Pinehurst Prelim

I'm getting the sense that there must be some sort of big event at Pinehurst this week, as it's all the chattering classes are, you know, chattering about...a few are even making some sense.

How Do I Short a Golfer? - I've got a new favorite name in golf, that being Scooby Axson, who brings us these odds to win the U.S. Open:

Rory McIlroy: 10/1

Adam Scott: 12/1
Phil Mickelson: 15/1
Jordan Spieth: 20/1
Justin Rose: 20/1
Matt Kuchar: 20/1
Bubba Watson: 20/1
Henrik Stenson: 25/1
Jason Day: 25/1
Dustin Johnson: 30/1
Lee Westwood: 35/1
Sergio Garcia: 35/1
Graeme McDowell: 35/1
Zach Johnson: 40/1
Hunter Mahan: 50/1

I just don't see Rory at this venue, though he will be able to bomb it if he so chooses (and when did he ever choose otherwise?).  But he's 172nd on Tour in scrambling, and methinks that's going to be a necessary skill this week.

I like his chances in direct proportion to how many of the possible thunderstorms materialize this week.  If it softens and he can throw darts at pins, then maybe...

 They Like to Watch - Per Randall Mell at Golf Channel, the ladies will be watching this week:

With the men playing the U.S. Open first, the women and their caddies will be taking notes.

“I’ll be watching every second it’s on TV,” said Morgan Pressel, winner of the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship. “You’re given an early look, to see how the golf course plays. I’m sure the pins will be relatively similar, so we’ll get a good look at how shots react coming into greens. I think it will be very helpful.” 

Count Michelle Wie and Inbee Park among the women who will be riveted to their television sets during the U.S. Open. 

“I don’t typically watch a whole lot of golf, but I definitely will be watching a lot,” Wie said. 

“It’s going to be interesting, because we’ve never done this before. I’m not sure exactly what to look for, but I think the things I will be watching for are what happens with approach shots, how shots roll off greens. I think I’ll be looking to see where players are struggling from, where you don’t want to go, where you do want to go.”

Just because they were given indoor plumbing is no reason to think they didn't also get brains.  It's a course most have never seen, and the guys will be hitting the same irons to the same pins...duh!

Ben There -  Shackelford points us to this short Mark Williams interview with the Gentle One:

Charlie Price, the great writer, he’d say Pinehurst in his day was fairways, and the fairways

were oases within sandy country. The wispy rye grass, pine needles and sand, the little tufts of ground, that’s what Pinehurst was. 

It will be pot luck out (off the fairways). You can have a recoverable lie, or you can get a poor lie and have to chip out. It's all natural, though.

For the record, to the best of my knowledge this not the Mark Williams that is a loyal reader and frequent commenter on this site.  However, in a move reeking of desperation, that Mark Williams earlier this week stole my picks for the U.S. Open, so readers should feel free to defend their favorite blogger's honor in response to any future comments Mr. Williams might post.  Although, come to think of it, his last comment was to my post on the yips, so perhaps the Almighty has my back.

Bet You Didn't Know... - This Golf.com slideshow purports to tell us eleven things we didn't know about Pinehurst, which is likely true only if you know nothing at all abut the place.  But the hype notwishstanding, it's got enough good stuff to be worth a gander.

A young Arnold Palmer won a conference title on No. 2 while at Wake Forest.

The man that Arnie beat was none other than Harvie Ward, a great amateur player of the 1940-50's now best known as that other guy in The Match.

Putter Boy is also a sundial.

And speaking of the King, here are his thoughts on Pinehurst and the restoration:

One other note from the slideshow, most folks are surprised to learn that No. 2 had sand greens until 1935.  It was only then that Ross did his famous sculpting of the turtle-back greens, shortly before the 1936 PGA was held there.

A Work-in-Process - Cob Carlson is producing a documentary on Donald Ross in conjunction with Golf Week's architectural writer Bradley Klein, and they were good enough to make this video available for us all

And now's as good a time as any to go into my photographs for the houses where Ross began and ended his life:

Donald Ross's home in Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands.   Anyone know that little Irish girl standing in front?

Ross' house off the 3rd fairway of No. 2.

Phil Being Phil - Sean Martin grabs a world class quote from our Phil:

Pinehurst No. 2 seems ready to reward so many of Mickelson’s strengths – bold tee-shot strategy, risky recovery shots and a strong short game. Several holes allow players to select how boldly they want to play from the tee. The sandy areas off the short grass will allow players to scramble when they miss the fairway. Pinehurst’s domed greens will pose a strong short-game test. 

“If nobody hit a green, I feel like my chances are the best,” he said. “I’m excited about the prospect of a U.S. Open that has (the) short game as such an important element.”

So many snarky responses, so little time... Ummm Phil, at Augusta and Sawgrass there was a guy not hitting any greens, and you were gone after Friday.  And while I'd agree with him if talking about his entire career, the shock at the aforementioned events was how alarmingly bad his chipping and putting were.  

But Phil is nothing if not reflexively optimistic, which is a very useful trait for a golfer.  So who knows, that and the time he's put in with Mr. Peltz might just do the trick.

Haunting - I didn't watch the Golf Channel documentary on Payne Stewart, heck Arnie is still taking up gigabytes on my Tivo.   But Bill Fields has an interesting post on Mike Franchella, producer and director of Payne, who happens to have shot that haunting footage of Payne walking up a hill used in the promo:

After teeing off on the 10th hole at Pinehurst No. 2 in the last round of the 1999 U.S. Open,

Payne Stewart, in the final grouping with Phil Mickelson, went to the bathroom. Peter Franchella, a cameraman shooting feature and promotional footage for NBC Sports, waited for him at the bottom of a rise leading up to the fairway of the par 5. 

Amid the bustle of a dramatic Sunday afternoon when the lingering mist made it seem more like Scotland than North Carolina, as the large gallery and media horde inside the ropes moved on, it seemed to Franchella as if it was just the two of them. 

The golfer walked. The cameraman filmed. 

"I shot Payne as he walked up the hill into the distance, up and over the hill. He vanished in the brightening sky," Franchella says.

The image is quite haunting, especially with the knowledge that we lost him a mere four months later.