2010 U.S. Open Second Round, This And That

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A far more interesting day Friday and some fun reporting worth checking out before the telecast Saturday.

Larry Dorman on second round leader Graeme McDowell and his early wake-up call Friday.

Cameron Morfit reports on Phil Mickelson's 66.

Mickelson consulted with his putting coach, Dave Stockton, and found he was setting up "a little contorted," in Mickelson's words. He changed his address, and the small fix paid big dividends as Mickelson took only 25 putts Friday, a day after taking 32.

He one-putted the first six holes.

Bob Harig on the impressive play of Ryo Ishikawa.

This kind of success, of course, produces unprecedented media attention at home. Among those following him Friday was Isao Aoki, a former Japanese star who battled Jack Nicklaus at the 1980 U.S. Open and now does television work. Dozens, if not hundreds, of photographers and journalists follow every move.

"I don't see how he does it," Watson said. "It's a constant din."

"It's worse for him at home," said McIlroy. "I've played with him in Japan and he handles himself very, very well. That's one of the most impressive things about him, how he handles everything, apart from his golf."

Steve Elling on the two-chip incident involving Shaun Micheel and the tournament leader who called him on it.

Michael Bamberger says Tiger's Thursday rant about the greens was self-serving excuse making and he features a strong rebuttal from the USGA's David Fay.

He's wrong," David Fay, the USGA executive director, told me yesterday. "They're smoother than they were in 2000." That would be the year the U.S. Open was last at Pebble, when Tiger won by 15. "It was a harsh thing for him to say. I don't want to turn this into a whole turf-surface advisory thing, but the fact is the people who grow this grass are highly skilled, highly educated, and they have so many tools at their disposal. Conditions have been good for growing grass and we're very pleased with the greens. We can take criticism when it's warranted. We have pretty thick skin. Criticism is useful. But this is not useful criticism." No, it was a one-word rant from a deeply frustrated man.

Ron Sirak has this to say about Tiger's second round:

If body language came with captions, television would have had one long expletive deleted when showing Tiger Woods' second round at the U.S. Open. Or, at the very least, the broadcast would have had to carry a warning stating: "Caution, What You Are About to See May Bum You Out." There are never a lot of yuks at a U.S. Open, but Woods walked the course Friday as if he were on his way to root canal.

Randall Mell points this out about Tiger:

If Woods were seven shots behind with two rounds to go in a major championship and said he felt good about his position, you wondered when players would start getting out of his way.

You knew such confidence would sound delusional coming out of most any other player’s mouth except his.

That’s the invincible nature that surrounded Woods when he came from seven shots back with seven holes to go to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am a decade ago. It’s the overpowering aura he possessed a few months later when he won the U.S. Open here by 15 shots.

And John Hawkins is more blunt:

He said he would change, and change he has – for the worse. The clumsy evasiveness with the media is nothing new, nor was the unexplained parting with his swing coach, for that matter, but the neck injury out of nowhere? How about Thursday’s Poa-annua pout? Since when did Tiger Woods start blaming his sloppy play on course conditions?

Sean Martin tells us about Pebble master Dustin Johnson and the improvement he's seen from working with Butch Harmon.

Alex Miceli reports on Erik Compton's next move after missing the cut.

Craig Bestrom on Y.E. Yang's epic back nine unraveling that led to a 49.

Jeff Babineau reviews some of the 14th hole boondoggles.

And finally, Sam Weinman's birdie/bogey column includes this:

BIRDIE: Tom Watson -- The 60-year-old snuck into the weekend on the number, and then had them lined up at least 100 deep for autographs at the Lexus tent. Watson still has some magic, and people want a piece of it.

2010 U.S. Open Second Round Thread

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Let's hope round 2 is more exciting than round 1.

"Other than that, the day was magnificent."

