When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Strong numbers for FOX with Gary Woodland outlasting Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose to win in prime time.
No wonder Pebble Beach’s next U.S. Open is year one of the next television contract! West coast is best…
Debuting Monday and Tuesday June 17-19 at 9 pm ET, Golf Films looks at the life and legend of Ben Hogan.
With limited commercial interruption thanks to sponsor Charles Schwab, Hogan is narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Kyle Chandler, and produced for 13-time Emmy Award winner Israel DeHerrera. He answered some questions about how the film came together.
GS: Let’s talk genesis of this film. How long has this been in the works and what was the goal in tackling such a complicated figure?
ID: Was sitting around wondering what was going to be next and was nosing around on YouTube and found an interview Hogan did with Ken Venturi at the 1983 Colonial. It was only about 12 minutes long, but I was immediately transfixed. He spoke in a staccato tone that had me hanging on every word. So I dug deeper and read Curt Sampson's biography. I read it cover to cover in two days and knew that we really needed to try and bring this story into a visual documentary form.
The film has been two years in the making but that coincides with the release of two other films that debuted last year and five others that are currently in production.
GS: When did your fascination with Hogan begin?
ID: When I saw the Commercials for Hogan apex irons in the early 1990's. Seeing Hogan in that yellow sweater at Riviera taking full swings was just mystical.
Q: What is your best interview get and person you most wished you could have interviewed and did not?
ID: Best interview was Curt Sampson. He was our Shelby Foote. We also sat down with Ben's niece Jacque Hogan. It was pretty cool to get a first person account of the accident and the recovery as well as the Hogan family history
Person I wished I could of interviewed is pretty easy…Hogan!
Q: Craziest place or effort made to research Hogan?
ID: We went everywhere: Dublin, Texas, Glen Garden G.C, Shady Oaks, Colonial, Riviera
Carnoustie Scotland, Merion GC, Cherry Hills, et cetera.
But finding the Hogan collectors was HUGE. John Seidenstein of Fort Worth and Mark Baron of San Diego are Hogan freaks. They both have massive collections and exhibits in their homes dedicated to Hogan. We are always looking to add additional layers and give these films a present day feel and this really helped
Q: There are reenactments in the film. Tell us what goes into the thinking on those and is there consternation given in using them given how strong the visuals and storytelling is with a subject like Hogan?
ID: This was a difficult decision. There simply was not enough footage of Hogan's career to be able to tell the story we wanted to tell so we decided to do re-enactments. We found Christo Garcia who spent five years of his life dedicating himself to copying Hogan's swing. We wanted to be as genuine as possible so we flew him to Shady Oaks for a shoot and to Merion to shoot there on the East Course. That said, I was very conscious of that fact that having someone trying to replicate Hogan’s swing was sacrilegious, so we only tried to use tight shots of hands, legs, shoulders etc. We tried to avoid showing an entire full swing.
Hogan’s childhood was another reason we needed to do re-creations. There are only of handful of photos of Ben during his childhood. I am very happy with how these turned out. We spent many hours casting, blocking, searching for the proper locations, actors, props etc. and I think it shows during the childhood scenes and the famous caddie tournament he played against Byron Nelson at Glen Garden. We also rented out an old house in LA to shoot his re-creations of his recovery from the accident.
GS: : Thing that most surprised you about Hogan in your research?
ID: I have to give credit to Curt Sampson here. He really did all the heavy lifting in terms of research and brought Hogan to life for a generation of fans when he released his biography in the late 1990’s. Our goal was to do the best possible job in bringing him to life in a visual documentary form that will hopefully engage and give birth to a whole new audience.
I was just surprised at how difficult this man’s life really was. I knew a little bit about Hogan but not everything. Charles Dickens and Oliver Twist had it easy compared to this guy. He is just an amazing story of perseverance.
Here are my winners and losers of the week for Golfweek, with Gary Woodland winning in style with a dramatic chip at the 17th and resounding birdie at the 18th. That last putt is no picnic to two-putt.
Other than the June gloom, it was a sensational week for a journeyman player who has hung around and persisted, the USGA and Brooks Koepka despite a second place finish.
As Brooks Koepka prepares to tee off and pursue the incredible feat of three U.S. Open wins, Douglas Seaton gives us an excuse to revisit the short life and times of four-time U.S. Open winner Wilie Anderson.
North Berwick born and raised until his family emigrated to America. He was most famous for telling the Myopia members to stick their kitchen-dining plan for the pros:
At the 1901 US. Open played at Myopia Hunt Club near Boston, Massachusetts, Willie and Alex Smith posted a 72-hole score of 331, to tie the tournament. In the first 18-hole play-off in Open history, Anderson won by one stroke, 85-86. At that championship, the American media picked up on Anderson's quote when he growled " No, we're no goin tae eat in the kitchen." Willie was furious when told the professionals could not enter the clubhouse. The players were eventually allowed to eat in a specially erected tent.
Anderson is in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
I chatted with Fox Sports’ director Steve Biem Sunday for this Golfweek story to better understand how the Kaze Aerial team is getting the remarkable drone images from the 2019 U.S. Open, as well as an audible with the new FlightTrack tracer covering the 6th tee shot and now, the 17th.
It was fascinating to hear about the adjustments made to get where they are, which is providing us views like we’ve never seen before.
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 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.”
Have I ever mentioned that more people watch U.S. Opens in California?
Biggest second round numbers since the last one here in 2012 at Olympic Club:
With Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Justin Rose in prime time, Fox drew an impressive number given the NBA Finals competition.
Their numbers:
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.
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.”
Jordan Spieth just completely called out his caddie on national TV. Whether the caddie misjudged it or not, that's a bush league move. At the end of the day, you're the one hitting the golf ball.#USOpen pic.twitter.com/lFSYQSGrvR
— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) June 13, 2019
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…
Here’s our Golf Channel look at the 1929 version of Pebble Beach, it’s primary designer Chandler Egan and whether restoration is needed to keep the course functional for U.S. Open play (or 60,000 rounds a year).
Brendan Havens produced. Enjoy!
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.
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 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.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
