FanHouse BobMay

The PGA of America just announced that play will be suspended for the day at Oakland Hills because supposedly, and correct me if I'm wrong, it's hard to play golf when the greens look like an above ground swimming pool.

Tomorrow at 7:15 AM Eastern sharp, the golfers will be at their balls and ready to go.

At first glance, Andres Romero, who shot the best round of the week by two shots with his five-under 65 and vaulted up the leaderboard 40 spots to a tie for eighth looked to be the happiest person in the world. That might not be the case, however, as the course will now have soaked fairways and saturated greens, lowering the scores for Sunday.

A tournament that looked like it might hover around even par to win has just changed outfits and a 65 might be out there for some of the leaders.

Eight golfers have yet to even hit their first tee shot, with guys like Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson still a ton of golf to finish up tomorrow. This tournament will not conclude until Monday as long as the weather stays away for the next two days, so the marathon day tomorrow should be exciting to watch.

I was at a museum bar this past week, playing some pool with a buddy when golf came up in the conversation between us and our playing competitors.

One of the guys, slightly inebriated, lambasted me with this theory – Tiger Woods is killing the PGA Tour.

No, there were no bigotry in his voice, he didn't care if Woods was black, white or the color of Paula Creamer's golf ball, he just believed that the onslaught of Tiger fans has brought down the competitiveness and interest of a regular PGA Tour event.

At first I thought this guy was a complete moron. I hit my pool shots, had a sip of beer and mused over the idea that the best thing to ever hit golf could somehow be bringing it down? Hogwash, I thought.

It didn't hit me until Saturday afternoon, on the golf course for my lemming-like weekend tee time, when I realized this guy might be on to something.

Maybe Tiger is killing the tour. No, he isn't killing golf, he's turned a sport reserved for higher class businesspeople into a global phenomenon. He's changed the pot-bellied golfer into a gym rat. He's merged two types of golfers, the one that bombs it off the tee and the one that chips and putts well around the greens, into one golfing freak. He's brought mock turtlenecks, Nike Golf, the first pump and red on Sundays to our regular conversation.

Tiger has changed golf, which is obviously clear.

With that said, has he killed the PGA?

Since learning that 2008 will continue on without golf's daddy, one thing has become extremely apparent -- someone could really become someone over these next few months.

Since Tiger Woods broke on the scene in 1997, winning the Masters by more strokes than Blue in Old School, we have had exactly one young guy attempt to make a name for himself in major championships. That, sadly, was Sergio Garcia at the 1999 PGA Championship, battling Woods to the end at only 19-years-young.

At that point, golf was buzzing. We had a young, brash European (!) who not only could challenge our best golfer, but someone who would be on the posters facing Tiger at the Ryder Cup. Exciting, meet interesting.

Sadly, Garcia forgot how to putt about seven years ago and has never really found it, flashing in the pan every now again, like the '07 British Open, but always getting to the end of the puzzle and finding out your dog ate the last piece.

Now, Garcia is a 28-year-old veteran, with a grizzled beard, some negative incidents and is not the face of youth on the PGA Tour anymore.

I like Stuart Appleby, and I would love to see him win his first major today. But I -- like just about every other golf fan on the planet -- love Tiger Woods. And I wouldn't be too upset if he got one step closer to Jack Nicklaus's 18-major record.

The Golf Channel just slapped up this graphic, which is pretty sobering if you're Woods' playing partner in the final group:

2006 PGA - Tiger, 68; Luke Donald, 74
2006 British Open - Tiger, 67; Sergio Garcia, 73
2005 British Open - Tiger, 70; Jose Maria Olazabal, 74
2002 U.S. Open - Tiger, 72; Chris DiMarco, 68
2002 Masters - Tiger, 71; Retief Goosen, 74
2001 Masters - Tiger, 68; Phil Mickelson, 70
2000 PGA - Tiger, 67; Bob May, 66
2000 British Open - Tiger, 69; David Duval, 75
1999 PGA - Tiger, 72; Mike Weir, 80
1997 Masters - Tiger, 69; Costantino Rocca, 75

Well, the good news, I guess, is that Tiger isn't infallible. But interestingly, it wasn't the big-named players who made a run at Eldrick -- it was Bob May and Chris DiMarco. Don't get me wrong, DiMarco's no scrub, but he has yet to win a major (though I thought he had in '05), and not many people would argue that he's better than Goosen, Mickelson, Duval (in his prime) or Mike Weir.

Whatever, for today Stuart Appleby should channel Bob May.