Landon Michelson: "I'm here because I'm a huge idiot."

Great stuff from Morning Drive today as Landon Michelson, who was DQ'd for signing an incorrect card, shows that other than checking his card, he's a big, big adult, going on Morning Drive and his genuine, refreshing honesty makes you want to see him get a big break very soon. He also knows how to use Facetime! A+ for the lighting.

Kelly Tilghman, Damon Hack, and Phil Blackmar talk to Michelson, then debated the scorecard signing rule after.

"It’s a Huck Finn-Forest Gump adventure, an incredible story."

On the Monday when so man dreamers take their crack at the US Open, it’s worth checking out this Iain MacIntyre Vancouver Sun story on PGA Tour Canada Monday qualifier Ryan Cook, former oil patch worker, self taught golfer and part-time Darrell Survey taker. He's not in a sectional today, but maybe one of these days.

From MacIntyre's story, sent in by reader Joel:

The 28-year-old from Burnaby, who quit his job in the Alberta oil patch two years ago and moved to California to teach himself to be a golf pro, was in the field Thursday at Point Grey for the first round of the $150,000 PC Financial Open, the opening event in the PGA Tour Canada season.

Cook played junior golf competitively but claims his handicap would have been around 25 when he moved to Palm Desert in 2012.

When a reporter claims baloney, Cook says: “Twenty. I’m serious. It took me two months to break 80 when I first went down there. I quit golf for at least five years. But I’ve always known that I had talent. I just thought if I could down to the golf mecca and meet the right people I could start playing.

2014 U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying Day Is Here!

One of golf’s great days is here, aka Golf’s Longest Day when a network was crazy enough to televise it at a big loss under the belief that the non-profit USGA appreciated their partners for things other than cold, hard cash.

Therefore, the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying returns to its dark place of page refreshes, late night articles and skimpy photo galleries for that always-gratifying day introducing us to the talented people who qualify for the most democratic major.

The USGA has a page devoted to the storylines, and there are some doozies. There are also preview stories for each sectional that will take you to a devotional page including a link to scoring pages as the numbers are posted.

There is also this page including all of the qualifiers. And this Road to the Sectionals primer.

Video: Pinehurst No. 2's Tenth Hole

The beautiful, bending long par-5 10th is the last of the round and one modified by Donald Ross to be less penal for the average golfer, as Ran Morrissett explained in his GolfClubAtlas profile. The fall off behind the green elevated above the fairway makes third shots tricky here, so there's a huge reward for the bombers who can get on or near the green in two.

The hole will measure 617 yards for the U.S. Open, 571 yards for the U.S. Women's Open.

A photo from this February of the tee view:

The flyover: