PGA a parade of nations

Rain can't wash away international flavor

Andres Romero managed to complete his round of 5-under-65. (STUART FRANKLIN/Getty Images)

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Frequently, golf is said to orbit around a variety of topics that generate passionate debates, be they the distances today's players hit a ball or the technology they use or the exorbitant prize money thrown their way.

Worthy topics that they may be, they miss the target. Instead, what sits at the heart of the game is a great international flavor. Just don't suggest that it's coming; more accurate to say it has arrived.

For proof, there was the scene behind the 18th green at Oakland Hills Country Club in yesterday's weather-plagued third round of the PGA Championship: A Frenchman with PGA Tour credentials was speaking Spanish to an Argentine, conducting an interview for French television.

"I did OK, too," said Thomas Levet, a three-time winner on the European Tour, though at 39 he's less a player than he is a reporter these days for Canal Plus, a cable network in France. He had a smile on his face and a passion in his heart, because Andres Romero, whose brilliant 5-under-par 65 had attracted Levet's attention and camera guy, was the latest proof that dynamic golf is being played by talented players from all corners of the globe.

"The game is so international. Here, in America, maybe it's reached its peak, but in so many places in the world it is still growing," said Levet, who could have supported his argument by pointing to the giant leaderboard over his shoulder. The only thing is, there really is no argument anymore; golf's stage stretches worldwide and features performers who speak Thai and Japanese, German and Swedish, Spanish and French, though a scorecard of seven birdies against two bogeys needs no translator.

Brilliant golf is a universal language.

"Almost perfect," said Romero, a 27-year-old whose brief time on the world stage already has produced plenty of flash and sizzle. He has won in South America, of course, but also on both the PGA Tours of Europe and the United States, and his final-round theatrics at Carnoustie in 2007 nearly won the British Open. That scintillating 10-birdie effort, however, is ancient history; what counts more is the effort he orchestrated over an Oakland Hills course that had been alleged to be borderline unplayable.

It came early, before a series of thunderstorms rolled in to wash out the day, and vaulted Romero into serious pursuit of this major championship. Having started the day at 7 over and tied for 48th, the dynamic Romero closed his sterling play with a deft up-and-down from the rough to the right of the 18th green. As he was hustled to waiting reporters, the Argentine was in eighth place, at 2-over 212, and depending on how you viewed things, he was the clubhouse leader or three off the pace.

To that confusion, we owe a giant thank you to Mother Nature, which provided thunder to halt play at 2:16 p.m., then sheets of rain atop more rain, so that by 6:28 it was deemed a lost cause. Play was suspended for the day with second-round leader J.B. Holmes, he of the 1-under 139 total, having yet to tee off alongside Charlie Wi, who is even par. Ben Curtis and Justin Rose, both at even, haven't started Round 3, either, nor have David Toms and Henrik Stenson, both at 1 over.

Thus has this championship taken on the complexion of a marathon, because what is on tap is a final day of competition that will require up to 36 holes for some. Only 25 players completed their third rounds, so 48 will return at 7:15 this morning to finish that business. Officials are hoping Round 4 will commence off the first and 10th tees at 12:20 p.m., with the leaders off at approximately 2:20.

Sounds like a plan, a tiresome one to many, but it's not like the prize at the end of the rainbow - if there is one - has changed. It still sits at $1.35 million for the winner, and it's beginning to look more like this could turn into a foreign affair. For that, Romero deserves credit, but only part of it. That's because if you're looking for proof that international golf is here, consider the leaderboard of a championship that has been dominated by Americans since it debuted in 1916.

"There are so many of them playing well," said Levet. "Not just Andres."

So true, because while Holmes was born and raised in Kentucky, Wi is a native of South Korea, Rose an Englishman, and Stenson a Swede. Meanwhile, Romero's countryman, Angel Cabrera, is just 2 over, tied with a man from Colombia, Camilo Villegas, who was on a tear himself (4 under through 14 holes).

In all, of the top 16 names on the leaderboard when play was halted, only seven were American-born, so it's surely not the PGA Championship Kevin Sutherland was introduced to.

"When I got here in 1997, I think [PGA Tour] membership was maybe 10-15 percent foreign players," said Sutherland. "Now it's up to what? Forty or 50 percent?"

What's for sure is this: Of the 73 players who made the cut here, only 35 are Americans. Compare that with Sutherland's first PGA Championship - 56 of the 77 who made the cut were Americans. Even more, go back to 1987, when only nine of the 73 who made the cut were foreign-born. Need more testimony? Then check out the 1977 PGA Championship, where 69 of the 71 who made the cut were Americans.

Sutherland wouldn't have needed such figures to be brought to his attention; all he had to do was turn to his playing competitor, the gentleman from Thailand, Prayad Marksaeng. At 42, Marksaeng is 17 years into a pro career that has yielded a half-dozen wins on the Asian PGA Tour, a splattering of chances elsewhere on the world stage, but this is his first time at the PGA Championship. If he's overwhelmed, you'd never know it, because as were fellow foreigners Romero and Villegas, Marksaeng was enjoying Round 3, his 3-under total pushing him to 3 over before the horn sounded as he prepared to play a greenside bunker shot at the 18th.

Good golf, and Sutherland appreciated the effort, even if he couldn't relay that sentiment.

"We just didn't talk much," said the 12-year PGA Tour veteran. "He doesn't speak English . . ."

And Sutherland?

"And I don't speak much Thai," he said with a smile.

Through his interpreter, Pimpom Rojsattarat, Marksaeng confirmed that he was happy with a round that had him within either four of the lead (if you used Holmes as the benchmark) or one (if you used Romero's score).

"He said that everything went like he had planned," said Rojsattarat.

PGA of America officials cannot say similarly, because their cherished Oakland Hills course, and its 7,395 yards of narrow fairways, thick rough, firm and slippery greens, and brutal par 3s, is bound to be so soft that the complexion of the championship has changed. It had already taken on a different look in the early goings of Round 3, as the field average was 73.260 as compared with the 74.850 from the first two rounds.

"The greens were a bit softer," said Romero, who is sure to see even more receptive ones when he arrives for Round 4. "But I played awesome. Let's see what happens [today]."

If it turns into a foreign affair, few in golf will be surprised. It's the landscape.