Storyline Pairings, The Underlying Dynamics Of The Tiger-Phil Pairing And Thursday's Online Telecast Times

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Jeff Rude raises the question that's on the mind of many at Olympic Club: just how good are these storyline-pairings-with-a-fun-twist good for the U.S. Open?

There’s the glamor trio of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson. World 1-2-3 Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood. The alphabet-soup gathering of K.J. (Choi), K.T. (Kim) and Y.E. (Yang). The sound-alikes of Charl (Schwartzel), Carl (Pettersson) and Charles (Howell III). Heart-warming qualifying protagonists Casey Martin and Dennis Miller. Bombers Alvaro Quiros and Gary Woodland. Flashy heartthrob youngsters Rickie Fowler and Ryo Ishikawa.

Whether Woods-Mickelson-Watson is a good idea apparently is up for debate. Both sides have been presented. On one sensible hand, it’s a great splash for golf, the marquee at its best. On the other, some somehow suggest it might be better to spread the wealth on the pairings sheet, not to mention the sound notion that it will be difficult to spectate unless you are, say, 8 feet tall.

Ron Sirak analyzes the history of Tiger and Phil pairings, along with the dynamics of their past pairings and how that might impact this week's U.S. Open and like many, still feels this will be better for Mickelson.

Earlier this year, at both the Humana Challenge and the Farmers Insurance Open, Mickelson seemed to have little passion for golf. After more than two decades on tour and with recent health challenges for his wife, his mother and himself, Lefty seemed to be at low energy.

Then, on the Sunday of the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, Mickelson was paired with Woods. The result was the best round Lefty had played in years a 64 that dusted Woods by 11 strokes and won the tournament. It seems that at this stage of his career, there are two things that motivate Mickelson -- winning majors and beating Woods, with beating Woods perhaps leading.

"The feeling and the excitement I got when I found out I was paired with Tiger the final round at Pebble got me excited and focused," Mickelson said. "And I felt a similar feeling when I found out we were paired together here. And I'm looking forward to the pairing."

Meanwhile the USGA is touting exclusive Thursday morning coverage of the Woods-Mickelson-Watson pairing on USOpen.com. Servers willing...

STAR-STUDDED U.S. OPEN GROUP OF WOODS, WATSON AND MICKELSON TO TEE OFF EXCLUSIVELY ON USOPEN.COM AND U.S. OPEN MOBILE APP

USGA to Deliver Virtual Front Row Seats to Live First-Round Marquee Coverage

San Francisco, Calif. (June 12, 2012) – When the marquee group of Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Tiger Woods tees off at 7:33 a.m. (PDT) for the first round of the 2012 U.S. Open Championship at The Olympic Club on Thursday, the USGA’s digital platforms will be the exclusive outlet for watching the start of all the action.

Visitors to usopen.com and users of the U.S. Open mobile application, “U.S. Open Golf Championship,” will have exclusive access to the first 90 minutes of continuous play on Thursday morning through live-streaming high-definition (HD) video, followed by ESPN’s live coverage at 9 a.m. (PDT).

A complete U.S. Open television schedule for ESPN and NBC is available at http://www.usopen.com/en_US/champ_experience/viewing_schedule.html

Coverage of the marquee group will continue throughout the morning, and the afternoon group will feature Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood. Exclusive coverage will also be available on Friday, with select holes featured on Saturday and Sunday.

“This is the one of most exciting times of the year for golf fans and we’ve created a marquee destination for them to follow a marquee pairing at the U.S. Open,” said USGA Executive Director Mike Davis. “We’re thrilled to be using our digital platforms in this way so fans have a virtual front row seat to watch three of the world’s most accomplished players compete in our national championship.”

Rory's First Pitch Is A High Strike; Then The Lad Leaves Earlier Than A Dodger Fan

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I Tweeted the spellbinding video so for now this is all you've got to live the first pitch at Tuesday's Giants-Astros game (until it appears on YouTube or Golf Channel, which appeared to have exclusive access based on the number of groupees they had on the field).



Even with front row seats, Rory left in the middle of the second inning and made the unfortunate move of leaving from the exit near where prominent members of the UK press were sitting. And this lowly blogger.

Even Dodger fans stay longer than that. I was gone by the end of six.

