Well, the lead changed hands on Saturday. Left hands. That doesn’t sound right, but it’s true.
For a while, it looked like Phil Mickelson would cruise to victory in this 78th PGA Championship. Then Russ Cochran shot a course-record 65 at Valhalla Golf Club, and now he leads by two shots entering Sunday’s final round.
What’s amazing is, they’re both southpaws. Next thing you know, they’ll be telling us there’s life on Mars, or that Cigar got beat.
Only one left-hander has ever won a major, Bob Charles at the 1963 British Open. Only four other left-handers have ever won PGA Tour events. Mickelson and Cochran are among them. So is somebody named Ernie Gonzalez, who won a rain-shortened Pensacola Open in 1986. Then there was Sam Adams, who took the 1973 Quad-Cities Classic before he became a beer.
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Otherwise, though, golf just isn’t for left-handers. They can play for the Wimbledon championship or the arm-wrestling championship or not play anything at all.
Marilyn Monroe, Paul McCartney, Betty Grable, Leonardo da Vinci, Harry Truman, Goldie Hawn, Mark Twain, Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Oliver North, Harpo Marx. They’re all southpaws who didn’t need golf to become famous.
But you just don’t see many left-handed golfers, which means standing to the right of the ball. When you figure that out, explain why people drive on parkways and park on driveways.
“We’re different, no question about it,” said Cochran. “I once waited 2 1/2 years for a left-handed sand wedge I had ordered, but it’s getting better now.”
Golf fans in Chicago might remember Cochran from the 1991 Western Open. For sure, he’ll remember, because it’s his only victory since turning pro in 1979. Cochran was in the last threesome with Greg Norman and Fred Couples, two of golf’s most popular stars. Cochran felt like a ham sandwich at a banquet.
Then Norman staged one of his notorious high dives into a pool with no water. He had a five-shot lead with eight holes remaining, and gave it all away. Couples wasn’t in a mood to take the trophy, so Cochran did with a 69.
Saturday at Valhalla, Cochran teed off eight groups ahead of and six shots behind Mickelson. Cochran wasn’t even the low Kentuckian in the field. Kenny Perry was, and he commanded most of the attention from galleries that were loud and large.
Louisville, you should know, has come up big for this PGA Championship. They do have the Kentucky Derby here and professional basketball, the University of Kentucky Wildcats, in nearby Lexington. But besides minor-league baseball, golf has been the big story, even with those loaded Iowa Cubs in town this weekend.
Cochran was lost in the shuffle until he went on his binge, and Mickelson was the perfect left-handed complement because he studiously avoided separating himself from the field. After consecutive 67s provided Mickelson a three-stroke lead, his moody putter felt like a snow shovel again.
“I tried to force things,” said Mickelson. Despite early missed chances, he launched one of his fabulous flop shots toward a birdie on No. 7 and a four-shot lead over playing partner Justin Leonard.
But after that, Mickelson looked like a right-hander trying to play left-handed. He was 39 on the back nine for 74, and Leonard was 38 for 72. He isn’t even the low right-hander anymore. Mark Brooks and Vijay Singh are.
Whether Cochran can hang on for dear life with both hands is debatable. But it seems that Valhalla, designed by Jack Nicklaus, does set up nicely for a southpaw. Nicklaus plays a power fade, left to right, and has been accused of building courses accordingly. So a left-hander who hits a draw would get similar results, right?
“Right,” said Cochran, “except my ball goes to the left, which is the opposite direction. I’m not sure it makes any sense.”
As ever, golf spelled right to left is flog.