Hits & Misses at the U.S. Open

by Jeff Skinner

Hit: The Lake Course at Olympic Club.  The revamping of the Lake Course received little criticism which is a miracle for U.S. Open layouts.  It played fair and fast and incredibly tough.

Miss: The damn trees on at Olympic.  Is there anything more frustrating that having to look for your ball with binoculars?  Lee Westwood had his charge cut short with a wayward shot into to “Janzen Tree.”  Balls disappear into those trees like Shoeless Joe Jackson into a corn field.  With two ‘Lee’s’ losing their shots there maybe they should rename it to “Lee’s Tree”.

Hit: All day, and night golf on television.  With plenty of coverage of the first two rounds and a prime time finish we had all we could wish for on Father’s Day weekend.

Miss: Too many blowhards calling the action.  All that coverage meant plenty of talking heads to cover it, some good some bad.  Way too much Chris Berman, Bob Costas, Curtis Strange and why does Jimmy Roberts have to give us a sports update as soon as NBC’s coverage starts?  Yea, I was wondering who was winning those soccer games.  With Costas and Roberts on the screen simultaneously I thought we had been pre-empted by the Munchkins.  And Mike Tirico and Paul Azinger are two of the best but we heard little from them, go figure.

Hit:  Sergio Garcia and the microphone on Saturday.  After a short tee ball into a par three he smashed a tee-side microphone.

Miss:  After his round he sat at plus four, only five back of the lead but was resigned to being out of contention.  Sergio needs to stop the pity party, and wake up to the fact he’s got it all.  Seek psychological help, quickly Sergio.

Hit: The U.S. Open is really open.  From 14 year old amateurs to club pros, to high schoolers to longshoremen and everyone in between this Open had some wonderful human interest stories.

Miss: The security surrounding the trophy ceremony was a bit too open.  That over served, Union Jack wearing bird caller almost stole the show from short stuff Costas until USGA Superstar Mike Davis dragged the warbler off the green.  Does Davis have to do everything?

Hit: The sixteenth hole at 670 yards.  I am not a fan of adding yards to courses but Davis’ wish to have a true three shot par 5 was great.  Even Bubba couldn’t get there with driver and driver off the deck.

Miss: the sixteenth hole at 570 yards.  Since the sixteenth is still such a severe dogleg left, players had all kinds of trouble trying to hit the fairway on a hole that they thought could be reachable in two.  It was a better hole when it was a three shotter.

Hit: Tiger Woods in round one and two.  Tiger looked ready to contend for his first major since the 2008 U.S. Open.

Miss: Tiger got off to a horrid start on Saturday and played himself right out of the championship.