DJ Puts His Name In The U.S. Open Contender Hat; But Will His Length Work At O Club?

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With a win Sunday at the Fed-Ex St. Jude Classic, recent major contender Dustin Johnson arrives at Olympic Club with a super shot to win. He adds himself to a nice, long list of contenders playing well (as John Strege writes).

Ryan Lavner notes in Golfweek's 5 Things on the day that Johnson sounds confident heading to the U.S. Open.

“I was confident coming into this week,” Johnson said. “I was hitting some good shots and chipping and putting pretty well. I just needed to get the ball in the fairway, because I was swinging my irons well and knew I’d have a lot of looks at birdie.”

Johnson fascinates me at Olympic because a case could be made that the course will take away the advantage he has with his driver, yet he's so long with his other clubs that even without pulling out the big stick, he may be okay. This is the interesting dilemma I wrote about for Golf World the U.S. Open preview, and Hale Irwin even mentions Johnson when talking about Olympic's 4th hole and his ability to shape a 3-wood or hybrid there compared to the challenge of trying to hit the same shot with driver.

Yet another fun storyline heading into an Open with more than its share. The highlights from Memphis:

Shanshan! China Gets Its First Major

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AP's John Kekis on Shanshan Feng's LPGA Championship win.

The 22-year-old Feng, the only player from China on the tour, had the lowest round of the tournament at the right time and finished at 6-under 282.

Feng, who began the day three shots behind third-round leader Eun-Hee Ji, had a bogey-free round to etch her name in the record books, and her fourth top 10 of the year moved her to fifth in the world.

Here's her post-round interview:

When Rossie Routed Ty Cobb

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Antonio Gonzalez with a splendid history of Olympic Club's membership through the years, especially the early years, including Mark Twain and later Ty Cobb.

Cobb, a hot-tempered and aggressive slugger who received the most votes on the original Hall of Fame ballot, played 12-year-old Bob Rosburg in the first club championship in 1939. Although Cobb had retired from baseball more than a decade earlier, his competitiveness never cooled.

Cobb lost 7 and 6. Rosburg later won the PGA Championship in 1959. And while popular lore is that Cobb resigned in furor, the club has no record that he gave up his membership. Rosburg told Golf Digest in 2010 that Cobb was gracious in defeat but "guys at the club rode him unmercifully for losing to a child. He disappeared and didn't come back to Olympic for years."

"He was just so embarrassed," Olympic general chairman Stephen Meeker said of Cobb, recalling the story.

GS.com U.S. Open Coverage This Week

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Thanks as always to the Art Department for a banner and to reader Octo for some photographic contributions to the banner for what will be my third U.S. Open at the Olympic Club.

I hope to get out on the course Monday afternoon to Tweet (from the media regulation safety of the media center) some observations, images and videos, so make sure to follow me at GeoffShac on Twitter or keep an eye on the right hand column for the latest Tweets.

Also coming up is the annual Dan Jenkins Q&A, to offset the earlier Jack Fleck (evildoer!) coverage that came with the Q&A with Neil Sagebiel.

And of course, constant updates here as news unfolds from the 112th playing of Golf's Toughest Test, also known to some as the United States Open.

2014 Curtis Cup To St. Louis CC

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Another great "get" for the USGA, as C.B. Macdonald's St. Louis (Mo.) Country Club will host the 2014 Curtis Cup, the sixth USGA event held at the club but the first since the 1972 U.S. Women’s Amateur.

The 2012 edition concluded Sunday at Nairn, with GB&I beating the U.S. 10.5 to 9.5. Alistair Tait reports on a dramatic comeback for the home team.

And where the face painting bar appeared to have been raised.

Fleck: "It's a shame that I used those very clubs to defeat him."

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Just two great bits from Jack Fleck's My Shot with Guy Yocom:

Just before setting out on the drive to San Francisco for the U.S. Open, I packed my Motorola record player and Mario Lanza records. Nothing was more soothing to me than hearing him sing "I'll Walk With God." At the end of each day at Olympic, I would return to my hotel room alone, do my hatha yoga and listen to Mario Lanza. His singing put me in a wonderful frame of mind.

And this about his fellow Hogan staff member, Ben Hogan.

Hogan had arrived before me. When I got there he hand-delivered to me two wedges he had made up in addition to the irons and woods he'd already given me. It was just unbelievable, the kindness he continued to show me. In a sense it's a shame that I used those very clubs to defeat him.

Fleck will be at Olympic and is slated to come to the media center for a visit. I think I'll ask if Mario Lanza's on his ipod!