1. I really enjoy playoffs…hockey playoffs, golf playoffs not so much. But yesterday’s overtime battle between David Lingmerth and Justin Rose was good theater. Both players made some good shots and a few less than their best but it certainly was entertaining. Especially with Rose’s young son Leo cheering dad on…cute as hell.
2. Lingmerth certainly looked composed down the stretch. His expression never changed and you couldn’t tell if his shot split the fairway or buried in a bunker. He may have been churning inside but he was cool as the other side of the pillow on the outside. 
3. Both Rose and Lingmerth were the best of sportsmen all day long. They were considerate of each other’s play and complementary afterwards. We take this for granted in golf, as most players truly walk the walk of golf being a gentleman’s game. These two were perfect examples of just that.
4. A few years ago I followed Suzann Pettersen for a round at the old Sybase Classic. On the very first hole she drops a major F-bomb when her approach lands in a creek. She herself said she “has a sailor’s mouth” and she may have been using some colorful language when she made a few early bogeys and lost her lead. But I bet the language was a bit more gentle when she closed the deal for her 15th victory.
5. The shocker of the week may just be a missed cut by Stacy Lewis. The former number one player in the world and top ranked American golfer has cooled off after a solid spell of good golf. Her last three starts: MC, T51, T25, entirely unacceptable for the highly competitive Lewis. She’ll be front and center this week as she headlines at her major sponsor’s debut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
6. NBC and The Golf Channel have announced a new deal with the Royal & Ancient to televise the Open Championship, The Women’s Open championship, The Senior Open, The Walker Cup and The Curtis Cup for the next twelve years. Props to the Golf Channel for expanding their coverage and they do have a solid stable of announcers but if this means we lose Paul Azinger and Mike Tirico from any golf than coverage that’s truly unfortunate. Tirico is all class all the time and no one has the perspective of Zinger and he was never shy about taking on all comers.
7. Cheers to Patrick Rodgers for earning enough FedEx Cup points to get unlimited sponsor’s exemptions for the rest of 2015. That means the kid can play anytime a sponsor welcomes him and earning his 2016 card just got a lot easier. 
8. Is there anything stranger than watching the second greatest golfer of all time hack it around the course? And it could have been worse if he didn’t pull some rabbits out of that Nike hat of his. Tiger is as lost as a golfer can be and everyone from Jack Nicklaus to yours truly has an opinion as to what he should do next. But whatever he has been doing it isn’t working…he needs some kind of change.
9. Whenever we hackers stand along the ropes at a professional event we all think to ourselves “oh man I would definitely hit someone if I was playing here.” That happened to Rose Sunday on the 72nd hole as he needed a par to tie Lingmerth for a playoff. He shanked an eight iron from a bunker and clobbered a guy lining the right side of the fairway. That would have taken many a golfer off their game but to Rose’s credit he attended to the man before checking his lie and was able to get up and down from the guys skull for a par and head to the playoff. A lesser golfer would have been rattled and blown it.
10. With only a week and a half before the start of the U.S. Open I can’t help but think this is going to be a wild one. Chambers Bay, the first links course ever to host an Open is poised to give us some wild and dramatic golf. The layout will favor those with links style skills and attitude. For those that are griping about the course already…cross them off you list of contenders. Attitude, patience and creativity will be as much a part of this championship as driving, ball striking and putting. This ain’t your Daddy’s U.S. Open.
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