington and I were saying, you don’t usually see pins, six, seven, eight feet from the side. It’s normally three and four.”
England’s Lee Westwood remained in contention with a two-under-par 70.