Open Tuesday

A lot to cover, so please buckle your aseat belts and return your trays to their original position....

The Venue - Blood doesn't get much bluer than this, one of the five clubs that created the USGA back in the 19th century, and that hosted the second U.S. Open.  That was a different golf course entirely, as the subsequent extension of Sunrise Highway created the opportunity for William Flynn to create the course we now know and revere.

Dave Pelz has this worthy feature in Golf Magazine's Open Preview edition:

These holes at Shinnecock Hills will determine the U.S. Open winner

He offers up eight such holes, which ordinarily I might chide him over. But since there are no bad holes at Shinny, I'll applaud him for keeping it brief. Though I'll mostly excerpt from his general notes on the general challenge involved:

The goal of my visit was to paint a picture of the challenges that await the best players in the world so you can better appreciate the drama sure to unfold before your eyes during

the playing of the 118th U.S. Open, whether you're there in person or catching it on TV. Even among its major-venue brethren, Shinnecock stands alone in its ability to squeeze every ounce of shotmaking savvy and heart from players' games — a test hardwired into the course's layout, the slope and contour of the greens and the ever-present wind. When these elements combine — and you can bet they will — watch out.

It's not all purgatory. Many of Shinnecock's greens are downright friendly, with raised edges that funnel shots toward the center of the putting surface. Most, however, are shaped to repel shots away from the flagstick and, in some cases, off the green entirely. Be advised: every green features serious undulation. A few are so sloped that it's impossible to imagine the ball stopping on its own.

Adding to the difficulty is the fact that Shinnecock's greens run faster than Flynn originally intended. Shortly after he redesigned the course in 1931 (Shinnecock dates back to 1891), the USGA began measuring how fast and far balls rolled on level putting surfaces, calling the measurement "green speed." At that time, Shinnecock's greens measured in the 4- to 5-foot range, and even then they were considered outrageously sloped, severely undulating and very difficult to putt. Come this June 14, these same greens will roll at 12-foot green-speeds, requiring the most deft green reading and putting touches on earth. Good luck, fellas.

His takes on the individual holes are well worth your time, and I'll just share his thoughts on the difficult one-shot second:

No. 2 (258-yd par 3 / '04 scoring average: +.26)

It says: "Nice par on No. 1. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm not that easy."

Fair enough, but what if you didn't make par at No. 1?

Good stuff, and quicker than viewing all eighteen flyovers....

Guy Yocum continues his recent fine form, this time in a feature on how to recognize the subtle ingredients of the best golf clubs:

—The caddies are a cut above. They will be in uniform, bibbed at least. They will be on the pricey end—Shinnecock’s caddies get $120 a bag, plus tip, and the caddies at nearby

Sebonack get more than that. You will get what you pay for. They will move in concert with one another, rarely losing a ball. They will know every dip and swale of the course, greens included, but will advise only when asked. 

—The club may be seasonal. Certainly that’s the case with Shinnecock, which closes on Nov. 1. Augusta National, of course, is closed all summer. The exclusivity lies in that they are closed when they easily could be open if desired. 

—There will be a signature drink or menu item. There’s that snapper soup at Pine Valley, but how about the lobster claws at National Golf Links, the small bowl of enormous olives that appear at tables at Augusta National, or the Bill Burger and its unique simplicity at the Olympic Club? If not a comestible, the old-line clubs will at least have a signature drink. The Fernando at The Country Club, the Velvet Hammer at Augusta Country Club, the Transfusion at Oakmont and the Southsider at the aforementioned National, enrich the club’s esteem. With all due respect to the milkshakes at Muirfield Village and Castle Pines, the element of alcohol at the old-school clubs implies that a soothing, analgesic balm is necessary after enduring its rigors.

Or, just check out the memorabilia in the clubhouse.  As Potter Stewart famously noted on another subject, you'll know it when you see it.  

Andy Johnson at The Fried Egg makes the case for Shinny as our greatest major venue in a 3-parter of which two appear available:

No single hole at Shinnecock is overwhelmingly hard, but no hole is easy. Great play is rewarded with scoring opportunities, while average play yields difficult pars. Shinnecock 

is a sum of all of its parts, the uneven lies, wind and vexing green complexes wear on players over 18 holes. Playing Shinnecock is like stepping into the ring against Floyd Mayweather. The course doesn't rely on singular holes to deliver knockout punches but rather lies in wait for tactical mistakes ready to punish them.

Shinnecock's architect William Flynn is one of the most underappreciated of the Golden Age. Flynn's calling cards for design were exceptional routing, variety and challenging par 3's. Shinnecock Hills is Flynn's masterpiece, but he was also instrumental in the designs of Merion's East Course and Pine Valley to go along with his solo designs of Kittansett, Cherry Hills and many others. Flynn has earned the nickname "The Nature Faker" for his ability to blend artificial elements into the natural landscapes of his courses. Shinnecock is his masterpiece, a course where no hole, shot or feature is out of its natural element.

His thoughts on wind direction and the use of terrain are helpful in understanding what we'll see as the week evolves.

The Forecaddie has some interesting thoughts from his first look at the joint:

• Shortage of turf is not an issue, as it was at the 2004 U.S. Open. If you were worried about the place baking out and turning into another freak show, it won’t
  
  
  
  happen. The cool, wet spring has plenty of grass on fairways, greens and most noticeably, in the intermediate rough between fairway and natives. Superintendent Jon Jennings and his team have the place dialed in. 

• It will dry out in time. The forecast and world-famous drainage here means the course can bake out and speed up in a matter of days. There is only a 10-percent chance of significant rains over the next 10 days. Look for things to speed up as the week goes by, but if they played this weekend, scoring would be very good thanks to the receptiveness. 

• Marshals will have a stressful week. Golf balls will be hard to find even when players are almost right on top looking down. So to the all-important volunteers, the players will need you as sharp as ever when they stray into the dark-green fescues and bluestems. 

• Adjustments are still being made to rough lines. The Man Out Front was intrigued by one in particular outside the media center, where the tall stuff just off the first fairway was taken back a few paces. 

• The design has never looked better. Not that Shinnecock Hills ever looked like a run-down muni, but the combination of enlarged greens, removal of shrubbery, refreshed bunkering, better irrigation design and more sandy areas in the natives gives the place a scale more grand than ever.

It should be a great week.... If they're gonna screw it up, the USGA will have to come up with a really novel way of doing so.

before moving on to players, we've a special U.S. Open week installment of  #askalan.  Stay tuned for his trip to the woodshed, but first this:

Is Shinnecock the greatest of the U.S. Open venues? -George (@_the_burns)

Given its history, regal setting, rustic beauty and awesome challenge, it's a spectacular spot for the Open. But is it the greatest? See below. 

What would be your 10-course rota for the US Open? -@MackRenner 

I'm a known Pebble homer, but I think there is one other course that is the ultimate Open venue. Here's what my rota would be, listed in order of greatness for hosting this particular tournament. Note that I'm only realistic choices, not pipe dreams like Pine Valley: 

1. Oakmont

2. Pebble Beach

3. Shinnecock Hills

4. Pinehurst No. 2

5. Bethpage Black

6. Olympic Club

7. Winged Foot

8. Merion

Given that wind isn't much of a factor at Oakmont, I'd go with Shinny as No.1.  Though color me shocked that Olympia Fields missed his list.... Kidding, kids!

Phil - Phil put in an appearance yesterday, and now will hang elsewhere until Thursday.  I don't get it either, nor do I understand what Memphis does to assist in preparation, but he had some typically interesting commentary at his presser, including this on the course as compared to 2004:

PHIL MICKELSON: So the notes that I had in 2004 are all accurate. In fact, they were 100 percent the same from 2004 as they are today. But the notes that I took weren't precise, like this putt breaks X amount. The notes were that you must stay here for this pin, you must go here for this pin, the odds of getting up and down from this spot are 50 percent, 10 percent. 

So it just guided me on where I need to be for different pin placements and how I want to attack the hole, and that stayed the same from 2004.

And relatively kind words from a man who could be bitter over the events of 2004:

I think it's a very fine line, and it's not a job I would want. And I know that the USGA is doing the best they can to find that line, and a lot of times they do, and sometimes they cross over it, but it's not an easy job. It's easy for all of us to criticize. 

The difficulty is, when you dream of a championship as a child -- whether it's U.S. Open or the Masters, whatever event -- and you dream of winning these tournaments as a child and you work hours and hours and you fly in days and days and do all this prep work, and then you are left to chance the outcome, as opposed to skill, that's a problem. That's the problem that I have with it. 

For instance, Saturday in 2004, the barometer for watering the 7th green was did anybody make double or triple? So if nobody double or triple bogeyed in the group in front of you, the green did not get water. If your group made a double or triple, the green got water for the group behind you.

That type of chance is -- it bothers me, given that we put so much into this tournament and the dreams and the hopes. And to have it left to something like that is disappointing. But I don't mean to discount anything, because I know what a tough job it is to find that fine line.

If you want a reminder of why he could be bitter, watch his ball on the 7th green in this:

Eamon Lynch has this on the capital-H History angle, though I'll not excerpt because all the quotes seem to be from 2016.  Wassup with that, Eamon?  I saw him on the Golf Channel coverage talking about that subject, and acknowledging that if he doesn't get it done in the next three years, it likely won't happen.  I've always thought Pebble was the most likely, but if they stay at the low end of the wind forecast....  

Back to Alan and his hashtag for a sec:

Most deserving winner; least deserving winner; most surprising winner? -Jo (@jascheid) 

Phil is clearly the most deserving – dude has paid his dues and then some. Least deserving is tough. I'm gonna say Jon Rahm. He's clearly a world-class talent bound to win majors but winning this one would feel too fast; you're supposed to have your heart broken a few times before you break through. It's too easy to pick a random qualifier as most surprising so I'll go with Bubba. Even on courses where he has a great record he's as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. The U.S. Open is golf's crucible, and Shinny the ultimate examination. Watson clearly has the game to win anywhere but if he can keep his composure and take this Open it would be a monumental achievement …and upset.

Gotta say, there's a good reason Bubba ain't popping up on too many lists this week....But yeah, I'm not even sure who would take second place on that most-deserving list?   Though so much of it was self-inflicted....  

Tiger - Not much love for the man in pre-tourney odds-making, as I get the sense that most have accepted that he's not quite there yet.  Dave Dusek notes the fall-off in his work with the flat-stick:

Tiger Woods comes to Shinnecock Hills hoping to win his fourth U.S. Open, but he also arrives fresh off his worst putting performance of the season. At the Memorial, Woods missed five putts from 4 feet, 15 putts from inside 10 feet and he three-putted five times. Woods led the field in strokes gained approach-the-green average (2.791) and was third in strokes gained around-the green average (1.244), but his balky putter ruined any chance of winning a sixth time at Jack Nicklaus’ event. For the week, his strokes gained putting average was -1.924. 

Woods has played in eight PGA Tour events this season in which ShotLink captured data, and in four of them he had two or more three-putts. In the other four tournaments, he either did not three-putt or had just one. The chart below shows each of those events, along with Woods’ total strokes gained putting in that event.

Which reminds very strongly of the Tiger we saw post-2002 or so.  He can win when he putts well, but pretty much only then....

Udder Stuff - Luke Kerr-Dineen has an amusingly-crazy item in which he utilizes Venn diagrams to analyze the ingredients of a great major.  These crazy kids today....

So, graphic No.1 makes his case:

Got it, lots of Tiger, though the other two seem interchangeable....

But see what he thinks makes a bad major:

See that guy in yellow on the right?  That's Jack at The Masters in 1986, which apparently Luke found lacking in some manner.... Oh, and that's Phil in '04 above, which also wasn't half-bad as I recall, though Ernie was disappointed by the outcome.