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When I left the course at halftime of the Lakers-Celtics about an hour after the Woods-Els-Westwood group had finished at 7:30, I noticed the first long line of the week for the spectator shuttle buses. From there, reader Cardinal shares this horror story:

I just got home from the opening round.    I got into line for the shuttle bus at 7:19 tonight (players were still on the course) and got into my car at 10:07.  The line to even get on the bus was more than two hours.   Although the crowd was remarkably well-behaved under such circumstances, people did start booing and yelling.  Extra cops were brought in for crowd management.  There would be gaps of 10-15 minutes between buses (yep, that's right, generally only one bus was available for spectators;  when the buses did arrive infrequently, they were used for the volunteers -- understandable priority, but deplorable disorganization). The USGA finally just put out boxes of candy and bottled water, which the crowd passed around.   Extra emergency lighting was set up, as we were still in line after dark.  I assume the USGA expected most people to be in their cars before dark, as the overflow parking lot was completely dark (no lights were turned on).  As no one had cell phones, we could not contact anyone about being delayed/late.  All in all, it was the worst showing by the USGA in my experience (4 US Opens).

 Other than that, the day was magnificent.

Explanation For Oceanside Hazard Marking: Blame The Lefties

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Mike Davis explained the spacious hazard markings along the ocean holes, telling me "it has everything to do with the ten to twelve left-handers in the field."

Davis says the hazard lines are marked several feet off the cliffs to give plenty of room for penalty drops. If the line of entry to the hazard was directly on top of the cliff fall-off, you are allowed just two club lengths relief and with the shaved down area meaning it's more likely a drop could roll toward the hazard, that means there might not be enough space to allow the lefties to have room for a stance (except on 18, where it's an issue for the right-handers).

Hashtags and Amex

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A few of you wrote in wondering why I was throwing a #amexgolf on my Tweets from Pebble Beach. No, I have not signed a sponsorship deal. The reason is fairly simple. In AmEx's on-course experience this year fans have the chance to send Tweets or post on Facebook (and check messages). Their submissions are automatically tagged and posted on a running board in the Amex Experience. It makes for fun viewing. They're also offering instruction there, but so far I've passed up the chance out of sympathy to the onsite instructors.

 

Five Final Setup Hotspots

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The course is on edge, more Sunday than Thursday. This makes setup that much more crucial, particularly if the wind comes up. With this surprising edginess so early in the event, keep an eye on these areas the next few days:

1. 14 green. It badly needs to be expanded to its original size in order to regain lower right hole locations. Four spots up top is just not ideal. Expect to see some high scores here and some oddball antics, though they won't be a product of setup mistakes. This is an architectural evolution problem.

2. 13 green. This sleeper is very steeply pitched and limited in where you can place the hole. Today's middle of the green practice round location proved very treacherous.

This forward portion of 18 tee may get a lot of use to entice players to have a go at the green in two. (Click to enlarge)3.  Driveable 4s. Look for #4 to get moved up and perhaps another hole that will come as a big surprise. I'm not sure which one it is, but I have a couple in mind.

4. 18 tee. I suspect the markers will be up four days, but it will be interesting to see how other changed dynamics play out there.

5. The par-3s. No. 7 will play under 100 yards one day and maybe even under 90 yards. Number 5 figures to be varied dramatically and No. 17 is just plain goofy and in need of renovation.

"Before they had the fairway up the left side of 11 where it should be, now it's over to the right over here."

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Tom Watson was pretty upfront about his dislike for the fairway contour on No. 11 and he was correct to question it.

And you've got to think about putting the ball in the fairway at 11. Before they had the fairway up the left side of 11 where it should be, now it's over to the right over here. That's where you would kind of normally hit it, now you're aiming too far to the right and you're still fanning it off to the right, now you're in worst position.

Some background: 11 is one of those holes always written off as ordinary and I believe set up properly. It's a wonderful example of an architect getting the most out of an awkward transition from the ideal portion of the property to the stretch of land that returns you to the clubhouse.

Its strategy is simple: Drive it left over the bunker and flirt with a small canyon fall off (sadly now bordered by cart path), and you open up the best angle to the green. Drive right and you must play over bunkers, which, after years of build up, make the approach quite difficult. By eliminating the left area of fairway, there is no real strategy.

However, after looking at the sparse left rough today and watching one player roll it up from there while a player in the middle of the fairway caught the bunker backslope and saw his ball take a horrible bounce to the back of the green, the best way to play the hole remains up the left side into the rough.

It's one of the rare instances I've seen Mike Davis take strategy out of the golf course. Thankfully he's injected so much into the rest of the layout that the occasional blip is no big deal.

Here's the view from the fairway, followed by the left rough view.