Love Names Ryder Cup Backroom

Davis Love III has completed his backroom team for next month's Ryder Cup match by naming Scott Verplank and Jeff Suman as his final two assistant captains.

They join Fred Couples and Mike Hulbert for the match at Medinah Country Club in Chicago on September 28-30, when Europe under Jose Maria Olazabal's leadership will try to retain the trophy they won back at Celtic Manor two years ago.

Olazabal has yet to name any of his four assistants, preferring to wait until he knows certain individuals cannot make the side on points.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn and Darren Clarke are thought to be front-runners, with McGinley also being the favourite to succeed Olazabal as skipper for the 2014 contest at Gleneagles.

Love also today gave strong hints that Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk will be three of his four wild cards and that Rickie Fowler may edge Dustin Johnson for the final spot.

Stricker is Tiger Woods's obvious partner, Love said that Furyk "can be paired with anybody" and he added that Fowler and Bubba Watson were the side's clowns in Wales.

"They had a lot of fun - they loosened up our team," Love commented. "Obviously Bubba and Rickie go well together in everything they do, on and off the golf course. Maybe not that well in those videos, but they go very well together."

The pair have done a music video with Mahan, the player whose defeat to Graeme McDowell cost America defeat and who finished the American points race just outside the top eight.

He was ninth, Stricker 10th, Furyk 11th and Fowler 12th, with Johnson down in 15th after missing part of the season - including The Masters - through injury.

"We are going to need some guys with experience, that's obvious," Love added. "When you look at our top 15 or 20, some names obviously jump out at you - like Hunter has won twice this year.

"Hard to believe he didn't get in there on points with the year he's had."

Love names his choices on September 4 after the first two events of the FedEx Cup play-offs.

That gives some others the chance to impress, although Love did say that he was asked by the PGA of America not to announce anybody before then.

"We wanted September 4 to be fun," he stated.

Remarkable Rory Cruises to Major No.2

Rory McIlroy won his second major championship at the age of 23 with an eight-shot victory in the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in South Carolina.

The Northern Irishman started the final round with a three-shot lead and played a superbly controlled round of major championship golf to keep the rest of the field at bay, a closing birdie completing a bogey-free 66.

He was never headed and although Ian Poulter at one stage cut the defict to a couple of blows, this was almost as straightforward a victory as McIlroy's eight-shot triumph at last year's US Open.

If that win had not buried the ghosts of his 2011 Masters Sunday, this surely will. A four-shot lead melted away at Augusta that day, but on the Ocean Course, McIlroy was rock-solid as he won the title and in the process regained the No.1 ranking.

His second major has arrived at 23 years and three months - a month younger than Tiger Woods was when he won his second. Suggestions that McIlroy can dominate golf for a decade or more in the way Woods did have plenty of credence now.

Poulter started the final round at one-under, six shots behind McIlroy, but he started like a train, making birdies at each of the first five holes.

The Englishman also picked up a shot at seven with a two-putt birdie on the par five, but McIlroy was not standing still either.

He made birdies at the second and third to regain his three-shot cushion and Poulter then failed to get up and down at eight to drop his first shot of the round.

McIlroy responded by making birdie at seven with a drive and a five iron - on 541-yard hole, but Poulter rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt at 12 to get to eight-under, just two adrift.

At that stage we looked set for an enthralling duel on the back nine, only for the Poulter train to run into the buffers.

He dropped shots at 13, 14 and 15 - each time after missing the green and failing to get up and down.

Within minutes McIlroy had made a 15-foot birdie putt at 12 and with a six-shot lead, the title was virtually in the bag.

He was able to make steady pars at five of the last six holes before making a 15-foot birdie putt at 18 to wrap up what was ultimately the most comfortable of victories.

England's David Lynn, playing his first major in America, birdied the 16th and 17th to get to five under par with a closing 68 to finish second, earning a cheque for more than $800,000 and an invitation to Augusta.

Poulter slipped away to finish on four under and shared third place with defending champion Keegan Bradley, Justin Rose who roared home with a 66 and the unfortunate Swede Carl Pettersson.

Pettersson had been the closest challenger to McIlroy with a round to go, but walking off the fourth tee he was told that he had incurred a two-stroke penalty on the opening hole.

He had pushed his drive into the edge of a hazard and on the backswing for his second shot he had flicked the grass behind the ball.

His par there became a double-bogey six. To his credit he bounced back with three straight birdies but he was never able to threaten his playing partner.

McIlroy's victory ended a streak in which 16 straight majors have been won by 16 players. He is also the first 54-hole leader to win a major this year.

Players from the island of Ireland have now won six of the last 18 majors.

Hoey Kiawah Dream Ends in Nightmare

One of the best rounds of Michael Hoey's career counted for nothing on Friday night when he was disqualified from golf's final major of the year.

