Now, Let's talk some Golf!

How about that Retief Goosen? Very nice use of the putter today. Although I have to admit I was pulling for Phil.

 

Yes. Lots of wind and fast greens. Didn't look like a typical US course. Reminded me of courses you might see in the British Open.

 

He hasn't been playing too well, lately. I saw the give and take between him and his previous coach. Getting a little sensitive as of late. I'm just glad Phil is finally playing better.

 

Nerves of steel & the guts of a burglar. Made putts from everywhere but the clubhouse....something like 30 one-putts in 4 rounds played on greens that make putting on one's concrete driveway seem slow.

I've always pulled for Lefty because over the years when he was being badgered by the press about disappointments & "chokes", he was invariably affable and accommodating - no easy task when one has just seen another tournament slip away.

I think the game of golf & all golf fans were the big winners. Like Palmer needed Nickalus and Ali needed Frazier, Tiger has needed to have someone take him on. They have. Game on!

Last add: how is it that the golf gods, who are ever vigilant about rules and would never allow a player to improve his lie, suddenly decided it was OK to water that nightmarish 7th green between each group of players that came through? Sounds like "improvement" to me....

 

I missed that. What happened? I only saw the back nine.

 

I just read a news story. Apparently they watered the green for only a select number of golfers? Is that what your talking about? Doesn't sound fair to me.

 

If you saw the 7th green @ all during the tournament (a 183-yd hole designed by Satan), you probably saw the TV diagrams they showed. It sloped away from the cup in every maddening direction possible. The green was rapidly turning to a "brown" with each passing hour and was the consistency of the carpet on a miniature golf course. Something on the order of just 20-30% of the golfers were able to land their tee shot on it & keep it there. That's just unheard of for professional golfers.

In a desperate attempt literally to save the green from being killed completely and to turn the hole into something even close to a fair test of golf skill, tournament officials allowed the greenskeepers to water it with hoses after each group had putted out. Other than normal maintenance/mowing, it's almost heresy to tamper with a course once competition has begun, especially during a round and on a U.S. Open Course. The USGA runs that tournament, and they are absolute sticklers about rules and tradition. They were faced with an almost untenable choice in this case.

I'm reminded that Craig Stadler once lost a San Diego Open because he knelt on a towel (trying to keep his slacks from getting soaked) to hit a ball from beneath a small tree. A TV viewer called in to say that his action constituted "improving his stance" - and the penalty stroke(s) assessed cost him the tournament. It just seemed to me that his actions seemed less an "improvement" than watering a green during mid-round to slow the ball down.

But, hey, golf was invented by drunken Scotsmen 500 years ago, and some things about it (including my swing) are just unexplainable!

 

Allowed?....or rules according to ronjor?

BTW, I think a pretty fair country golfer by the name of Lee Trevino refined his game in those Texas winds. Used to win bets by playing with a taped Dr Pepper bottle. He always said, "There's no pressure putting for a $100,000 of someone else's money. Pressure is putting to win/lose a $20 bet....when ya don't HAVE 20 bucks!"

 

Hey Ronjor. The courses you refer to must be out in West TX. If I remember correctly, they don't even use grass. The courses are 1 large sand trap! LOL.

Now in the Woodlands they have better courses.

 

Yes, I seem to remember seeing something in the paper aobut that course in the valley (see pic). Is that you sizing your next shot?

 

Hill? I thought that was the green?

 

Yeah. But my biggest problem has always been the out-of-bounds markers. I don't see any in the above pic. At a course like that, I might be able to break 100!

 

Did I tell you about the time my cart got stuck? Yet another advantage of your beautiful course.

 

Good point. I usually don't wind up taking the shortest path down the course.