New York Is Tough: Steiny's License Suspended Awhile

Michael Buteau reports that Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg, has had his license suspended pending a court appearance...in January, 2013?

Readers, is that typical with DWI cases in the state of New York?

Casey Martin Successfully Sued The PGA Tour, But You Wouldn't Know That If You Read PGATour.com

I suppose it is wise for PGATour.com to edit out references to the darkest days of Commissioner Tim Finchem's tenure. After all, Commissioner Aladeen, who appealed all the way to the Supreme Court but who won't endorse penalty shots for slow play, might realize he once made a truly awful, career-defining executive decision. 

But gosh it's fun to read the red-lined version of the AP story.

Here are two separate paragraphs from the PGATour.com version:

Martin, who won the right to ride a cart because of a rare circulatory disorder in his right leg, earned a spot in the U.S. Open on Monday night when he holed a 5-foot par putt in darkness on the final hole at Emerald Valley Golf Club.


Martin earned his way onto the PGA TOUR in 1999. He failed to keep his TOUR card after one year, and eventually became the golf coach at Oregon.

And how the story appeared on the wires, with underline added to highlight the dreaded truth cut from the PGATour.com copy:

Martin, who successfully sued for the right to ride a cart because of a rare circulatory disorder in his right leg, earned a spot in the U.S. Open on Monday night when he holed a 5-foot par putt in darkness on the final hole at Emerald Valley Golf Club.


Martin earned his way onto the PGA Tour in 1999 and eventually won his lawsuit to ride a cart. He failed to keep his PGA Tour card after one year, and eventually became the golf coach at Oregon.

2012 U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying Roundup

Golfweek's one-stop roundup includes all of the numbers, qualifiers, alternates and notable missers in easy-to-read fashion.

And here is the USGA Sectional page where all scores, stories and photos are posted.

Doug Ferguson's AP story on sectionals focuses on Casey Martin and his USGA-supported cart returning to the scene of his only U.S. Open appearance.

Mike Tomiko of The Oregonian on Martin's qualifying and the backstory of his decision to give it a try this year. 

Jim Achenbach with details from on-site of the harrowing day for Martin, which included rushing to finish after a rain delay.

Martin may be back at the course Tuesday morning to watch the sudden death playoff between Daniel Miernicki and Nick Sherwood. Both are amateurs, Miernicki plays for Martin at Oregon. Sherwood plays for Oregon State. James Raia with more details from the Oregon qualifier.
 
The unforgettable moment of the day (and Sportscenter Top 10 highlight) came with Dennis Miller's epic putt and the surrounding Golf Channel video coverage viewable here, including a super Whit Watson interview with Miller.

Ryan Ballengee profiles Miller, Director of Golf at Mill Creek, who was in a playoff with PGA Tour players Justin Hicks and Scott Piercy.

Nick Masuda files from Black Diamond Ranch, leading with a detailed account of Brooks Koepka denying 14-year-old Andy Zhang in a profile.
 
Rhonda Glenn was there too and filed a story about the sectional medalist, Scott Langley.

Michelle Hiskey reports from The River Club in Suwanee, Georgia, where Jason Bohn and Casey Wittenberg made it after making coaching changes.

Matt Baylor reports from Glen Ellyn, Illinois where Australian Anthony Summers was medalist over Tim Herron.

Ian O'Conner on former E Street drummer Vini Lopez looping for Mark McCormick at Canoe Brook.

David Shefter's story from the Canoe Brook qualifier focuses on amateur Cameron Wilson qualifying.

Dave Shedloski files from the Columbus qualifier and leads with Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love's successful quest to return to the U.S. Open.

Jason Sobel on Springfield qualifier John Peterson, who was left off last year's Walker Cup team and now will be playing in the U.S. Open.

Rob Oller on the bizarre journey of Peterson and the other qualifier from the Springfield site, Brice Garnett. Neither had played the course before Monday.

Hunki Yun files reports from Woodmont Country Club where alternate Cole Howard, playing with a heavy heart, made his way to Olympic Club.

Barry Svrluga reports from Woodmont with some great color and sense of the day, along with a great Toni Sandys photo of Fred Funk accompanying the story.

Mike Bailey was on the ground in Houston for Bob Estes' dominating performance along with two gutsy performances from Jordan Spieth and Cory Whitsett, both working on almost no sleep after playing in the NCAA Championship match Sunday. Both missed in a playoff.

Thomas Bonk reports from Lake Merced, where Cal grad James Hahn took the sectional and 53-year-old Olympic Club member and Champions Tour player Michael Allen made it to the Open.

Bucky Dent reports from the Germantown CC qualifier in Memphis where 5 inches of rains in 16 hours washed out play.

Golf Channel also posted this video clib of Sands and Isenhour discussing the notables who missed. Other interviews and clips may run too since it's a 90 minute package!

Your One-Stop Shop For USGA Sectional News And Scores

Here is my Golf World Monday item previewing what to expect from Golf Channel's expanded coverage today, and depending on WiFi access, I hope this post will grow through the day with some helpful links.

For starters, here is the USGA page devoted to the U.S. Open sectional results with links to scoring results.

**Golfweek's one stop shop is the same as their preview page, and will simply be updated as the day goes with notes, news and of course, scores.

**GolfChannel.com offers their own page linking to scores, and this Twitter feed featuring insights from their -on-site reporters.

Bad News, Memorial Contestants: You're Stuck With No. 16!

There isn't much to quibble with at Muirfield Village and the Memorial, one of the premier tournaments in the world and a model for sporting event operations. The magnificently conditioned course only adds to its allure, but if there was one quibble for this first time visitor to the Memorial, it's that, uh, well, peculiarly-designed 16th green as redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 2010 and debuted in 2011.

