The US Open Thread

[Doomsday101]

Talk about a featured group.

The USGA released its pairing sheet Thursday for next week's U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson will be playing in the same group in the first and second rounds of the tournament.

Woods and Mickelson were paired together along with Australian Adam Scott at the 2008 U.S. Open; Woods of course won that tournament, his last major championship win, and Mickelson finished T18.

The Woods/Mickelson/Watson group will start their opening round Thursday at 10:33 a.m. Eastern time; on Friday the group tees off at 4:18 p.m. Eastern time.

The USGA is known to favor quirky pairings for its U.S. Open championship and the 2012 edition is no exception. In addition to the high-powered star-wattage of Woods, Mickelson and Watson, you will also see the all-Korean, all-initialed pairing of K. J. Choi, Y. E. Yang, and K. T. Kim (11:28 a.m. Eastern on Thursday); the all-UK former and current No. 1 players Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald



Read more: http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/201...y-in-same-group-at-us-open.html#ixzz1xUWvrdRM

 

[Doomsday101]

I love how the USGA is putting these groupings together. Tiger, Phil and Watson together along with Westwood, McIlroy and Donald. You have 3 of the premier US players along with 3 of Europes top dogs.

 

[casmith07]

Tiger started out great today. He's right there at the top...all he's gotta do is keep it on the fairways and he'll be in great position going into the weekend.

Phil struggled...probably played himself out of contention. Unfortunately the US Open courses are almost always ridiculously difficult.

 

[silverbear]

Tiger started out great today. He's right there at the top...all he's gotta do is keep it on the fairways and he'll be in great position going into the weekend.

Phil struggled...probably played himself out of contention. Unfortunately the US Open courses are almost always ridiculously difficult.

My man, you have nooooo idea how they trick those courses up...

Way back in 1983 the Open was held at Oakmont, in Pittsburgh... I was working as a golf pro at a club about an hour southwest of there, and the local PGA section (the Tri State section) sent out a flyer asking for volunteer help...

Well, the weekend was out for me, that's when golf pros make their money, but I conned the owner into letting me volunteer on Thursday... drove up there, and they stationed me behind the first green, to help players find lost balls... I was a little frustrated, because I figured where they put me, I wouldn't get much action... little did I know...

You see, the first hole was like 470 yards long, a par 4... worse, the USGA had narrowed the fairways down to approximately the width of your average bowling alley, so you didn't DARE try to hit the driver off the tee... that rough was just brutal, which is to say it was your typical US Open rough... if you walked through it, you wouldn't see your feet...

So, lots of folks were teeing off with 1 and 2 irons, which meant they were looking at approach shots of well over 200 yards... this is where it gets really sadistic, the first green actually sloped AWAY from the players (most greens slope toward the player, making it a bit easier to stop your approach shot)... so you had lots of tour pros hitting 2 and 3 irons into a green that sloped away from them... nobody could hope to hold a ball on that green, not even a tour pro... but there were bunkers in front, so you couldn't land the ball short and run it up to the cup...

Let's just say I spent a lot of time that day showing the world's greatest players where their ball ended up behind the green... that was the day I decided I didn't even want to be a tour pro...

I haven't even mentioned the fact the greens were lightning fast... Oakmont was a tough enough golf course without narrowing down those fairways and growing the rough up to the bottom of your butt cheeks...

 

[Doomsday101]

My man, you have nooooo idea how they trick those courses up...

Way back in 1983 the Open was held at Oakmont, in Pittsburgh... I was working as a golf pro at a club about an hour southwest of there, and the local PGA section (the Tri State section) sent out a flyer asking for volunteer help...

Well, the weekend was out for me, that's when golf pros make their money, but I conned the owner into letting me volunteer on Thursday... drove up there, and they stationed me behind the first green, to help players find lost balls... I was a little frustrated, because I figured where they put me, I wouldn't get much action... little did I know...

You see, the first hole was like 470 yards long, a par 4... worse, the USGA had narrowed the fairways down to approximately the width of your average bowling alley, so you didn't DARE try to hit the driver off the tee... that rough was just brutal, which is to say it was your typical US Open rough... if you walked through it, you wouldn't see your feet...

So, lots of folks were teeing off with 1 and 2 irons, which meant they were looking at approach shots of well over 200 yards... this is where it gets really sadistic, the first green actually sloped AWAY from the players (most greens slope toward the player, making it a bit easier to stop your approach shot)... so you had lots of tour pros hitting 2 and 3 irons into a green that sloped away from them... nobody could hope to hold a ball on that green, not even a tour pro... but there were bunkers in front, so you couldn't land the ball short and run it up to the cup...

Let's just say I spent a lot of time that day showing the world's greatest players where their ball ended up behind the green... that was the day I decided I didn't even want to be a tour pro...

I haven't even mentioned the fact the greens were lightning fast... Oakmont was a tough enough golf course without narrowing down those fairways and growing the rough up to the bottom of your butt cheeks...

The greens at this US open do not look as fast as some I have seen in the past. No doubt they are still very quick greens but nothing like some in recent years.

 

[casmith07]

The greens at this US open do not look as fast as some I have seen in the past. No doubt they are still very quick greens but nothing like some in recent years.