The Northern Irishman's second-round 70 at the USPGA Championship was only one off the low round of the day, and an eight-stroke improvement on his opening score. However, after signing his card he later brought an incident to the attention of officials.

Hoey, having embedded his ball deeply in a sandy area on the ninth hole, brushed away sand to identify it, but failed to replace the sand on his ball. It would have been a two-stroke penalty if his card had not been signed, but because it had the punishment was disqualification.

Wannamaker Harrington Back in Touch

For Padraig Harrington, it was a case of making hay while the sun shone as the Irishman grinded his way into contention at the US PGA Championship before storms hit Kiawah Island.

Following rounds of 70 and 76 over the first two days in South Carolina, Harrington, playing in far more benign conditions than had been seen during a windswept second round, took advantage of the slightly easier front nine midway through Saturday.

Birdies at the par five second and short third gave Harrington’s third round a fast start as further birdies at the sixth and seventh holes helped him reach the turn in 32 and propelled the 40 year old up the leaderboard on the morning of Moving Day.

And despite carding a double bogey at the tenth the three-time Major Champion fought back, chipping in from a greenside bunker for birdie at the short 17th, to sign for a three under par 69 that left him tied for 11th just five shots behind the leaders before play was halted as an enormous electrical storm cell descended on the US barrier island.

“It was a good round overall,” said a satisfied Harrington. “There were some highs, and made a very bad double bogey on 10, but I got it going right on the last couple holes. 

“I finished it off solid, that kind of makes up for it. I think through 16 holes I felt like I'd left a number of shots out there but to hole a bunker shot on 17 and then to get up and down from 35 yards on the last I've got to be comfortable; that's the score I sort of deserved today.”

Harrington, who won his third and last Major Championship in this event when it was staged at Oakland Hills, Michigan, in 2008, just about completed his third round before the suspension, but was ambiguous in his assessment of whether it would help or hurt his chances of lifting the Wanamaker Trophy for a second time tomorrow.

“It could be a good break, but it could be a bad break, as well,” he said. “We'll just have to wait and see how it all pans out. 

“I would have settled for the guys to play the same conditions we played in and have them play the back nine in the wind because the back nine was a lot tougher than the front nine and there's not too many to make too much headway on the front nine.

“It depends on the leaders and this weather could change everything so who knows what's going to happen now. But if say four under par is in the last couple of groups for the final round it means my score of one under still has a chance tomorrow.”

Weather Halts McIlroy PGA Charge

Rory McIlroy and Vijay Singh are tied for the lead in the third round of the PGA Championship, which is being delayed because of storms in the area. 

McIlroy birdied five of his first eight holes Saturday before a bogey on No. 9 dropped him back to 6-under par, even with Singh. 

Tiger Woods entered the day sharing the lead, but was 3 over through seven to fall five strokes off the pace. 

Adam Scott is second, a stroke behind the leaders. Carl Pettersson is another shot back. 

McIlroy saved par on the third hole after his tee shot became stuck in a tree, and aside from that adventure, he wasn't having much trouble with Kiawah Island's Ocean Course early on. 

McIlroy had quite a start to his third round: Birdie, birdie, ball in tree. 

Moments later, he was tied for the lead. 

McIlroy saved par on the third hole after his tee shot became stuck in a tree, and aside from that adventure, he wasn't having much trouble with Kiawah Island's Ocean Course early on. 

After two birdies to start, McIlroy's tee shot on No. 3 somehow got lodged in the thick branch of a tree in the middle of the fairway. After searching for a bit, McIlroy realized where his ball was. He pulled it out, took a drop -- and got up and down for par, sinking a 6-foot putt. 

The windy second round Friday was the toughest at the PGA Championship since the tournament switched to stroke play, with 41 players failing to break 80. A battered group of golf's top players found milder conditions Saturday, which was hot and clear. The course was set up at 7,451 yards, the shortest it's been so far. 

Woods entered the day with a share of the lead, but Singh improved to 5 under with a birdie on the par-4 first hole. 

Woods, trying for his 15th major championship and first since 2008, missed the fairway with his first drive, and his ball nestled down in the rough to the left. He was able to reach the green with his next shot, though, and settled for par after missing a 10-foot birdie putt. 

On the third hole, Woods missed a 4-foot birdie putt, and he made a mess of the fourth, twice hitting into the gallery en route to a bogey. 

Elsewhere, players were taking advantage of the more favorable conditions. Steve Stricker and Jimmy Walker shot 5-under 67s -- two strokes better than anyone managed in the second round. Stricker moved to 2 under, a stroke ahead of Walker. 

Bo Van Pelt was 4 under through 15 holes and was three back of the lead. 

After a fairly tame first round, the wind arrived in earnest Friday, when there were more rounds in the 90s (two) than in the 60s. Singh managed a 69 in the second round, but he was an exception. 

Woods had a share of the lead at the U.S. Open this summer until rounds of 75-73 plunged him into a tie for 21st.