It just doesn't fit with the rest, nor does No. 16 come close to working from the angle in question, no matter what wind is blowing.

As I noted in a video earlier this week, the hole looks like a fun, enticing but still-scary from a distance approximately 40 yards shorter and 40 yards right of the current tees, though a total green redo would not be the worst thing to happen either.

But after this shot for the ages by Tiger Woods, I'm having a hard time seeing Mr. Nicklaus bulldozing his redo.

So sorry boys! You're stuck with it!

Check out this ShotLink scatter chart screen grab of the 16th green tee shots from round 4. The hole finished as the toughest for the week. It was virtually impossible to hit a shot close.

Mr. Nicklaus was asked about No. 16 after the round and a funny exchange broke out involving Tiger and Jon Brendle of the tour staff:

Q.  Jack, you redesigned 16 to put a little more excitement into the tournament.  How do you think that's worked out?

JACK NICKLAUS:  Well, today‑‑ we had wind all week.  The first day wasn't bad.  The pin was tucked in the first pin placement the first day.  But today, I don't think the field staff‑‑ I think the field staff got caught a little bit.  They were forecasting for a southwest wind, we had a northwest wind, and with the northwest wind that back pin placement from the back tee was really tough.  That wasn't what I had in mind to be very honest with you.  That green with a southwest wind funnels right down the green, meaning that if you're standing back there on the tee and you hit it, you're going to be buffeted slightly from the right and it should turn the ball.  The old green went this way, this green goes this way, so it should feed it to the green.

But when you've got a strong left to right, don't put the pin in the back left, please.  It just made it so the guys couldn't play it.  Not many guys did, they really just needed to put the ball in the middle of the green there if they could and then try to make a two‑putt.  But guys kept trying to force it back there and they kept going to the back of the green or going in the back bunker and it was tough.

TIGER WOODS:  Oh, really?

JACK NICKLAUS:  It was tough.  It was tough.  I'm glad I didn't have to play my own hole.
That's probably right, isn't it, Jon?

JON BRENDLE:  You guys were forecasting southwest.  I don't know.  We wanted to play it tough for you.

JACK NICKLAUS:  No, I don't want you to play it right for me.  I want you to play it right.

JON BRENDLE:  We knew it was going to be tough all day.

JACK NICKLAUS:  That's your call, not my call.  Jon and I talked during the week, we had five pin placements, you didn't use the back right.  You could've used back right today probably with the way the wind was.

JON BRENDLE:  I thought it was more fair back right.

JACK NICKLAUS:  Boy, you're mean.

TIGER WOODS:  I made 2.  (Laughter.)

JACK NICKLAUS:  Yeah, he made 2.  The little pin placement on the right he made 2, also.  You played that hole a couple under?

TIGER WOODS:  I did play it a couple under.

JACK NICKLAUS:  So what's so tough about it?  Isn't the hole supposed to separate you?

TIGER WOODS:  Here we go.

Video: Tiger's Incredible 16th Hole Chip-In, 2012 Memorial

Until the PGA Tour puts up a clean copy, a fan capture **8:33 ET Tiger's shot from the CBS telecast of the 2012 Memorial goes live on YouTube:

Update on 2012-06-03 23:21 by Geoff

**So where does this one rank with these shots?

Update on 2012-06-04 00:24 by Geoff

**Great stuff from Tiger and Jack after the round, talking about the shot on 16:

Q.  Mr.Nicklaus mentioned out on the green during closing ceremonies he's never seen a better shot than your chip‑in on 16.  Take us through that.

TIGER WOODS:  The shot was really difficult, but it wouldn't have been so bad if I had a good lie.  If the lie was decent, it would not have brought water into play.  That was the thing.  The lie was just a little bit marginal where it brought water into play.  That's one of the reasons why I took such a big cut at it is to try to under cut it enough so if I missed it I missed it short and if it had enough speed it wouldn't snag it and tug it long left, so obviously the hosel wouldn't have been snagged by the grass.

I went for it.  I pulled it off, and for it to land as soft as it did was kind of a surprise because it was baked out and it was also downhill running away from me.  It just fell in.  I didn't think it was going to get there at one point.  Kind of like 16 at Augusta, I thought I was going to leave it short somehow, and then it fell in.

Q.  Where does that rank amongst some of your best shots, whether it be the 16th at Augusta or maybe when you holed out at Hoylake, or I don't know where you would put that one.

TIGER WOODS:  It was one of the hardest ones I've pulled off.  I think probably the hardest pitch not too many people saw was the one in Japan in the World Cup to get into the playoff.  But obviously you guys never saw it.  (Laughter.)

That was a pretty sweet shot.

But this one was a good one.  As I said, it wouldn't have been so bad if the lie was better.  But as I said, the lie was sketchy enough where it brought water into play.

CHRIS REIMER:  Mr.Nicklaus, I know you congratulated Tiger out at closing ceremonies and you mentioned 16.  Some opening comments from you?

JACK NICKLAUS:  I think that‑‑ I just said out here a couple times, that under the circumstances, the circumstances being Tiger has been struggling, he found himself in a position in a tournament, and it was either fish or cut bait, he had one place to land the ball, he's playing a shot that if he leaves it short, he's going to leave himself again a very difficult shot, if he hits it long, he's going to probably lose the tournament.  He lands the ball exactly where it has to land.  It doesn't make a difference whether it went in the hole or not.  Going in the hole was a bonus.  But what a shot.  I don't think under the circumstances I've ever seen a better shot.