PGA Championship 2012: Tee Times, News And More Leading Up To Round 1

With the 2016 Olympics welcoming golf back to the fold after a hiatus of 112 years, Tiger Woods and other PGA Tour stars have signaled their desires to tee it up for their countries in the world games. Rickie Fowler, however, may have missed the memo, clarifying that he and his cronies would be playing golf and not trying out for the swim team.

Fowler, who’s hanging out with Watson and his wife, Angie, and son, Caleb, during PGA Championship week, showed off his aquatic derring-do, which @bubbawatson captured with his videocam and shared with his nearly 665,000 Twitter followers.

The 2012 PGA Championship will get started on Thursday. The final major event of the year will have plenty of live coverage. We’ve collected all of the pertinent information for you right here.

This year, Turner Sports will be offering extensive coverage of the Championship, not just on television but also online and via mobile devices. You will be able to stream par-3 holes and cover marquee pairings live online at PGA.com. Turner will also be launching a free PGA Championship app for mobile devices that will feature live video and leaderboard updates.

Keegan Bradley has said over and over that he’s not scared to switch from his major-winning belly putter should golf’s governing bodies decide to ban the big bats. Turns out the defending titleholder at this week’s PGA Championship will have to do links battle with a new flat stick sooner than he imagined -- although putting purists will be unhappy to learn that Bradley, the first professional to win a major with a long putter, won’t be changing teams just yet.

Golfweek reported that during Tuesday’s practice round, Bradley’s trusted Odyssey XG Sabertooth developed a crack at the point where the shaft joins the putter head.

With the season’s final major on tap, Tiger Woods said he was satisfied with the way his game has progressed over the year. But the 14-time major champion noted he was displeased with going 0-for-2012 so far and looked to break his winless streak at this week’s PGA Championship.

“I’m pleased at the way I was able to play at certain parts of [the most recent majors, the U.S. and British Opens] and at certain times, and obviously disappointed that I did not win,” Woods told reporters Tuesday after finishing a rain-delayed practice round on a soggy Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. “I’ve played in three major championships this year, and I didn’t win any of them, so that’s the goal.

The final major of 2012 is upon us, and a field of 150 of the world’s best players will compete for their chance to win the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, S.C. Here is a quick rundown of contenders to watch this week.

Tiger Woods -- Let’s just get this guy out of the way right from the start. Woods is always a threat for any major championship and is once again the Vegas-odds favorite to win this week. Woods is coming off one of his better major finishes in the last three years (T-3 at the British Open) and has had a vastly successful 2012 season on tour that includes three tournament victories. Tiger’s quest to win his career major no. 15 will not come easy this week, especially if Mother Nature decides to make Kiawah Island play as brutal as it can.

Phil Mickelson may not be able to find the fairway with a cannon ball at the moment, but the PGA Tour fan favorite is still a wizard with a wedge. As Mickelson was playing a practice round on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course Monday night in preparation for this week’s PGA Championship, his caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay provided dramatic readings from yardage books. When the duo set up on the tee of the par-5 11th hole, fans enjoying themselves in a neighboring house spied the pair and gave a yell.

As eyewitness Golf.com’s David Dusek recounted, Mickelson returned the wave, prompting one party-goer to go all Michael Phelps on him and leap from a deck into a swimming pool, an act that received an even better reaction than the jumper could have imagined.

In every major tournament thus far in 2012, Tiger Woods has been the odds-on betting favorite before the events even teed off. The story is no different heading into the 2012 PGA Championship, which begins Thursday. Tiger Woods is once again the darling of the bookmakers, entering the tournament as the 8/1 favorite to win.

Those odds will change over the course of the tournament, of course, but the oddsmakers continue to have confidence that Woods will regain his form. Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald hold the next-closest odds to win, at 18/1. Both Woods and McIlroy have had their struggles throughout the year, of course, but they are always viewed as a threat to run away with any PGA Tour event.

The 94th PGA Championship begins on Thursday morning with a field full of the world’s best golfers. One interesting paring sees the likes of Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III and Padraig Harrington all paired together. All three are former PGA Championship winners, but Mickelson could also make an impression on Love, who is the American Ryder Cup captain. Mickelson is currently on the edge of making the top 8, which automatically qualify, and could impress Love enough to get a captain’s exemption if he falters down the list.

Tiger Woods is paired up with Keegan Bradley and Martin Kaymer, starting on the 10th tee on Thursday early in the morning. Woods will be looking to win his fifth PGA Championship while Bradley will be trying to defend his 2011 victory on the course.