Not sure we’d turn down Pebble Beach, Martin!
Jul 06 2010 Posted in Golf News, Martin Vousden by UKThoughts on the US Open
Golfers don’t win the US Open; they hang on like grim death and survive – it’s like watching a 20-car motorway pile-up, and waiting to see who emerges from the wreckage once the blood, smoke and debris have cleared. A few facts to prove the point; in the first round, the world numbers one and two (Tiger and Phil) couldn’t make a birdie between them; in the last round, only five out of 82 players were under par for the day – and none of them were in contention; and the six players in the last three pairings were a combined 11-over par for the 8th, 9th and 10th holes. There are numerous other stats to emphasise the point.
It might be dramatic, in the way that car, plane or rail crashes are dramatic, but it’s not what I want to watch.
All credit though, to Graeme McDowell, who did what he needed to do. He is a man, as my mother would say, who has no ‘side’; what you see is what you get and being in the public eye hasn’t changed him at all. His swing is not the most orthodox but, and here is a lesson some of his peers might want to absorb, it repeats flawlessly, even when the pressure gauge is turned up to 11.
Last thought
I was at Pebble Beach in 1992, the year that Tom Kite won, and we pampered journalists are usually offered the chance to play the championship venue the day after the final round. Playing Pebble Beach is a long-time ambition but having watched the world’s best struggle for survival for a week I thought: ‘What’s the point of dragging myself around, and shooting a joyless 120, just to say that I have played Pebble?’ so I turned the chance down.
It’s a decision I have never regretted.
Tiger’s a sour puss
For Tiger Woods, returning to the venue where he lapped the field in 2000 and played at a near-deity standard must have filled him with hope, if not expectation. His subsequent disappointment must be bitter but he is not, it has to be said, coping particularly well with performing at a lesser standard. I have tried hard over the years not to damn him for his on-course demeanour – the refusal to acknowledge playing partners or fans, the tossing aside of clubs, bad language and general air of bad-tempered grumpiness – because I think the life he leads would test the patience of a saint. Those of us lucky enough not to be exposed to the demands he faces, and the level of examination he undergoes every time he steps out of his house can have no idea what he has to endure.
But the most recent example of his general sourpuss persona, where he repeatedly blamed his caddy Steve Williams for giving him the wrong club at Pebble Beach, is a moan too far, for me at least. The caddy makes suggestions, Tiger, but the decision is yours so suck it up.
Go East young man
We have been predicting an Eastern takeover of golf for many years now, and although it started on the LPGA Tour in America a decade ago, we are now finally seeing its fruition in the men’s game. YE Yang became to first Asian winner of a Major in last year’s US PGA Championship, Ryo Ishikawa is just about the hottest prospect in the game, along with Rory McIlroy, and now a South Korean has won the Amateur Championship. Jin Jeong must have holed about three miles of putts in the 36-hole final at Muirfield en route to beating Scotland’s James Byrne 5&4.
Just wait until the Chinese really get into golf.
Nonsensical nomenclature
The US Ryder Cup captain, Corey Pavin, made it to a playoff over the weekend in the Travelers Championship which was won by Bubba Watson. It caused me to wonder, again, where the Americans get their names from. Monikers like Bo Van Pelt and Brandel Chamblee have always intrigued me, although my favourite of all time is the veteran golfer Kermit Zarley. So I looked up the name Corey and discovered it can have several possible sources. One derivation means ‘dweller in or near a hollow’ from the surname stemming from the Gaelic ‘coire’ meaning a cauldron, a seething pool or a hollow. According to the 1990 United States Census, Corey was the 182nd most popular male first name, the 1,379th most popular female first name.
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Brace yourself
Among items on the agenda of the US PGA Tour’s advisory committee earlier this month were two that caught my eye and filled my heart with dread. First, is the proposal that players and caddies be miked up and their discussions with each other broadcast to the TV audience, (on a time delay so that expletives can be deleted). Second, that players be interviewed between holes, as already happens at events on some of the lesser Tours.
Even if these suggestions are vetoed now, I suspect they will be re-submitted and at some point approved. And we all know that what happens in the US (especially the bad stuff) soon makes its way across the Atlantic.
