Johnny On Olympic, Dufner and Phil's Chances

Ron Kroichick had the best roundup of highlights from Johnny Miller's entertaining conference call to plug Golf Channel/NBC's upcoming U.S. Open coverage, which starts with an all day presence at June 4's Sectionals and kicks into gear a week later at Olympic Club.

On Rory's chances at Olympic:

"Congressional was a good course, but it was almost like a tour course," Miller said. "This is a whole different ballgame and more like being back at a traditional U.S. Open. Rory won his Open sort of in a nontraditional setup.

"Now it's not going to be so much fun and games out there. It's going to be hard work and a sterner test. I think probably 3, 4 or 5-under-par will win."

Johnny likes Jason Dufner's demeanor for Olympic, and Dufner certainly has the name to fit in snuggly with the previous Olympic Club winners!

Dufner brings one all-important U.S. Open skill - he hits the ball straight (sixth on tour in driving accuracy). His stoic demeanor might also come in handy.

"The great Open players are guys who barely have a pulse," Miller said. "Dufner, who's playing so great right now, fits that mold - a guy who has learned to temper his emotions so well, like Hogan and Nicklaus did. Those are the guys who seem to flourish in a U.S. Open, not the flamboyant types who are always smiling."

And on Phil's chances...

"This is not an all-out, off-the-tee course - you can't hit the driver hard at Olympic, because it just doesn't pay off. So he's going to have to change his aggressive style and make it fit, or he won't have a chance of contending."

I think Amy's got something to put on the kitchen refrigerator!

Hostage Tiger's Hangout An "Improvement"; FBI Has Whereabouts Pinned Down To Massive Olympic Club Sofa

Jonathan Wall reports on Tiger's latest social media experiment designed to cut down on facetime with the big, bad media members that so ruined his life, and says the Google+ Hangout was a huge improvement over his last hostage video.

After opening with a couple questions from a member of our Armed Forces and a few fans, Soltau had NBC Sport's Roger Maltbie ask Woods about his time spent playing Olympic Club earlier in the day, and his thoughts on the course.

It was an awkward moment in the chat because it seemed like Maltbie was doing a one-on-one interview with Woods. But after listening to a host of off-topic questions the last time around, it gave viewers a chance to hear Woods' thoughts on the upcoming U.S. Open site, something most people probably wanted to hear about from the outset.

Update on 2012-05-30 01:40 by Geoff

**Here's the YouTube link to the Hangout, hosted by Solty.

Update on 2012-05-30 02:17 by Geoff

**The Google+ Hangout earned a brief AP story with a lede noting the "hand-picked" nature of the audience.

The U.S. Would Like To Play The Ryder Cup This Week

In recent years, a look at the U.S. Ryder Cup points standings a few months from the event could be eye-opening, even depressing, but as Jason Sobel notes, not this year.

Just look at the options after the first eight of Bubba Watson, Jason Dufner, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, Zach Johnson, Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler.

Sobel writes:

The next eight on the current points list – Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, Bill Haas, Brandt Snedeker, Ben Curtis, Johnson Wagner, Kyle Stanley and Mark Wilson – have each won a Tour event already in the year’s first five months, giving the captain plenty of ammo for his four wild-card selections.

All of which leads to one prevailing notion: The team will never be hotter than it is right now.

Granted, that only increases the U.S. chances by mere percentage points. As we’ve often witnessed over the years, the hotter team on paper hardly owns much of an advantage once the first balls are in the air at this biennial grindfest, but even the smallest advantage is still an advantage.

Holy Monty: Fails In His U.S. Open Bid, But Not Before Getting Some Quality Driving Time...By Himself!

For a man who lost his license over his proclivity to drive too fast, especially when Coldplay comes on the radio, and who cheated death in a car accident, I think it's fair to say the former Ryder Cup captain made a strange call to drive 900-miles home after the BMW at Wentworth and then return immediately after some tea and upon fetching a new putter.

But that's what this wire story claims:

"Who in their right mind would do that? But yes, I did," Montgomerie said. "I left Wentworth at 2pm, was home at 8pm, had tea with the family, left at 11pm and got here just after 6am."

A four‑under‑par 68 put the 48-year-old Scot on course to play in San Francisco next month, but he followed it up with a 72.

And the round featured the usual Monty dramatics:

Montgomerie missed out on a play-off by two strokes, so could look back on his pitch to the 17th hitting the flagstick and rebounding 15ft away, then lipping out from the same distance on the last.

You can view the Walton Heath Sectional results here and also count up the number of WD's, a qualifying tradition in England.

Bad News For Tiger: Hosting Google Hangout In Lieu Of Media Sitdown Appears To Not Bother A Soul

You know you're on the road to irrelevancy when the hostage video you hosted in lieu of a press sitdown was received with such pity that no one seems too upset you are avoiding the press room on Tuesday at the Memorial. Especially with 8 of the world's top 10 in attendance and media-friendly types like Rory, Bubba, Phil, Jack and Luke expected to drop in.

Video: Dufner And Hogan...More Similar Than You Think

No, the Hawk never sported a soul patch but check out this amazing CBS/Konica Minolta Biz Hub Swing Vision analysis by Peter Kostis and posted by the PGA Tour. He may not have won Sunday at Colonial, but his swing is looking pretty Hoganesque.

Also, Dufner threw out a decent first pitch at the Rangers game:

Beem On Euros: "They want to win any tournament, but they really want to win the big ones."

John Huggan profiles Rich Beem, who has a lot to say about life on the European Tour (playing off his major championship win exemption) compared with the PGA Tour. This was interesting:

“In the US we sometimes lose sight of what is important. There’s a lot of ‘flash’ over there right now. Wins are what really count though. And major wins count even more. Ask anyone how many events Jack Nicklaus won and not many will know. Ask how many majors he has and almost everyone knows. I would hope that the young kids on the PGA Tour think that way too, because it’s very evident to me that their counterparts over here think of nothing else. They want to win any tournament, but they really want to win the big ones.”