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After two jaw-dropping circuits of the back nine Friday and Saturday, and a one-stroke lead, Tiger Woods would appear to be poised to win the U.S. Open. But if there's one pairing that worked out well for the field, it's pairing him with the icy Englishman, Lee Westwood. Foreigners have won the past four U.S. Opens, and there's good reason for that: the European game lends itself more to the kind of precision and accuracy that the U.S. Open always aspires to feature, and also the kind of steely-nerved players that Europe produces.
Westwood has had no double bogeys through three rounds. Tiger has at least two.
Tiger is obviously in a lot of knee pain, which affects driving most of all, but he's also extremely athletic. I remember two Masters ago when he was going to break his club on a swing from behind a tree. He followed through perfectly anyway, knowing full well that once he hit the tree the club would snap and rip his hands and wrists up. That told me he's fairly fearless about the consequence of pain from a swing. Though he did obviously cut quite a bit on his drive at 18 yesterday.
The irony is that he'll go for less distance and perhaps find more driving accuracy the more he favors the knee; his driving has been awful all three days until late in the day when he really starts to favor it.
Rocco Mediate playing a pairing ahead of Tiger will also work to settle Mediate down a bit. He's likely having flashbacks from Augusta 2006 this morning. He wanted to be in the final pairing but I think it's to his advantage that he isn't, although he'll have enormous galleries anyway, as many spectators late in the day will do the every-other-hole thing to post up for the final two pairings.
Course marshals down south have done a great job of making the course play right at par, haven't they? I've heard they've moistened it just enough each night to get it to play the same way each day.
And did you see Mickelson's nine on 13? It looked like the practice range out there, with him hitting the same shot three straight times...
Well, Justin Hicks didn't last. That phone number we mentioned below won't have to be changed for now.
Showing posts with label Phil Mickelson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phil Mickelson. Show all posts
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Thursday at Noon
Leader board through nine, lots of players. Tiger started with a double bogey (!) and yet is one under (!!) through ten holes. Mickelson having a drab day, and while he's a local, he hasn't done well on the course since the redesign in 2001.
Click this link for latest leaderboard.
Click this link for latest leaderboard.
| T1 | J. Hicks | -4 | 13 * | -4 | ||||||||||||||||
| T1 | R. Karlsson | -4 | 11 * | -4 | ||||||||||||||||
| T3 | P. Sheehan | -3 | 13 | -3 | ||||||||||||||||
| T3 | S. Appleby | -3 | 10 * | -3 | ||||||||||||||||
| T5 | O. Wilson | -2 | 11 | -2 | ||||||||||||||||
| T5 | R. Mediate | -2 | 12 * | -2 | ||||||||||||||||
| T7 | T. Woods | -1 | 10 | -1 | ||||||||||||||||
| T7 | J. Cox | -1 | 6 | -1 | ||||||||||||||||
| T7 | L. Westwood | -1 | 10 * | -1 | ||||||||||||||||
| T7 | W. Austin | -1 | 9 * | -1 | ||||||||||||||||
| T7 | C. Pettersson | -1 | 7 * | -1 | ||||||||||||||||
| T7 | B. Crane | -1 | 7 * | -1 | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | R. Fowler | EVEN | 11 | EVEN | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | D. Johnson | EVEN | 11 | EVEN | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | S. English | EVEN | 5 | EVEN | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | D. Fathauer | EVEN | 13 * | EVEN | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | J. Furyk | EVEN | 12 * | EVEN | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | S. Stricker | EVEN | 12 * | EVEN | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | J. Kelly | EVEN | 10 * | EVEN | ||||||||||||||||
| T13 | E. Axley | EVEN | 7 * | EVEN |
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Green Jacket Pairings!
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Outstanding: Mickelson and Woods are paired for the first two days of the Open. That's six green jackets. Aussie Adam Scott is also in the group.
