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CHAMPIONSHIP
TICKETS AND HOSPITALITY
GENERAL INFORMATION
HOST COURSE
WORLD GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
VOLUNTEERS
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Friends Pampling and Woods ready to square off  PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents DORAL, Fla. -- Rod Pampling thinks it might have started at a British Open. Tiger Woods leans toward the Masters or the U.S. Open. Regardless of which major championship was the genesis, the two men have now been playing early morning practice rounds at the majors for several years. The number has probably reached double digits already, Pampling estimated.  Rod Pampling will square off with his friend, Tiger Woods, on Saturday. (Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
On Saturday, though, at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, Woods and Pampling will get to sleep in since their tee time isn't until 1:50 p.m. The stakes are much higher, though, as Woods enters the third round leading the Aussie by two strokes. "I always enjoy playing with him," Woods said. "He's one of the nicest guys out here. We get along great. I've just thoroughly enjoyed watching him develop his game. "He's improved quite a bit. To watch him, the progress from practice rounds over the course of time in major championships, it's amazing how competitive he is and how fiery he is. I really do like that." Pampling said Woods' caddy, Steve Williams, who is from New Zealand, first invited him to play with them. The Queenslander has continued to take advantage of every opportunity -- even if it does mean hitting the first tee in the neighborhood of 6 a.m. "I just stuck my hand a couple times, kept asking, he hasn't said no yet, so I'll keep asking," Pampling said with a smile. Pampling's goal is simply to learn as much as he can from the No. 1 player in the world. "You just like to see the way he gets around the golf course, how he plays those courses," Pampling said. "A lot of them I don't get to see throughout the year, and I think he stops in quite regularly on a lot of these courses. And he's pretty open with his information. "And you have some fun out there. It's nice to get in amongst the gallery early in the week and just get used to the huge numbers out there. " Pampling will certainly be able to use those lessons -- not to mention, gallery control -- on Saturday as he makes a bid for what would be the third PGA TOUR win of his career. He broke par for the second day in blustery conditions at the Blue Monster, shooting a 69 Friday that moved him to 5 under for the tournament. He jump-started his round when he holed a 7-iron from 155 yards at the par-4 sixth -- which also happened to break a stalemate with his putter. "Oh, yeah, (it) saved me having to try and work out how to make one, that's for sure," Pampling said. "I had not made a putt on the front nine, so, yeah, it took away the problems of trying to make a putt. "Whenever you have a 2 out there, it's definitely a boost to your confidence. It gets you fired up again, you keep going." Pampling, who entered the CA Championship ranked 142nd in putting, broke out a new flat stick and a new grip earlier this week. He wanted to get his left hand stronger so now he has both hands fully on the grip, instead of overlapping. "I was kind of trying to get comfortable with that and just wasn't quite there on the front nine," Pampling said. "But we worked it out and it's starting to roll again." An accurate driver of the ball and a savvy iron player, Pampling likes the way the Blue Monster sets up this week. Small wonder, then, that the shotmaker is tied for seventh in fairways hit this week and tied for third in greens in regulation. "It's a good, solid golf course," Pampling said. "It's certainly open, but the greens are firm and the rough, you're not really getting the spin like normal golf courses where you really have to position yourself in the fairways. It's a huge factor here. "I enjoy that challenge of hitting fairways, which allows you to be more aggressive at the pins. Yeah, it suits the eye well."
Pampling's not fazed by the wind either. "Once it gets about 15, 20, doesn't matter how strong it is," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. Woods looming, however, can be problematic for Pampling and the rest of the star-studded field of 73. A closing 43 on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, though, gives some hope. "Just look at his past record, something like 85 percent by the time 36 holes comes around and he's leading and he wins," Pampling said. "It's pretty amazing what he does when he gets in the front. "We certainly don't rule ourselves out. Obviously I don't think he's going to have the weekend he had at Bay Hill, but you know what, it's a golf course where you've still got to be pretty strong off the tee and play some good shots. As I said, I don't think it's going to happen, but it's still there and it's you know, maybe it's something fresh in his mind that someone gets near, he may actually feel a little bit of pressure for once." Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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