Strange.....

This from Michael Johnson on the most underwhelming Open champions reminds of some really dubious champions:

1. Michael Campbell, 2005 

Leading up: Although fairly well known on the international circuits, the New

Zealander had little success on the PGA Tour, playing in 62 events with no wins and only six top-10s before Pinehurst. To make the Open field, Campbell needed to hole a six-foot birdie putt on his final hole of Sectional Qualifying. 

How he won: Campbell won the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 via good play of his own and collapses by others. Starting the day four behind Retief Goosen, Campbell managed a one-under-par 69 while the three other golfers in the final two pairings failed to break 80. 

Aftermath: Campbell’s win turned out to be his lone PGA Tour triumph and signaled a demarcation line in his career. From 2006-2013, he played in 37 PGA Tour events with just one top-10 performance. Take out 2006 and he played in 25 events, missing 18 cuts and withdrawing in one other. In 61 rounds over that span, he posted just one round in the 60s with 45 rounds of 75 or higher—11 of them in the 80s.

That was quite the ugly day of golf, as everyone tanked.  But I'm just relieved that my namesake was spared inclusion on the list.

Wasn't That a Time - Alex Myers rewatches the 2008 U.S. Open and offers up 33 things that we won't remember....  well, most of us won't:

1. At a stout 7,643 yards, Torrey Pines was actually THE LONGEST COURSE IN MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY. This point was driven home by the crews at

ESPN (Yes, Chris Berman was still covering U.S. Opens) and NBC. As was the fact that TORREY PINES IS A PUBLIC GOLF COURSE. Moving on … 

2. For the first two days, the USGA made a “Dream Pairing” of World No. 1 Tiger woods, World No. 2 Phil Mickelson and World No. 3 Adam Scott. At the 2018 U.S. Open, Woods will also be part of a top-two pairing. Only now it’s Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson, two players who had yet to win a PGA Tour title in 2008 (to be fair, JT was 15) but are now 1-2, while Woods is No. 80. A lot can change in 10 years, huh? 

3. With the entire golf world watching, Scott went with this argyle look on Day 1 and it was no big deal.

Thanks, Alex, for those two words that will help me cope with Joe Buck this week.  Which words?  Chris Berman..... Fun read with great photos.

No Soup For You - What is it with these kids?  Pistols at twenty paces, Alan:

Backstopping: Much ado about nothing or against the spirit of the game? -@IronForty 

To mark or not to mark, that is the question. And clearly Jimmy Walker is fortune's fool, but to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man on Twitter. Okay, I'll stop now. Honestly, I'm having a hard time caring about who does and doesn't backstop, but the surrounding debate is fascinating. I think a lot of players are just lazy and don't want to have to hustle to mark their ball. Some are utterly oblivious. Others, as Walker suggested, are happy to help out a pal. This is not keeping with the Rule 22 but it is within the spirit of the game: we help playing partners look for lost balls, show them the bottom of the club so they know which iron we hit on a par-3, watch each other's lines on the greens. It's a game of small courtesies. 

On the list of golf's ills, backstopping doesn't make my top 10. Maybe top 20. But it sure gets people fired up. After I retweeted Walker's screed, my phone started dinging like a Vegas slot machine with texts and DMs from players, caddies and one salty Tour wife, the latter offering an unusual analogy that I won't use on this family-friendly website.

A game of small courtesies?  And to think all this time I was under the misguided impression it was a game of honor.....

Let's consider Tony Finau's famous buried lie bunker shot....  The ball hits the pin and stops near the hole, rub of the green.

Ball hist the lip of the bunker removing speed and settles cozy to the hole, really lucky and also, clearly, rub of the green.

Last scenario:  Ball hits Jimmy Walker's ball, after Jimmy has asked Tony whether he wants it left on the green.  You lose the event to Tony by one stroke?  How do you feel?

Exactly....It's just obviously wrong to help a player, and the comparison to help a player look for a lost ball is just wrong and off-putting.  Sorry Alan, but it's the woodshed for you....