Check out other pairings at the San Diego Union-Tribune's blog. Another notable pairing, of three green jackets, one apiece: Trevor Immelman and Zach Johnson---the past two Masters winners, will go off with Mike Weir, who won the Masters in 2003. Garcia/Cink/Singh is pretty good too.
Also: if you want to get wayyyyy inside the tournament, read this ESPN Q&A post by Jason Sobel top to bottom.
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Outstanding: Mickelson and Woods are paired for the first two days of the Open. That's six green jackets. Aussie Adam Scott is also in the group.
Check out other pairings at the San Diego Union-Tribune's blog. Another notable pairing, of three green jackets, one apiece: Trevor Immelman and Zach Johnson---the past two Masters winners, will go off with Mike Weir, who won the Masters in 2003. Garcia/Cink/Singh is pretty good too.
Also: if you want to get wayyyyy inside the tournament, read this ESPN Q&A post by Jason Sobel top to bottom.
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Monday, June 9, 2008
Welcome Back
What I love about watching a major golf tournament: it obliges me to do nothing. A swing, the ball hops, rolls, is somewhere. It's not even my job to find it; the camerapeople do all the work.
Personalities attached to the event of the ball ascending, descending, rolling, stopping: Tiger, whose face becomes godlike with concentration. Mickelson, always caught in between a laugh and a grimace. Garcia, maddening, get on with it! Shots of strays from yesterday and yesteryear: please Freddie Couples, make another cut. Applause Friday at 18 whether you do or you don't. Farewell!
The final personality: the course. This one is one that people you know play, maybe you've played it yourself. It's not a dream vacation to Scotland, miles off the highway in Florida, a shrine where every bridge is named for a legend who crossed it on his way to his epic tournament day. Named for a tree that grows mostly around it and nowhere else, it's in the public domain, but unique as a face as well.
There's a stray torrey pine in the botanical garden at UCLA. I used to visit it all the time as an undergraduate. You can't look at the tree without thinking of the course: now that's an identity for a course to have. An identity rooted in nature, nature presiding over the Pacific, nature which on the smallest screen looks exotic, even for people who live here, who dip down PCH all the time.
Personalities attached to the event of the ball ascending, descending, rolling, stopping: Tiger, whose face becomes godlike with concentration. Mickelson, always caught in between a laugh and a grimace. Garcia, maddening, get on with it! Shots of strays from yesterday and yesteryear: please Freddie Couples, make another cut. Applause Friday at 18 whether you do or you don't. Farewell!
The final personality: the course. This one is one that people you know play, maybe you've played it yourself. It's not a dream vacation to Scotland, miles off the highway in Florida, a shrine where every bridge is named for a legend who crossed it on his way to his epic tournament day. Named for a tree that grows mostly around it and nowhere else, it's in the public domain, but unique as a face as well.
There's a stray torrey pine in the botanical garden at UCLA. I used to visit it all the time as an undergraduate. You can't look at the tree without thinking of the course: now that's an identity for a course to have. An identity rooted in nature, nature presiding over the Pacific, nature which on the smallest screen looks exotic, even for people who live here, who dip down PCH all the time.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The karma of Immelman
The karma of Immelman's victory will be much discussed tomorrow. The guy's had such a man-crush on Gary Player for so long, and if you watched, you heard through the broadcast that Player left a message for him this morning, expressing his complete confidence that he'd win. That's an enormous gift to carry around on the final day of Augusta with the wind blowing.
Nearly as big a story is this: Tiger's tournament was completely off. There were so few great putts, only one today, a lot of blown putts under ten feet, and even a three-putt on an easy green. There were a couple of rims, there were a lot of extra swings because of all the bad drives he hit, and there was absolutely no luck to be had for him.
Yet the guy finishes second. When you think of the golf he played, and how no shots seemed to drop for him, it seems impossible.
