Here is the opening to my Friday column about the golf threesome — Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson:
SAN FRANCISCO
The world stopped at 7:33 Thursday morning.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson were approaching the tee at the ninth hole of the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club — it was their first hole. And the entire planet, at least the crowd at the Olympic, was in a state of pure anticipation.
The air was heavy with mist and the sun barely visible, and fans lined the tee box and the fairway seven-deep all 449 yards to the green. They waited.
To read the rest of the column, please click here. You’ll notice this column is a little more general than usual. I wrote it for A1, the front page of the paper. I didn’t write it for the sports section, which means it’s for a general audience as opposed to strict sports fans.
Stan
I know this is off topic..but did you know that Jim Harbaugh is going to Peru to build homes for the poor?..Isn’t that amazing?..I’m pretty sure it wasn’t sarcasm..he gave details like, it’s through a church group.
I have to rethink things..
June 15th, 2012 10:35 am
Dave T
Lowell,
I read an interesting article yesterday that had many of the same quotes you provided. What I found interesting was the author basically noted that Tiger adjusted his game and plan of attack seemingly on the fly. He noted that on shorter par 5 of the day the tee had been moved up some 20 yards and Tiger hit his “stinger” 3 wood off the tee and landed it in the fairway where it rolled gently off into the 1st cut. Bubba hit his pink shafted driver on the same hole and also landed in the fairway rolling off into the first cut. When the players walked up to their ball to play the next shot Tiger had actually out driven Watson due to the roll out on the fairways. The author quoted Woods as saying he noticed the difference from the practice rounds and how much more roll out there now was. In the practice rounds he could hit high and land it soft but now they were rolling through the fairways and the doglegs. So Tiger became content to think his way around Olympic, to pound irons off the tee and position himself around the course. Much like he did at Royal Liverpool when he provided a clinic on ball striking and course management, winning the Open Championship. Both Phil and Bubba conceeded that they were simply outmatched, by the course and by Tiger. And to me, when he is hitting the ball well, that is what sets Tiger in a different class than any other player. He doesn’t just have 1 way he can play a course or the ability to move the ball one direction. He can adapt his game and move it any way he wants. He can in fact adapt his game on the fly, just as he did this week when the course changed on the players. Both Bubba and Phil were impressed by Tiger yesterday, and to me, that says more than anything else.
June 15th, 2012 11:10 am
Stan
Dave.”NOW I know what I’ve been doing wrong” is old as the hills and more of the placebo effect.
I would think his dropping heavy use of ‘roids and his ladykilling cheating ways behind him-with no wife,nobody cares-,his mind might be more at ease. But,I never thought Tiger forgot how to golf..the roids just bulked him up..and for real science reasons .
It really does seem in the long run to be reasons like drugs and lack of them..has impacted athletes more then they forgot how to play. Nothing supernatural no matter what Tebow claims..
June 15th, 2012 12:55 pm
Johnc
@ Dave T Interesting take on Tiger.
Watson is an overrated gunslinger. He hits the ball far but he comes from the school of John Daly in his “grip it and rip it” mentality. He never took a lesson in his life which attests to his coordination because his swing is a mess that works for him..would not advise trying to duplicate it.
Phil, what can we say about him…streaky player. He was supposed to have solved his driving blues. He definitely did not adjust to the conditions like Tiger.
Rory McElroy said he was going to hit driver a lot because he felt if you were going to get into the rough you might as well be further up the fairway than if you used a lesser club. His strategy did not work at all. He is a mess now and will probably miss the cut. Bobby Jones said the most important distance in golf is five inches ..the space between your ears…Tiger knows that and so did Jack Nicklaus..they were smart and adaptive .
June 15th, 2012 3:49 pm
Tommy CostaRica
I’m not impressed with the course. One of the beauties of golf is the amazing greeeeeeeeen grass! Instead of looking like the first class course that it is, they’ve let the thing go dry like they can’t afford to water it. It reminds me of playing some of those little 9 hole golf courses in the north bay that have no money and are all dry and hard. Also, Lowell in your long list of most hated things you mentioned something about, “hating how everybody watches Woods when there are so many great young golfers out there.” I have to say that I always watch for him simply because he is an all time great.
June 16th, 2012 6:08 am
Bray
Tommy- Every US Open is like that, that’s what the USGA strives for, hard and fast. Make those robots think, I love it.
June 18th, 2012 10:56 am