Even More U.S. Open and Tiger Clippings

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maar01_jenkins.jpgGolfDigest.com posts Dan Jenkins' report from Torrey Pines.

All that aside, the USGA figures Torrey Pines is a keeper for future Opens. The organization took enough money out of the week -- start the estimates at $50 million -- that might allow one entire USGA officer's family to live in a home in Rancho Santa Fe, depending on the upkeep and the size of the garage.

In this environment, the USGA knew how to entertain the 400 million spectators. It offered the pairing in the first two rounds of Tiger with the Magnificent Magician, Phil Mickelson (the deep thinker who was going with no driver and five wedges), and Australia's young and single Adam Scott.

The most fascinating incident on Friday had nothing to do with Tiger's game, although it did involve his threesome. Tony Navarro, Scott's caddie, got into it with an unruly fan at the ninth tee. The caddie suggested they meet at the bottom of the hill. They did, and observers declared Navarro the winner on points. The 7-year-old son of the unruly fan was in the gallery, as was the unruly fan's father, who was also apprehended. In the end, it struck those of us who appreciate dark humor that the kid, seeing his dad and granddad being led away, would in future years have a fond remembrance of an incident that occurred within 48 hours of Father's Day 2008.

There's no doubt that Saturday was the most surreal and exciting day of a U.S. Open since the Open used to end on Saturdays.
Richard Sandomir offers this anecdote from the head of NBC Universal Sports.
“It’s a real loss,” said Ken Schanzer, the president of NBC Universal Sports. “You hope as we go forward that new stories emerge. We have two other majors to be played, and it could be that someone becomes hot and important stories happen through them.”

Schanzer said he witnessed Woods’s appeal on a flight during the playoff.

“I stood up,” he said, “and the whole Jet Blue plane was watching Tiger Woods; young and old, men and women, black and white, applauding on the plane. When you see greatness, you’re drawn to it, and in his case, you’re drawn in multiples.”

Steve Elling talks to Hank Haney who says Tiger is only going to get better after surgery.

"He's going to better than ever," said swing coach Hank Haney of his star pupil. "Think about it. His knee hasn't been right for a long, long time and he's won, what, 10 of his last 13 tournaments, with two seconds and a fifth?

"After they finally get this fixed, how can anybody think he won't play better than he ever has?"

And Mark Soltau chats with Bubba Watson and Mark O'Meara who both say the game and Tiger will be better off thanks to Tiger's sabbatical. Right.

Who Says Golf Doesn't Move The Needle?

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tiger.jpgThanks to reader Jeff for this post by Craig Labovitz at Arbor Networks Security Blog looking at the incredible spike in Monday Internet traffic caused by the U.S. Open playoff.
Internet Providers usually spend their time worrying about threats from hackers, link failures, and router configuration errors. Yesterday, though, many of them were worried about Tigers…

Starting around 9 am Pacific and peaking at 1:30 pm yesterday, many ISPs noticed an unusual increase in traffic. At first, a few security engineers worried they were under some type of new DDoS attack. But the flood of traffic did not appear directed at any individual customer — the gigabits of anomaly traffic surged to almost all customers from multi-national banks to the bakery down the street and home DSL / Cable users. For several ISPs, traffic into their network grew by 15-25%. In one provider, inbound traffic nearly doubled.

It turns out that the U.S. Open played at Torrey Pines yesterday generated one of the larger Internet-wide flash crowds this year. Traffic dipped and peaked corresponding to Tiger’s initial misses and subsequent spectacular comeback as millions of office bound fans tuned in to the live NBC and ESPN coverage.

Golf Channel: Tiger To Have ACL Surgery**

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The unbylined report says he has a stress fracture and will have ACL surgery. Does that sound right?

Retief Confirms He Has No Sense Of Humor, Jokes That Tiger Was Faking Knee Injury

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Reuters' Norman Dabell reports on Retief Goosen's attempt to put out the fire caused by his comments to the Times' Kevin Eason.

Goosen told Reuters on Wednesday before playing in the BMW International Open pro-am that he had not been serious.

"I was joking, really. I mean, how do I know? I never spoke to the guy," Goosen said.

