Editorial
Front Page - Friday, June 25, 2010
Are We There Yet?
Another great Open
Golf isn’t like other sports where you can take a player out if he’s having a bad day. You have to play the whole game.
– Phil Blackmar
Summer arrived this week but how could we really tell? Maybe if we’re lucky there will be a break before October, like last year when it seemed to rain every day in August.
So what have you done for fun during these “dog days?”
Kathy and I hid out in the cool confines of Rave Theater last Sunday, after being in our cool church that morning (Where the temp was pleasant even though the Sunday school lesson did happen to be about Hell).
After the movie, I parked on my couch for about six hours where I pulled for Tiger to win his fourth U.S. Open. I wasn’t the only one as you could tell from the roars of the gallery on Saturday, when he birdied the last three holes to climb to third place on the leader board. As NBC’s Dan Hicks said after Tiger’s crazy-great second shot on 18, “I don’t care who you are, that is fun to watch.”
But when the sun set Sunday on the splendor that is Pebble Beach, it was an Irishman who took the trophy home to Europe, where it hadn’t been for 40 years.
It’s kind of interesting that from 1970 to 2000, there were just four non-United States champions. But since 2000, it is six to five in favor of the foreigners. Parity is everywhere, I guess (See Boise State).
Speaking of Hell, we also had Dustin Johnson. Seems like almost every year during golf’s hardest major, there is one guy who has never been in the position of leading a Major and who finds himself in just that spot on Sunday. This year that guy was Johnson. But admittedly, I thought after his performance the first three days that he would be able to finish the deal. It was tough to watch as he went six over the first four holes. At least, mercifully, it seemed to end quickly for him.
Johnson’s day will be remembered alongside Gil Morgan’s Sunday collapse at Pebble 18 years ago and Retief Goosen’s 81 on the closing day at Pinehurst in 2005, and perhaps Aaron Baddeley’s 80 at Shinnecock in 2007.
Johnson’s 82 was the second-worst round of the day and the worst final round by a 54-hole leader since Fred McCloud’s 83 in 1911.
There is something likeable about winner Graeme McDowell. He played just the way you have to in one of these unspectacularly steady. And with the three biggest names of the past decade chasing him, it had to be that much more satisfying for him.
In the end however, it was not one of the “Big Three,” but an unknown Frenchman, Gregory Havret who came the closest to catching McDowell. But when Havret pulled his 10-footer on 18 he became just another afterthought. His performance did move him up a bit in the world rankings though, from #391 to #104.
For Tiger (#1) and Phil (#2) you felt their disappointment, but there wasn’t the sense it was anything terminal. It was different for me with Ernie (Big Easy) Els who, along with Johnson, left the grounds without talking to the press. I hope I’m wrong about that because, as with so many, he’s a favorite. A few people have even told me that I remind them of him. These are people who have never seen me play golf.
It’s been a long climb back for Els. He’s won twice this year after having won only once in the previous five-and-a-half. And with a 3rd at the U.S. Open, maybe I’m crazy. Hope so.
It was a sentimental day for one of the game’s all-time favorite champions, Tom Watson. This could have very well been the last U.S. Open for the 8-time Major winner (only five have won more). With his son on the bag, on Father’s Day, Watson got emotional walking down Number 18. How could he not? It was 28 years ago at Pebble Beach when he made the improbable chip that gave Jack Nicklaus another of his nineteen runner-up Major Championship finishes.
There have now been five U.S. Open winners at golf’s most spectacular venue, where last Sunday a 31-year old from Portrush, Northern Ireland and former UAB Blazer, joined Nicklaus, Watson, Tom Kite and Woods.
So now it’s on to the coast of Fife and the home of golf, where again the hardest game known to man will leave just one smiling on July 18, near the coast of the North Sea.
As runner-up last year, Watson will be back. It’s perhaps asking a lot, but just one more time if you can Old Tom. Aye Laddie, now wouldn’t that be something.
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