David Puig (+1) has made the cut at the PGA Championship. He did it with a round of 72 strokes this Friday. Pride in abundance. That’s the only way to define his display of courage in recent days. On Tuesday, he could barely move. By Friday, he secured 36 more holes. The best news is that the pain is decreasing. Every day he feels more comfortable. Today there were moments when Puig didn’t even think about his injured back, there’s no better sign. Although this darn sport always insists that happiness is never complete. The swing has given him more than one or two headaches. In fact, after finishing the round, he exchanged his feelings with his coach, Dave Phillips.
Puig himself acknowledged it with that easy-going nature that characterises him. He should have been clapping for making the cut given how the week started, yet “in the end, we are golfers, we stand over the ball and want to do well. When we see something isn’t going as you want, you don’t like it. Today it happened to me on some shots,” he assured Ten Golf with a laugh, reflecting that huge paradox. Happy, but not entirely.
Puig got into some trouble from the tee in this second round. He struggled more than on Thursday. He is working on playing a ball with more shape, opening or closing, not so much straight, with the aim of avoiding the double error. Today he missed some shots and hopes to fix it for tomorrow. Balls to the practice range? “No, I prefer to work on these things myself, move them in my mind,” he noted with a smile.
Puig started the round not playing very well, but with two very good birdies on holes 12 and 13. He put himself in an excellent position, but the stretch between holes 17 and 5 placed him on the edge of the abyss. It was five over in seven holes, putting him at +3, two from the cut. Again, a lesson in grit from the young man from La Garriga. He made two excellent birdies on 7 and 8 and closed the matter with a great par on 9. On each of them, he hit the drive just as he wanted. There’s no better sign than bringing out the best at that moment of maximum pressure. Pride. Again. The most repeated word around Puig. It’s David’s fifth Major and his third cut, the first at the PGA. Now, the goal is at least to improve his highest position in the majors, the 39th he achieved in his debut at the US Open in 2023.
His mind has been thinking about that since he finished his round today. He knows he can go low at Quail Hollow.