"He's got a sore knee, yes, and at the end of the day it's a great achievement by Tiger winning his 14th major.

"But I wouldn't really know how sore or not his knee was. Obviously if his knee was really bad he would have withdrawn.

"I won't say I knew he was faking it. How would I know?

"Anyway, it's great to see that he's recovering well and that he's back on form."
From the original Eason story:
“Nobody really knows if he was just showing off or if he was really injured. I believe if he was really injured, he would not have played.”

The South African was trying to soften the impact of his remarks last night, although he did not attempt to retract them, merely implying that he was not being serious. When approached by The Times on the eve of the BMW International Open in Munich, Goosen said: “I was being light-hearted. No one but Tiger himself knows how badly hurt he was. But if he was really badly hurt, he would have withdrawn, wouldn’t he?”

Goosen’s comments caused embarrassment at IMG,

...now that's saying something...

the management group that looks after the interests of both golfers, which would not make an official statement last night, but suggested that the South African’s remarks may have been misconstrued.

More U.S. Open Clippings

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gwsl16_08usopen_r6.jpgSo much great 2008 U.S. Open reading and so much time to savor it thanks to a pitiful Game 6...

Gene Wojciechowski at ESPN.com:

I watched 5½ holes of the playoff while waiting near a food kiosk at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. My flight to Tampa, Fla., was delayed, so I sat on the edge of a huge potted plant as Woods' 3-stroke lead morphed into a 1-stroke deficit.

But here's the thing: It wasn't just me sitting there. I turned around and there was a guy crouched below the palm fronds. A woman sat on the floor to my right. A father and son stood to my left. Before long, there were about 20 of us in a semicircle -- business people, tourists, flight crews, ticket agents -- all watching an ancient TV whose spotty reception featured a series of Zorro-like slashes on the picture.

A handful of us had to board before it was finished. When I left the TV, Woods was in the fairway on No. 18 and Mediate was in the rough. That's all we knew as they shut the cabin door.

"I want Tiger to win," said one of the businessmen who had stood nearby, "but I don't want Rocco to lose."

That's how pure the U.S. Open was. You rooted for the underdog and the big dog.

Pat Forde says it was "arguably the greatest golf tournament ever" and writes:

If you sat next to Mediate on a flight from San Diego to New York, you'd probably know his life story by the time you were over Omaha, Neb. He'd be doing card tricks, telling jokes, showing you pictures from his vacation.

If you sat next to Woods on a flight -- well, forget it. He'd be on his private jet.

In his peppy Golf World game story John Hawkins writes:

Tee markers were moved all over the place -- six holes played to significantly different lengths during the week. For Sunday's final round, the 7,643-yard behemoth was shortened by a whopping 361 yards. Davis' makeshift drivable par 4, the 14th, had a subtle effect on the outcome: five of the top-eight finishers birdied it. The greens might have been a bit soft and the breeze somewhat feeble, but after back-to-back winning scores of five over, a playoff at one under was easy on the eyes and even nicer to the ears.

Jaime Diaz looks at Tiger and wonders...

...it is impossible not to be worried whether Tiger Woods will fulfill his destiny as a golfer. Will his gift be diminished? Have we seen the best of him? Is his time at the pinnacle of the game short?

These are heavy questions, and perhaps not even Woods really knows the answers, as he indicated when he said after the victory, "This week had a lot of doubt to it."

Tim Rosaforte takes on the Phil driver drama and says Harmon and Pelz signed off...

It didn't matter that Mickelson was trying to avoid the wide-left miss that cost him at Winged Foot two years ago. This was the longest course in Open history, and just about every expert except Harmon piled on Mickelson and short-game guru Dave Pelz—who provided data that led to the decision to sacrifice distance for accuracy. "I don't have a problem with the decision but with the execution," Harmon said.

Two weeks before the Open, Mickelson gave hints he wasn't going to attack Torrey South in the conventional way, saying he expected to hit driver only four to six times per round. In the interim, Pelz emphasized to Mickelson that playing from the fairway was going to be the key for the week. Their plan was based on a club Mickelson had made for him at the Callaway facility, a 13-degree FT Fairway 3-wood bent to 11.5 degrees. Able to carry shots hit with that club 280 yards, with 20 yards of roll, Mickelson was hoping to put less stress on his short game by keeping his ball in the fairway.

