As the afternoon winds on, the PGA Championship is turning into a thrill ride. As of this moment, Keegan Bradley is -8, along with Jason Dufner. But lots of players are poised to take advantage if either falters on the back nine (they’re both still on the front). Karlsson is -6, Verplank at -6, Hansen and Donald at -5. A pile of guys are at -4.

Given the way the back nine plays, this could be decided on the last three holes—perhaps in favor of someone already in the clubhouse.

As Jim Furyk hook a drive into the water on 18 at the PGA Championship, the announcers made their usual comments about “major pressure.” But it made me wonder. Who really faces more pressure: A pro fighting for the lead in a tournament, or a weekend hacker coming down the 18th with a chance at breaking 90 for the first time?

Generally speaking, by the time the PGA Championship rolls around, I’m a bit burned out on watching golf and already am looking forward to college football. This year, it’s a bit different, though. Looking at this weekend, there are a number of great stories waiting to be told, and a lot of guys who can get into this thing. On Sunday, there may be two dozen players in position to win.

After watching his play over the last two rounds, is there anyone left on the Tiger Bandwagon? I’m watching Tiger’s performance on the 12th on TNT. He hooks the drive into the woods, chips out and then hooks his next shot into the woods.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, he will never win another Major.

(For those under 30, we used to listen to music on vinyl disks called records. There were grooves cut into them, and a needle passing through those grooves reproduced the sound. When the grooves were damaged, however, the needle could get stuck, causing the spinning record to repeat the sequence of sounds over and over until you caused the needle to skip ahead. Thus “sounding like a broken record”)

Following the PGA Championship from GolfBlogger World Headquarters (and remembering my on-course experience at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills), I’ve been struck by the many things the PGA does right—especially with regard to coverage of its premiere event.

The television coverage is extensive, running for six hours each day of the tournament. But the PGA extends this with some pretty good online viewing. With coverage beginning at 10am, they’ve got cameras following the marquee groups, as well as stationed at the par 3s. One neat thing about the online coverage is that it’s interspersed with lessons from teaching pros. I’ve actually found a lot of those interesting.

DirecTv also has several channels, but of course this is limited to those with satellite dishes.

The streaming video app for the computer has several neat features, such as a 360 cam, which allows you to pan and scan around the 15th hole, and a course flyover. Small apps within the app offer pop up windows with leaderboards, scorecards, and live chat on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.

If you’re not near a television or your computer, you can follow the PGA Championship through a free iPhone app (where’s the Blackberry App for serious people?). My understanding is that it offers the same functionality of the browser app.

The PGA also has a twitter feed (@pga_com) and a twitter hashtag (#PGAChamp) to let people follow the tournament that way. I don’t know if they allow live tweets from the course as The Crowne Plaza Invitational did, but they should. TNT’s coverage regularly puts the hashtag in the lower left hand corner of the broadcast.

On the PGA.Com site, you can follow both the official twitter feeds, and the hash tag comments. That same page has a Cover It Live app installed.

Two things they’re missing, though:

First, I’d like to see some streaming radio coverage. And second, I think the website’s leaderboard needs upgrading. I like what the PGA Tour does at its regular events, where you can select a group of players and see a graphical representation of how they’re doing from hole to hole.

Still, I’m convinced that there’s more—and more innovative—coverage of the PGA Championship than of any of the other Majors.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Credit: http://www.direct-golf.co.uk/

I’m watching the PGA Championship on dvr delay and just watched Rory McIlroy make an ill-advised, and potentially career ending shot. On the third hole, his ball was in the trees, and up against a root. Rory swung hard with an iron and hit the root, causing his club to wrench from his grasp. The ball kind of squirted out, but didn’t clear the trees. As I’m watching, Rory is obviously in pain, icing the wrist even as he heads to try to get his next shot out of a bunker.

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. That’s the invincibility of youth.

I’ve been in that situation (in the woods, up against a root) that it’s my natural habitat. Here’s the proper shot: take a three wood and putt hard. There’s no chance of injury, and the ball will scoot under the branches and out of the woods. You can then take your third shot at the flagstick from the fairway.

I’m going to blame his caddy for this one. The caddy should have handed him a wood to putt or a wedge to pitch out sideways and refused to offer another alternative.

Continuing to watch this unfold ... where is the adult to tell him its time to quit? Why is he risking further injury?

Apparently its all worked out ok. The medic told him that he wasn’t risking further injury by playing. But that was THREE HOLES LATER. Even if it all turns out to be sound and fury signifying nothing, it still was dumb and some adult (i.e. his caddy) should have stepped in to put an end to it.

Followup. Now much of the golf media is praising McIlroy for gutting it out. I’ll say again. It was dumb. The shot was dumb, and continuing to play was also. Tiger tried to play on a leg that wasn’t quite right and missed most of this season. Rory risked that, and more.