As for Rory's game, Pond Scummers Elling and Huggan are back and batted around Rory's play in Memphis heading into his title defense at Olympic.

Elling: To me, the fact that McIlroy put himself in contention, and then some, was a huge step forward. The kid had missed three straight cuts at premier events, twice shooting 79. This time, he just hit a horrible shot at absolutely the worst possible time, wrecking any chance at a victory when he had a hand on the trophy. Is his confidence shaken? It ought to be. But he's in better shape than he was 10 days ago.

Huggan: My bigger question re Rory's chances this week are more to do with the bigger picture. Does he have more than one gear? I have doubts about that. Any time the course is not soft enough for him to go full-bore at every target, his play has been less than stellar. And, after last year, there is no way that the USGA is going to have the course at anything less than brutal. Just as they did in 1974 -- the "massacre at Winged Foot -- in the wake of Johnny Miller's 63 at Oakmont 12 months previously, look for them to exact some revenge this time round.

Sam Weinman highlights the highlights of Rory's Tuesday press conference.

Phil On 670-Yard 16th: 

"It's definitely the hardest -- arguably the worst."

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Steve Elling on Phil Mickelson's comments Tuesday about the lengthened 16th at Olympic (photo).

And I have to agree with this design assessment, something you can see in a video shot earlier today.

“With the tee back, it eliminates any options,” he said.

So much for strategy, he added.

“I would never say it's an unfair hole,” he said. “I just don't think it's a good hole.”

Handicapping Olympic: Who The Course Favors

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When putting together pools and picks for the 112th U.S. Open I tend to look at past performances on golf courses, yet with so few in this week's field having played at Olympic Club in 1998, I would take a look at how this golf course plays. And more than most courses, Olympic seems to emphasize ball-striking to an extreme, strategic thinking less so.

"You have to curve it more off the tees here than any other golf course that we play," Tiger Woods said Tuesday.

On paper, the tee shots look like a pretty even breakdown between needing to play a right-to-left shot, left-to-right shot and a dead-straight-to-not-hit-overhanging-limbs shot.

"There was no preference on either shot," Billy Casper said today of the course in '66 and today. "Because you had so many holes that had doglegs right, you had so many holes that you had doglegs left and you had so many holes where the fairway sloped from right‑to‑left and holes where you had the fairway slope from left‑to‑right. It required good stroke making to be able to play the golf course."

However, approach shots at Olympic Club tend to favor a left-to-right shot either because of green angles or the combination of fairway slope, green size and green firmness.

"Even to the greens, you've got right‑to‑left slopes of, let's say right‑to‑left slopes of fairways and greens, and you have to cut it, so you're going against the grain."

This is why I continue to feel like Tiger is an overwhelming favorite. Throw in the lack of driver holes, his preference for bent over poa greens, strong fan support in this area, a familiarity with California golf and a continuation of the predominantly left-to-right ball striking on display two weeks ago at the Memorial, and you have a deserving favorite.

And Tiger the little-known historian seems to have done his homework on this front.

"I was reading something a long time ago about Arnold playing this event," he said Tuesday. "He likes to draw the ball.  But he learned how to hit a cut just for this event."

Who else works the ball left to right? Phil Mickelson, Tiger's playing partner the first two days, can certainly do so and should Lee Westwood, who once tried to change his swing to hit a draw but has wisely gone back to a fade shot shape, leaps out as someone who should thrive here.

But this is Olympic. And history tells us there's another less famous, supreme ball-striking, cut-shot artist out there who will spoil the affair. But who?

"All the cart does is give him a chance. That's part of who we are as Americans."

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Interesting perspective from Michael Bamberger on why no one seems to care these days whether Casey Martin takes a cart or not: society has changed.

There must still be plenty of people who think it's an affront to the sanctity of the game to have one player play by different rules. But many fewer than there were in the old century.

What changed? Casey Martin didn't change. He's still a golfer who can make the shots, but not the walk, that tournament golf requires. So what actually changed?

We changed.

We've become more tolerant (or so I'd like to think). The Sept. 11 attacks made us reassess the important from the trivial.

We elected a black president for the first time, and today when people are critical of Obama's performance, it has little to do with the color of his skin and more to do with the high price of gasoline.

Nobody cares if the secretary of state is a woman or a man, unless you have the view that women are more likely to keep us out of war.