Tiger Falls Out Of Contention, Praises Setup, Admits To Being Achy In Cooler Conditions

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Tiger’s third round 71 left him at even par and out of contention for the 2019 U.S Open, but he praised the balanced setup Saturday.

“I think they did a great job of setting it up so that we can make birdies,” Woods said. “And if you do miss them in the wrong spot then you still can get up and down here, which is not always the case.”

He did admit after the round that the cool conditions have made it harder to get loose. From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com story:

Woods was predictably coy when asked about any physical issues as he wore KT tape -- a therapeutic strip often worn to treat pain -- on his neck, just as he had during The Open at Carnoustie last year.

"When it's cold like this, everything is achy," Woods said. "It's just part of the deal."

Phil: "I’ve got to give it to — hand it to the USGA for doing a great setup. It’s the best I’ve ever seen."

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Phil Mickelson’s 75 Saturday at Pebble Beach ended his chances here, so it’s never too early to start rebuilding his Golf Gods karma credits.

From Todd Kelly’s Golfweek story:

“I tell you, I think it’s — I’m really happy that I had this chance, this opportunity this week. I’ve got to give it to — hand it to the USGA for doing a great setup. It’s the best I’ve ever seen. And it’s identifying the best players. It’s making the players the story,” he said.

“I think the biggest thing was pin placements, instead of putting them right on the edges they were in good spots, rewarding great shots. I can’t say enough great things about how this week has gone so far. And I’m appreciative to the effort they’ve put in and for the opportunity that I had this week.”

The Numbers Say An AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Is Breaking Out In June

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It’s almost unimaginable to see scoring averages and eagle counts you’d find in the February AT&T, but that’s where we’re at after one round at Pebble Beach. With no end to the good scoring in sight.

My Golfweek roundup of the astounding day one numbers that are a tribute to the amazing condition of the course, the talent of today’s players and of course, the incorporation of coconut oil in their morning coffee allowing them to hit 6 irons off 428-yard par-4 tees and wedges into half the par-4’s.

The "Team" Approach Files: Greller Takes A Strange Bullet From Spieth, Rickie Explains Why "We" Are Growing A Mullet

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With so many swing coaches, physios, agents, assistant agents, dieticians, physicists, psychics, baristas, sous chefs and children’s tennis coaches hovering around players, the tendency to talk about the we approach to golf seeps into the lingo more at majors.

Take first round 66-shooter Xander Schauffele’s reference to his major preparation:

Just the mentality changes, a little more focused coming into the week, extra preparation. You just kind of dive a little bit deeper into the properties. And I feel like the team and I have done a decent job of doing that.

Then there is Rickie Fowler explaining his mullet:

We're doing it for the PGA in May. We're calling it Mullet May. And we weren't doing it to, you know, get any extra attention or anything like that. It was for fun. And obviously we're not trying to look a good with it, it's just a fun thing. And I just thought it was a good way to, when asked about it, talk about our foundations.

It was Spieth’s outburst, however, that got the most round one attention and suggests the benefits of team membership aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Spieth, understandably fuming after his 4-iron lay-up at the 8th ran through the fairway into the water, was heard barking out, “Two perfect shots, Michael. You got me in the water on one and over the green on the other.”

Spieth explained the comments after an opening 72:

“We were talking about potentially one less [club on the third shot], and I said, ‘But isn’t it playing about 60 with a fade?’ And then he said yes,” Spieth said. “So we both agreed on that. It was clearly a 4-iron off the tee. At the same time, when you hit a couple of shots exactly where you want to, and the first one is in the water and the next one is dead over the green, I’m going to be frustrated that as a team we didn’t figure out how to make sure that didn’t happen.”

We meaning, you Michael…

Rory On The U.S. Open Champions Dinner, Checking Out Golf's Most Historic Artifacts

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The Forecaddie tells the fun story of the USGA’s amateur and former champions dinners held this week.

Sounds like quite a swell night. At least based on the incredible photos by the USGA team.

Rory McIlroy’s comments from his Wednesday press conference:

Q. You mentioned a couple of times, can you talk a little about what the dynamic was like at the Champions dinner last night? You don't do it every year. Who else did you have interesting conversations with?

RORY MCILROY: It was awesome. 33 of the 36 living U.S. Open champions. We had a great table. It was Erica and myself; Jordan and his wife, Annie; and Brooks and his partner, Jena. It was just the six of us at a table. And it was really cool. I don't know, even just the stories that we were telling. We were obviously the young table (laughter). We must have stayed about an hour and a half after everyone else had left. We shut the place down, just chatting, and it was really, really cool.

But then talking to Lee Trevino about the Ryder Cup in Walton Heath and it was like '81, and Jerry Pate came into the story, and they played together in the foursomes and they beat Faldo and Sam Torrance. Yeah, just really cool.

And then there was some artifacts from the USGA Museum, Hogan's 1-iron from Merion. The golf ball Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam with. Arnold Palmer's visor that he threw up in the air at Cherry Hills. I'm a golf geek, and I love the traditions and history of the game. And that is so cool.

I sort of walked away from that dinner wishing that they did it every year. But I think it is so special that we do it every five or six years, and you look at that picture. Gary Player stood up and made a great speech about how he came here to the United States with no money. He won, I think -- he won the U.S. Open, it was $5,000 or something. And that was a huge deal back then.

Just how the game has changed and evolved. It just made me really appreciate being a part of that club that have won the U.S. Open. It was a really cool thing. And looking forward to being able to do it for years to come.

Prognosticating: 2019 U.S. Open Picks Are In And Brooks Koepka Should Have More People To Resent For Not Picking Him

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The Golfweek staff picks where Dustin Johnson was a popular choice.