The greens are slow, actually, but the structuring of the course is absurdly difficult. Placement and depth of the bunkers, etc.

And the rough is SUPER lush.

 

[casmith07]

Man Jim Furyk is just getting all sorts of lucky bounces, taps, and rolls today.

 

[lane]

tiger forearms cameraman walking off 18th hole.

handled his emotions pretty well all day and ruined it walking off the finishing hole.

 

[jimmy40]

tiger forearms cameraman walking off 18th hole.

handled his emotions pretty well all day and ruined it walking off the finishing hole.

looked like he jammed his thumb on the guy's head on accident to me.

 

[jimmy40]

Man Jim Furyk is just getting all sorts of lucky bounces, taps, and rolls today.

I watched every shot and I don't remember anything very lucky much less all sorts.

 

[casmith07]

I watched every shot and I don't remember anything very lucky much less all sorts.

Then you clearly didn't watch every shot.

I believe on 3, the kick back from the fringe along the fairway/rough when his shot was rolling into the rough, and then I believe on 7, the shot pinging off the pin to stop the ball that at that rate of speed would've clearly rolled off the back of the green into the rough?

He had all sorts of kick backs and lucky bounces all day. But luck is part of the game too.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Well Tiger's round just broke my heart, I tell you.

 

[silverbear]

looked like he jammed his thumb on the guy's head on accident to me.

I'm no Tiger fan at all, I think he's a world-class jerk, but it looked to me like the guy he bumped into actually leaned out as Tiger was walking past, looking at something else...

OTOH, the icy smile he gave the interviewer when asked about this harmless incident is all you need to know about his personality... this is simply not a pleasant man, though in formal interviews he strives mightily to come off that way...

 

[silverbear]

Well Tiger's round just broke my heart, I tell you.

There was a time when I found myself hoping that he'd get at least part of the way back (not all the way back, I'm in the tank for Jack Nicklaus and don't want Tiger to break Jack's record for most majors)... he'd taken so much crap in the media, had his future written off, that I grudgingly started to feel bad for him...

Today, I was reminded why I don't like the guy...

 

[silverbear]

A couple of quick thoughts on the Open thus far:

1) I'm not really surprised to see Jim Furyk sitting at the top of the leaderboard this weak, he's the quintessential grinder, and if ever there was a grinder's golf course, Olympic is it...

2) That said, Furyk's swing is just pfugly... I don't know how the hell he can repeat that herky-jerky mess with any consistency... I can only guess that he hits a lot of balls on the range, that swing has got to be high-maintenance...

3) If Olympic had greens as fast as Open greens usually are, nobody would be able to see par... the leader would be 3-5 over going into the final round... as it is, Olympic is eating the players' collective lunch, or drinking their collective milkshake, whatever metaphor you might prefer to describe utter ownage...

4) A 670 yard par 5?? Man, that ain't nothin'; Rock Harbor Golf Club, in Winchester, Virginia has a 693 yarder... the one time I played it, I hit a decent (for me) tee shot, about 280... the lie was good enough for my second shot that I hit my 2 wood about 260... which left me with a full 8 iron to the green for my third shot... and this was on a dry summer's day with a slight breeze at my back...

 

[casmith07]

I'm no Tiger fan at all, I think he's a world-class jerk, but it looked to me like the guy he bumped into actually leaned out as Tiger was walking past, looking at something else...

OTOH, the icy smile he gave the interviewer when asked about this harmless incident is all you need to know about his personality... this is simply not a pleasant man, though in formal interviews he strives mightily to come off that way...

Tiger's kind of like Jason Garrett in that regard. If you ask golf questions you get golf answers. If you act like a tabloid reporter, you get the spines.

 

[jimmy40]

Then you clearly didn't watch every shot.

I believe on 3, the kick back from the fringe along the fairway/rough when his shot was rolling into the rough, and then I believe on 7, the shot pinging off the pin to stop the ball that at that rate of speed would've clearly rolled off the back of the green into the rough?

He had all sorts of kick backs and lucky bounces all day. But luck is part of the game too.

wow, two lucky shots? what about the approach shot that landed in the middle of the green and bounced hard left into the trap? You must be a Tiger fan.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Woods is falling off the cliff today.

After his first two rounds, you had to figure he would be right there at the end.

His game is still (obviously) inconsistent. But maybe that's how it's going to be for him from here on in.

 

[Rogah]

I'm no Tiger fan at all, I think he's a world-class jerk, but it looked to me like the guy he bumped into actually leaned out as Tiger was walking past, looking at something else...

OTOH, the icy smile he gave the interviewer when asked about this harmless incident is all you need to know about his personality... this is simply not a pleasant man, though in formal interviews he strives mightily to come off that way...

He strives to create the perfect image for himself when nothing could be further from the truth. His frequent temper tantrums on the course show what he is made of.

 

[casmith07]

Woods is falling off the cliff today.

After his first two rounds, you had to figure he would be right there at the end.

His game is still (obviously) inconsistent. But maybe that's how it's going to be for him from here on in.

It puts him level with the rest of the field.

What people should realize is that the Tiger we saw before was like Jordan in his prime.

The media (and fans) are basically lambasting Tiger for not being old Tiger....it would be akin to asking Wizards MJ to be like 93 Bulls MJ.