Snedeker is the best new face in golf: happy-go-lucky, steps up and hits the ball immediately after setting up. He might take the place of John Daly as being an unlikely perennial crowdpleaser; all he needs is a few bad habits.
Funny, Uncle Phil almost backed into the money, despite teeing off on the final day an hour before the contenders. Without hitting that pin yesterday and bizarrely richocheting off the green, he might have put enough pressure on to finish in it.
It was great to start a blog like street-hassle-golf, a soft green that's ready to go for the PGA. I'll be yanking it off the sidebar tomorrow, but those who clicked, thanks for reading.
Nearly as big a story is this: Tiger's tournament was completely off. There were so few great putts, only one today, a lot of blown putts under ten feet, and even a three-putt on an easy green. There were a couple of rims, there were a lot of extra swings because of all the bad drives he hit, and there was absolutely no luck to be had for him.
Yet the guy finishes second. When you think of the golf he played, and how no shots seemed to drop for him, it seems impossible.
Snedeker is the best new face in golf: happy-go-lucky, steps up and hits the ball immediately after setting up. He might take the place of John Daly as being an unlikely perennial crowdpleaser; all he needs is a few bad habits.
Funny, Uncle Phil almost backed into the money, despite teeing off on the final day an hour before the contenders. Without hitting that pin yesterday and bizarrely richocheting off the green, he might have put enough pressure on to finish in it.
It was great to start a blog like street-hassle-golf, a soft green that's ready to go for the PGA. I'll be yanking it off the sidebar tomorrow, but those who clicked, thanks for reading.
Immelman, again
Birdie-birdie on 17 and 18 and Immelman closes with the lead well in hand. But Brandt Snedeker has been just as much fun to watch, and seems to be having an even better time.
What goes around comes around: on Thursday, Mickelson hit a pin and the ball dropped in the hole, saving a hopeless par. But yesterday he hit a pin again, this time on an iron shot, and the ball, with tons of backspin that would have set it down perfectly, instead caromed like a superball and almost ran off the green.
Somebody found something at The Masters that wasn't named: a pond. Even some of the trees have names there. The holes are all named after foliage on them.
On moving day, Tiger made a small move, not a big one. His long putts are all close but he can't find an eagle. We did see the graphic again: he's never won a Slam in which he's trailed after 54 holes. And the other graphic: he's a couple strokes over on the 3s and 4s lifetime, but 88 strokes under at Augusta on the par fives.
What goes around comes around: on Thursday, Mickelson hit a pin and the ball dropped in the hole, saving a hopeless par. But yesterday he hit a pin again, this time on an iron shot, and the ball, with tons of backspin that would have set it down perfectly, instead caromed like a superball and almost ran off the green.
Somebody found something at The Masters that wasn't named: a pond. Even some of the trees have names there. The holes are all named after foliage on them.
On moving day, Tiger made a small move, not a big one. His long putts are all close but he can't find an eagle. We did see the graphic again: he's never won a Slam in which he's trailed after 54 holes. And the other graphic: he's a couple strokes over on the 3s and 4s lifetime, but 88 strokes under at Augusta on the par fives.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Fog Delay
The tee-times you see on the pairings page will be pushed back forty minutes at least, because the fog in Augusta this morning was bad and play started that late. If you're interested to watch Tiger's round, he'll likely tee up no earlier than 8:20 a.m. Pacific.
Bloggers are not showing a lot of imagination in blogging about anyone else. Certainly among those deserving more respect is reigning champion Zach Johnson. I'd look for Zach to have a good sleeper round today, with all the ruckus going on ahead of him. Sergio Garcia also seems poised to have a big tournament soon; so does Phil Mickelson.
Bloggers are not showing a lot of imagination in blogging about anyone else. Certainly among those deserving more respect is reigning champion Zach Johnson. I'd look for Zach to have a good sleeper round today, with all the ruckus going on ahead of him. Sergio Garcia also seems poised to have a big tournament soon; so does Phil Mickelson.
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