Golf.com features their picks and Brooks Koepka is more popular there.

Golf Digest surveyed a small group of experts for their picks.

Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings at PGATour.com always makes for a handy guide.

I won’t be picking Phil Mickelson, who just has not put down the right markers in a U.S. Open a lot people would love to see him win.

Kyle Porter is guaranteeing one of these nine will win and makes his case.

If you’re looking for a fun qualifying story or just a total longshot to round out your pool team, Porter did a nice roundup of the very best to root for.

Mike Tirico's Chat With Mike Davis: Pebble Has Never Looked This Good

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Mike Tirico’s Vantage Point chat which covered a range of topics, with a slight undertone of awkwardness given recent years and player griping, nonetheless it’s worth a few minutes if you’re interested in hearing about this week or Davis’ view on the USGA’s role going forward as a steward of the game. He notes that the organization puts more money into the game than any other.

Bodenhamer On Setup Philosophy, Calling In Other Voices To Help USGA Get It's Groove Back

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As we await the USGA’s annual news conference here at Pebble Beach, Brendan Porath’s lengthy Q&A with new course setup supervisor John Bodenhamer is a pretty revealing look at the lengths he is taking to ensure they hear all points of view.

Check it out, but this was interesting as it relates to Mike Davis, who is still involved but no longer in charge. No shortage of opinions have been sought!

We try to follow what the architect intended. I think it’s really fun to be around that with Mike. I’ve learned a lot.

As far as different, I don’t know — I think Pebble Beach will always be what Pebble Beach has been for the U.S. Open. I mean, why would we do anything different when we’ve had Nicklaus, Watson, Kite, Woods, and McDowell win, and in dramatic fashion every time. Why would we change the recipe? We’re not going to. Now look, there are a few new putting greens here, some new teeing areas, you know it’s little bit different golf course than it was in 2010 and the weather is going to be different probably and all of that. There are some differences.

The one thing that I would say that I have tried to infuse, and Mike and our team are fully supportive, is to be a little more informed with how we’re going into this U.S. Open. What I mean by that is we have Jason Gore on our staff [Gore was announced as the USGA’s first Player Relations Director in March]. A player that has won 11 times at the professional level, seven times on Tour. And he’s informing our process from a setup standpoint.

Nick Price, we’re involving Nick in what we’re doing here at Pebble Beach. Nick will be here this week. We also brought in a guy that I’ve known for a long time — a guy by the name of Casey Boyns. He’s a 37-year caddie here at Pebble Beach and a two-time California amateur champion and probably won 20 other major amateur events around California and the country. I’ve known him a long time, played golf with him years ago. He’s won two California amateurs at Pebble Beach, when he won in the 80s and 90s. But he caddies 250 to 300 times a year here and he’s done it for 37 years. There is nobody who knows this golf course better than him. We brought him out and went around the golf course with him. We showed him our plan. He knows how these greens behave in certain types of weather. He knows what the four new putting greens are behaving like. He knows what the wind will do certain times of the year. It’s fascinating and we’ve brought him in and that’s a little bit new for us.

Tiger Says Putting From Below The Hole A Priority (On Poa)

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I will side with Tiger Woods since he knows what he’s doing and certainly would never want to putt from above the hole at Pebble Beach, but it’s still interesting to consider the best strategy for playing a U.S. Open course. Yesterday in his 2019 US Open press conference, Woods explained his priority in approaching the Pebble Beach poa annua greens:

The trick to putting on poa is to make sure they're always below the hole. If you're putting downhill, it's like a Plinko effect, you're going to go every which way. The key is to be below the hole where you can take low lines and try and take the bumpiness out of play.

Strokes Gained Guru Mark Broadie has been studying the effort to get a ball under the hole now that ShotLink numbers are tracking putts from different parts of greens and is making the case that it all evens out on the greens. Granted, he wasn’t talking about specific grass types, but it’s still fascinating food for thought given modern green speeds and players wanting to be below the hole, even if it does not necessarily apply to Pebble Beach this week.

Simple: It’s very hard, over the course of a full season, for a player to leave himself a lot more easier putts than difficult ones, and vice-versa. Over the course of dozens and dozens of rounds, everything tends to even out. So planning to give yourself more uphill putts than downhill ones isn’t a strategy worth pursuing. No evidence exists to show that players can systematically leave themselves with easier types of eight-footers.

Now Brooks Koepka Feels Slighted By A FOX Promo Omission...

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The Brooks Koepka-needs-motivation parade has moved to Pebble Beach where the two-time defending champion was understandably annoyed by a Fox omission of his likeness in a U.S. Open promo. Still, calling for a firing seems a bit much.

From Steve DiMeglio’s Golfweek report after Koepka’s pre-tournament press conference:

“There’s been a couple of times where it’s just mind boggling. It’s like, really? Like, how do you forget that?” Koepka said Tuesday at Pebble Beach. “Just kind of shocked. They’ve had over a year to kind of put it out. So I don’t know. Somebody probably got fired over it or should.”

The promo-make joins a graphics coordinator and Brandel Chamblee on the list of snubbers who also deserve credit for helping fuel Koepka’s four-major run.

Crews Will Be Standing By To Put Out Pebble Beach Hotspots

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Nice note here from Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com on the USGA advising players of the right to hit greens with water midday to prevent, well, we all know…

One of the concerns following the last U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, in 2010, was how the poa annua greens became particularly difficult in dry conditions, much like those forecast for this week. Perhaps in reaction to that officials have told players that they will syringe greens between the morning and afternoon waves on Thursday and Friday if needed.