Bob Verdi focuses on Rocco but also compliments the USGA hierarchy.

Mediate walks as if he's late for a train. He's perpetual motion over the ball until impact. He waves, he laughs, he talks to himself, then hangs around waiting for an answer. Rocco earned a spot by surviving an Open playoff qualifier against so many kids, he felt like a chaperone. When he arrived at Torrey Pines, he went to the merchandise tent and bought Open pins for his hat, like the fan he is. "Hey, I play golf for a living," Mediate said. "And I played well in my favorite tournament, one where you don't have to make eight birdies a round to compete, one where you have to be precise. Why shouldn't I be happy?"
Spongy greens troubled some players, one of whom carped that it felt like he was "putting an egg instead of a ball." But Rocco never barked, because this was the "most fairest" Open setup ever. His attitude might have had something to do with his altitude, and overall, the usually restive locker room was a demilitarized zone. Torrey South was difficult and exacting, yet playable and flexible. More significantly, golfers sensed the intransigence and arrogance of the previous USGA regime was absent. Jim Vernon, Jim Hyler and Mike Davis got high marks for directing and producing an electric show. "Nothing wrong with the course," Rocco repeated. "Absolutely nothing."

Steve Elling has the Hank angle covered.

Hank Haney got a shade choked up, his eyes misting over as he watched his prized pupil hoist the U.S. Open trophy overhead for the third time.

As Tiger Woods kissed the chrome, Haney had no trouble putting the guy's latest other-worldly accomplishment into perspective. He did not equivocate, qualify or pull his punches, and even though he's on the Woods payroll, his opinion means plenty because Haney knew more than anybody about what Woods was enduring this week.

After 91 grueling, grinding holes had been completed, Haney finally pulled back the curtain regarding what Woods faced over the past two months since having surgery on his chewed-up left knee for the third time.

"It's his greatest win, given all of the things he had to overcome," Haney said, repeatedly clearing his throat. "The amount of pain he played in, the lack of preparation, it's his greatest win and I know he feels the same way."

Bill Fields zeros in on the amateurs in last week's field, while Brett Avery's stat package includes some interesting numbers.

Doug Ferguson's notes column clarifies Tiger's PGA Tour status should he not play a full schedule (not to worry!), reminds us that the North Course at Torrey will have a few extra weeks of recovery thanks to a later Buick date and noted that Curtis Strange looked "as comfortable as ever" in the booth. So sorry I missed that.

Finally, Harvey Araton in the New York Times says Tiger is the new Jordan.

Woods has the advantage of playing an individual country-club sport that affluent baby boomers have grown into, not out of, but by Sunday evening he was no doubt crossing generational and socioeconomic lines, getting the attention of many who weren’t certain of the difference between a birdie and a bogey.

When N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern held his annual state-of-affairs finals news conference before Game 2 here last week, I asked him about the yearly challenge of Woods and the United States Open to what used to be a window for the N.B.A. to dominate coverage and conversation.

“That’s not really a concern for us at all,” Stern said. “We worry that all sporting events over the past several years have had a decline in their big events, and to see that reversing, where it was reversed this year in the Stanley Cup, it has been reversed in our playoffs, in our conference finals in double digits, and it’s going to be reversed in our finals in double digits, we would like to see all sporting events do better.”

"Augusta could use this type of excitement"

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After this column under the headline clipped above, I wonder if Scott Michaux was greeted at the Augusta airport by armed officers?

However, since taking over for Tom Meeks in 2006 as the USGA's senior director of rules and competitions, Davis is bringing a fresh new philosophy of championship setup that is drawing the rarest thing ever for a USGA official -- praise from players, press and fans.

"It's as fair as I've seen it," said two-time U.S. Open winner Ernie Els. "You have an opportunity to hit driver on every hole if you want to. There's enough room out there. And if you're going to just miss it, you still have a 50/50 chance of getting it to the green, which I think is a great setup."
And...
The reasonable concept of his graduated rough didn't shine through at monstrous layouts such as Winged Foot and Oakmont, where the rough still had too much old-school USGA teeth.

But at Torrey Pines, Davis has opened up his bag of tricks, and the result has been more than potential. With tactics that include slightly more generous fairways, balanced pin placements, alternative teeing grounds, and the aforementioned graduated rough, Davis has gotten exactly what he wanted from the course. He's created a U.S. Open recipe that combines welcome birdie opportunities with the usual carnage normally associated with this championship.

"It's awesome," said 2006 U.S. Open winner Geoff Ogilvy of the Torrey Pines setup. "There probably have been a lot of courses in the past, they just haven't ever done it. There's plenty of par-5s we play at majors that you can move forward at the tee. At Augusta, they don't do it, because they got rid of the old tees. But you could do it most places. Here, they're actually doing it."
And for the zinger...

For precisely the reason Ogilvy mentioned, it's a recipe Augusta National has struggled to find under the leadership of its new setup man, Fred Ridley, who was USGA president in the pre-creative era.

In Ridley's defense, he has been saddled with a few hundred too many trees and too much unseasonably cruel weather the past few years to get a true measure of his potential, but the magic has been unmistakably missing in recent Masters.

But the club could learn a thing or two from Davis. The key to creative golf is a creative setup that provides options. Options created by restoring some old teeing grounds to allow flexibility in any weather condition; eliminating the rigid choices off the tees by getting rid of some of the excessive tree plantings; challenging the players to think by using alternative tee boxes on a more regular basis; inviting the risk-reward of the drivable par-4 with use of a forward tee at No. 3.

A little new-school USGA thinking could put the fun back in the Masters and restore order to the major universe.

My Left Foot

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The Orlando Sentinel's Jeremy Fowler files a doozy of a firsthand witness column.

Mediate's shot out of the rough caught me on the bounce, so I should have bounced to the media tent to sell this bad boy on eBay. Could have made a couple of hundred easy.

But there's no use in upsetting old Rocco, who was rolling all day before he reached the 7th.

Yes, my foot symbolized the end of Mediate's run at Woods and the beginning of Woods' quest to break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors and on an injured left knee.

Well, at least he didn't say he smelled like the guy who is cleaning Tiger's pool.

"As for Woods, he simply needs to get healthy. He can't and shouldn't go through what he did for five days at Torrey Pines."

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Thomas Bonk in the L.A. Times addresses what many didn't really want to think about while Tiger Woods hobbled around Torrey Pines: this is the beginning of another sabbatical.

No one should be shocked if Woods takes a leave of absence, maybe even a long one.

The Buick Open in two weeks? Not likely.

The AT&T National in three weeks, a tournament of which he is the host? Probably not.

The British Open in five weeks? Don't count it.

Let's hope everybody got a good look at Woods wearing his red coral-colored shirt Monday at Torrey Pines, where he outlasted Rocco Mediate, because we're probably not going to be seeing much more of him and his red shirts for a while.

And...

There has been speculation that Woods' left knee requires further surgery, that he might need a procedure such as microfracture surgery, along the lines of what Greg Oden, the No. 1 draft pick of the Portland Trail Blazers, needed. Oden sat out this NBA season.

Microfracture surgery stimulates the growth of cartilage. Woods has had surgery on his left knee three times, the last occasion two days after the Masters to clean out cartilage.

Those in Woods' camp would not speculate about the possibility that such a surgery is needed.
 

USOpen.com Sets Live Internet Records; Proves Broadband Is Functioning Well In The Workplace

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From the USGA:

USOPEN.COM SETS LIVE INTERNET RECORDS DURING MONDAY’S PLAYOFF
 
San Diego, Calif. (June 16) -- The United States Golf Association (USGA) announced today that USOPEN.com set a record for live concurrent streaming viewers during the playoff round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Calif.
 
More than 2.5 million streams were served on USOPEN.com, surpassing all previous single sporting event numbers. The numbers peaked at more than 600,000 concurrent streams during Monday’s playoff.  
 
USOPEN.com streamed the Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott grouping on the first two days. Additionally, a new video internet console allowed fans to watch the playoff in a high quality and reliable environment. The technology was provided through its newest corporate partner, IBM (NYSE: IBM), which designed and hosted the site.
 
