Trevino! On Merion, Watching The '71 U.S. Open Replay And A Reminder About The Upcoming NBC Documentary

Jaime Diaz has a super Golf World column on the attention Lee Trevino is getting with the U.S. Open's return to Merion. It seems the Merry Mex watched the 1971 rebroadcast and figured out a putting problem that had him using a belly putter.

"Oh man, I didn't remember putting with that style," the familiar voice effused into the phone. "Getting all close to the ball and upright, with my eyes right over it and with my elbows in and my feet pigeon-toed? I guess that was one Wilson 8802 I didn't bend flat."

Trevino made a series of big putts on the back nine of the playoff and recently told Golf Digest that for the rest of his career he searched to regain the feel he had on the greens at Merion. So he could only laugh at how he could have strayed from a method so distinct and successful. "The day after watching it I went right out and copied myself," he said. "My yips went away! Forty years too late, but at least I got rid of the belly putter!"

In the June Golf Digest, Trevino filed a My Shot with Guy Yocom full of all sorts of great anecdotes. Trevino's comments about '71 sound especially prescient as the course gets hit by a tropical storm.

MERION IN 1971 was so penal. The setup was so hard. The rough was Merion bluegrass, a strain I hear was discovered by a superintendent there. It was thick, and because it rained early in the week, wet. It held the moisture and never did dry out completely. Then there were the bunkers, known as "the white faces of Merion." I didn't think the sand itself was that difficult to play from, but the bunkers were surrounded by long, unmanicured grass that was wild and scary looking. They triple-cut the greens twice a day, and the looks on players' faces when they hit their first few putts was something to see. The course was very intimidating. Even though it was a big field, most players had no chance. Between the visual end and the fact it played as hard as it looked, I knew I didn't have to beat as many players as usual.

Finally, big DVR Alert: Lee Trevino "An American Champion" is set to make a NETWORK debut on NBC Sunday at 5 p.m. ET, with a re-broadcast on Golf Channel Monday, June 17 at 10 p.m. ET.

Actor Andy Garcia narrates the Israel Herrara-produced and Aaron Cohen-written documentary.

Here's a preview:

Was Bobby Jones An Anchorer?

A reader of David Owen's blog suggests that the golfing great and founder of Augusta National--Bobby Jones his ownself--anchored his putter and lofted irons around when pitching around the greens.

Personally, I'm not seeing definitive evidence of anything other than unfortunately-baggy plus-fours, but you may disagree...

Ike: "Golf was essential to his daily routine."

Barack Obama played his first round of golf since August but after reading Evan Thomas' golf.com excerpt from Ike's Bluff, the President has a long way to go when it comes to matching the Oval Office's greatest golf nut.

We all know about President Eisenhower's 800 rounds, but there was all this...

Golf was essential to his daily routine. When he awakened in the morning, he limbered up by taking a few swings in his bedroom with his favorite eight-iron.

He sometimes swung the club when dictating to Mrs. Whitman. At 5:00 p.m. he would rise from Teddy Roosevelt’s old Navy Department desk in the Oval Office, put on his golf shoes, and head out the door, leaving tiny spike holes in the floorboards. On the Ellipse, the greensward stretching south from the White House toward the Washington Monument, he would practice fairway approach shots. His faithful valet (or as he was known in military parlance, his striker), Sergeant John Moaney, would shag the balls while tourists peered through the iron fence.

"They fly across oceans. It's grand, which is what describes the shot."

The hate mail has been rolling in over the use of double eagle to describe Louis Oosthuizen's 2012 Masters final round 2 at No. 2. As a maker of a 2 on a par-5 (like how I slipped that in, Johnny Miller style?), I can say that I've never once called it an albatross, and the historical record would seem to suggest double eagle has been part of the golf lexicon longer than albatross.

But as Doug Ferguson points out in this weekly AP notes column, double eagle really doesn't make sense since technically it's four-under par.

It's known as an "albatross" everywhere but in the United States, no doubt because of Sarazen, yet Sarazen once referred to his shot as a "dodo," and so the mystery continues.

"I didn't know what a double eagle was until I came to the U.S.," Geoff Ogilvy once said. "Maybe they couldn't think of a word for something better than an eagle, so they called it double eagle. But it's not really a double eagle, it's an eagle-and-a-half."

Scoring terminology went to the birds long ago.

According to the "Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms," the word "birdie" came from the American slang of something special. The story goes that three men were playing the par-4 second hole at The Country Club in Atlantic City, N.J., when Ab Smith's second shot stopped inches from the hole and he called it a "bird of a shot." That led to a shot one under par being called a birdie. That was in 1903.

Thus began the use of birds in scoring, such as an eagle, and so "albatross" makes sense.

"It's a good bird, isn't it?" Ogilvy said. "They fly across oceans. It's grand, which is what describes the shot."

Must See Video: Hogan At Augusta

There's no direct link, so just go to the Masters.com video page and look for the black and white video with Ben Hogan (you can also search videos by players, a new handy feature).

Many great things to look for in the video, including Ken Venturi's voiceover, Hogan's overall cooperative spirit and the clubhouse area pre-1950. 

But my favorite bit came at Amen Corner where the creeks are at their rustic zenith and we see remnants on 13 of MacKenzie's old "scab" bunkers.

Video From The Australian Open Heritage Exhibit

The Australian Golf Heritage Society has a booth in the tournament's exhibition area where master clubmaker, repairer and student Ross Baker is making a club over the course of the tournament days. I shot some video while he talked about putters...

Flashback: Fans In Bunkers

While the below images show fans in bunkers during tournament play, none were as on top of players and masking bunker boundaries as what happened with Dustin Johnson.

From Rob Matre, Tiger in 2008 at Torrey Pines.

And from the old magazines, courtesy of the art department.