LPGA star Diaz helps guide brother Philo Jr. to solid 71

Despite being four months pregnant, LPGA star Laura Diaz carried Ron Philo Jr.'s bag and helped guide her big brother to an impressive 1-over 71 at Baltustrol Golf Club.

Marino Parascenzo, Special to PGA.com

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- Ron Philo Jr.'s caddie was the only one who got kissed on the putting green yesterday.

Philo wrapped up a 1-over-par 71 in the first round of the PGA Championship on Thursday, the best early score of the 25 club professionals in the field, and headed for the putting green, his caddie in tow -- his caddie happening to be his kid sister, LPGA Tour star Laura Diaz. Who happens to be four months pregnant and expecting the child Jan. 18,

"He's going easy on me," Diaz said, chuckling. She motioned to a full-mouthed, heavy staff bag standing nearby, looking so much beefier than the slender carry bag with the leg stands that brother Ron was using. Yes, she said, she has doctor's permission to go out in the 90-degree heat and trudge 7,392 yards -- 4.2 miles -- up and down the hills of Baltusrol Golf Club.

Philo, 39, is a teaching professional, splitting his year between The Kittansett Club at Marion, Mass., and Amelia Island Plantation in Florida, where he lives in the winter. On his playing resume are 10 top-10 finishes on the former Nike Tour in the mid-1990s. He got into this PGA by finishing fifth in the 2005 Club Professional Championship, the sixth time he has qualified for his association's highest honor.

With both brother and sister schooled in golfer-caddie protocol, Diaz did not presume to offer any advice ("He's been giving advice to me for 30 years," she said.) and Philo had no need of hints or sharp-edged commands. He could play his game.

Philo started on the back nine, and things didn't go well right away, not with bogeys at the 10th and 12th. Then came the tough par at the 13th, his fourth hole. That brightened things for him.

"I had a really good up-and-down," he said. "I pull-hooked my 3-wood off the tee -- trying to play safe, hah -- and then I got it out of the rough from a crummy lie, and then pitched on to 4 feet and made that for my par. That gave me confidence. That made me feel that even if I hit it poorly, I can still make some birdies."

"That was a great par there," Diaz said.

Thus inspired, he did make some birdies -- No. 1 (his 10th), and after a bogey at No.3, another birdie at No. 5 for his 1-over 71, four shots off the early lead.

Still, sister Laura won their match. "I had a little game going with him," Diaz said. "I told him I'd take par on each hole and he would take whatever he'd make." Accordingly, she beat him by a shot.

"I have three men in my life," said Diaz, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour and two-time member of the United States Solheim Cup team. "My father, my husband and my brother, and I'm proud of all three of them."

With his 71, Philo beat a whole bunch of the field -- even Tiger Woods, who shot 75 -- and had staked an early claim on low club professional honors. Which, by the way, he wasn't shooting for. In fact, he wasn't, and isn't, shooting for anything.

"My only goal is to try to play golf the way I play," Philo said. "I pick a target and try to hit the ball there, then pick another one and hit it there, and I try to keep doing it over and over again."

With, of course, his kid sister tagging along. Will he keep her?

Well, she's got a family to think of now. Then there's the LPGA.

Philo grinned. Easy.

"I'll keep her as my sister," he said.