PGA Championship 2009: Could Tiger Woods choke?

August 15, 8:30 AMBoston Golf ExaminerEmily Kay

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Ernie Els is one of many aiming for Tiger Woods' lead at the PGA Championship (Photo: AP)

With a four-shot lead halfway through the 91st PGA Championship, Tiger Woods just has to stay the course to capture his fifth PGA Championship title.

• View some of the action during the 91st PGA Championship action at Hazeltine.

While some of the best golfers in the game chase the world’s greatest at Hazeltine, they can only hope their leader bows to the pressures of trying to go wire-to-wire in a major tournament.

They can also hope for the golf goddesses to bestow each of them with the shot-making skills and unbreakable mental resolve of Tiger Woods. Kinda unlikely, since Woods has never lost a 36-hole lead in a major. And with Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major wins in his sight, he is not about to let his own number 15 slip away.

Still not convinced? Woods is eight-for-eight when he has at least a share of the lead through two rounds of a major.

Only human. Its not that Woods isn’t human. He did, after all, bogey three holes yesterday.

For sure, Tiger Woods has had his share of emotional letdowns on the golf course. His father’s illness weighed heavily on him during the 2005 season, when he tied for 22nd at the PGA Championship and third at the Masters. He missed the U.S. Open cut after returning to competition following Earl Woods’ passing.

This week, a few golfers have far more important concerns than swatting a golf ball around Hazeltine. Phil Mickelson’s wife, Amy, and mother, Mary, are both battling breast cancer. Three-time major champion Ernie Els and his wife, Liezl, spend much of their time with their autistic son, Ben, and their Els for Autism Foundation.

“Sometimes I’m not quite there for some reason,” Els told the Globe and Mail last month about his mental state on the course. “I need to work on that and really get focused, see every shot and be ready to play every shot and be there for four days.”

You know what it’s like standing over a knee-knocking putt during any given round. These guys are playing for a bit more than a five-dollar Nassau and trying to cope with real-world sorrows as the TV cameras roll. Anyone can excuse them if their minds wander while trying to sink two-foot putts to make the cut.

That’s likely what’s happening with Mickelson, who barely made it to weekend play with a second-round score of 2-over 74. Normally a short-game wizard, Mickelson made five bogeys Friday.

Just playing golf. While Mickelson and Els struggle with so much more than weekend warrior yips, Lucas Glover, credits his easy-going approach for a solid game that has him within striking distance of the lead.

“I do know I’m just trying to play like it is Tuesday or play like I’m home or playing with my buddies,” Glover told Yahoo Sports. “I do play better that way and it’s been a conscious effort just to relax and say: ‘Hey, it’s really not that big a deal. Let’s just go play golf.’”

Can Glover, whose second-round 2-under 70 places him in a five-way tie for second at 3-under, maintain his composure over the weekend? He has before, winning the 2009 U.S. Open earlier this year.

“There was pretty high pressure that week and I performed,” Yahoo Sports quoted Glover as saying about his two-stroke victory at Bethpage Black in New York. “That was very comforting. It just gives you a little bit of a confidence boost … that I performed under the gun.”

Wishful thinking. Glover’s not alone in searching for ways to pry the four-shot lead from Tiger Woods. Woods’ playing partner for the last several days -- including Sunday’s final round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational -- offers some wishful thinking of his own.

“I think [Woods’] perfect record when leading after 36 holes has got to break at some stage – or I might as well tell myself that,” defending PGA champ Padraig Harrington tells Yahoo Sports. “Maybe it will last until he is 60, but it’s never going to last forever. Maybe I’ll be the guy who does it, I suppose that’s the way to look at it.”

Harrington did his best to be that guy on Friday, bouncing back with two birdies after three straight bogeys on 11, 12, and 13. His bogey on 18, however, pushed him back into that second-place tie and out of Friday’s last pairing. It’s Vijay Singh’s turn to try to break Tiger.

Good luck with that. By his own admission, Woods is not playing his best golf. The winner of the last two PGA Tour events leading up to the PGA Championship described his second-round score of 70 as  “just plodding along.”

By Sunday’s end, there will be another Wanamaker Trophy in the Woods’ rec room. That is, unless one of the leader’s challengers shoots lights out while the 36-hole leader morphs into a woeful hacker, or Tiger Woods has a complete meltdown. And that’s just not gonna happen.

So, who will finish second?

Keep up to date with the 2009 PGA Championship at Tiger Woods takes four-shot lead into weekend.