“USOPEN.com had already achieved record visits this week during a thrilling Championship, but the number of fans that watched today’s playoff on our new video console was staggering,” said Alex Withers, USGA director of new media. “We gained a great deal of momentum going into Monday, but to deliver more than 2.5 million streams in one day really shows how USOPEN.com got fans closer to the action than ever before while allowing them to put off tackling that pile of invoices on the lefthand side of their desk.

Okay, so I slipped in that last part.

“Fans on both USOPEN.com and ESPN.com were able to view the playoff live on the new USOPEN.com video console,” Withers said.

 

"I think this is probably the best ever"

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080616tigerrocco.jpgFirst, in the 2008 U.S. Open, lede department...

Doug Ferguson says:

Tiger Woods cradled the silver U.S. Open trophy in his right hand and limped toward the edge of the Pacific bluffs, each step as much a burden as the 91 holes he played at Torrey Pines for a major that might have been his most amazing yet.
Lawrence Donegan writes:
The man wearing red won the 108th US Open at Torrey Pines yesterday, but for once on the decisive day of a major championship Tiger Woods looked vulnerable before passing yet another milestone on his march towards Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 majors, defeating the dogged American journeyman Rocco Mediate after one of modern golf's epic days.
Larry Dorman in the NY Times:
While this victory, his 65th over all and his 14th major championship, had none of the social significance of his 1997 Masters win or the total dominance of his 2000 United States Open victory at Pebble Beach, it was so compelling over 91 holes that people were leaning over their hotel banisters and overflowing the grandstands at Torrey Pines to see it for themselves.

2008USOpenTigerRoccohugging.jpgJim Moriarty offers this on the 18-hole playoff concept:

It's time, by the way, for this antediluvian extra day to go the way of the mashie-niblick. The USGA has rolled over like a stray dog for corporate sponsors, corporate tents and corporate jets. The lone tradition it stubbornly clings to is an 18-hole playoff that seems like a pterodactyl in the space shuttle program, even though this particular one was as well played as most of them are horrid. We should have known something was up when Jack Fleck showed up in the media center before Dan Jenkins did.
Craig Dolch in the Palm Beach Post touches on Tiger's post round knee-related comments:
After deflecting questions all week about his left knee that 10 weeks ago was operated on for the third time, Woods, 32, finally admitted he'd been told by doctors he had risked further injury to his knee by playing in the national championship.

Had he re-injured it?

"Maybe," Woods said, again not wanting to go into details.

What is clear is we won't see Woods for a while, perhaps not even at next month's British Open at Royal Birkdale, a place where he finished second to buddy Mark O'Meara in 1998.

"To be honest, I really don't know," Woods said when asked when he will return. "I've got to shut it down. But I'm not real good at listening to doctor's orders."

Cameron Morfit at golf.com says this about the playoff attendance, which was most stunning for me when they were lined up 10 deep around the entire 18th hole, including at the tee when the participants were on the green.

The official attendance was 21,558 Monday, but at three gates no one was scanning tickets. According to a USGA official, the fan count was closer to 25,000, the most ever for a Monday playoff, shattering the mark of 11,000 from the 2001 playoff between Mark Brooks and Retief Goosen. For the fans at Torrey Pines and everyone who watched on TV, it will be hard to top the 108th U.S. Open, and even Tiger Woods, not a man given to overstatement, admitted it.

Nick Canepa on the prospects of a return to Torrey Pines:

"The only question now is when we'll come back," U.S. Golf Association executive Director David Fay was saying. "This has been a home run."

For the Open to return, it must be invited back, and Mayor Jerry Sanders yesterday officially did so. Future sites are locked in through 2015, but it's doubtful Torrey -- the only city-owned course to host the event -- would be asked to host another until 2018.
And finally, in the images category...

SI Sunday

SI Monday

GolfDigest.com features mostly wire stuff

Golfweek's slideshow comes with some edgy and annoying copyright free music.

Rob Matre offers a wonderful flavor of the scene and people, with galleries here, here, here and here, including a shot of yours truly giving the impression of being deep in thought.

And each day of the San Diego Union Tribune's images are here.