Category Archives: tournaments

2023 U. S. Open Preview

Winner: Wyndham Clark (-10) over Rory McIlroy (-9)

The U.S. Open, my lifelong favorite tournament, will be played this week at the Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course. It is a George Thomas design from 1921 that is routinely included in the top 20 of the rankings of American golf courses.

Thomas also designed the Bel Air CC and the Riviera CC, both in Los Angeles, along with a number of other well-known course in Southern California. This one, though is his masterpiece.

Watch the flyover of every hole from Golf Digest, and the corresponding flyover from the USGA.

Then listen to Gil Hanse being interviewed about his restoration and comments on how the course will play for the pros this week. You won’t miss much by starting the interview at the 17:00 minute mark.

This rather crowded overhead below of the entire course indicates its routing, which will help you make your way around a far less crowded Google Maps overhead. Note the Playboy Mansion next to the 14th tee.





Below is the much-photographed 11th green, the hole being a 290-yard par 3. The green is 40 feet below the level of the tee. Good luck.


Just to mention, the 15th hole, also a par 3, might play at 90 yards on one day. That won’t make it any easier to get par, especially if the pin is in the very narrow tongue of green at the front. (You really need to watch the flyovers.)

The 6th hole will be drivable par 4, but you have to hit a blind tee shot to a narrow green. (So watch the flyovers already!)

After all the recent hoo-hah around the PGA/LIV merger, we need a major tournament at a course like we have never seen before to take our mind off it. I hope the drama of competition matches the reputation and stature of the course.

I want to end this brief preview by telling you a personal story. I have known about this course, and how fine it is, for a long time. In all that time I wished there could be a U.S. Open there so I could see the course in detail, but the membership was not interested. However in 2015, the USGA announced that the course had agreed to host the Open in 2023.

2015 was the same year my cancer was discovered and in 2016 it was found that I had gotten one that had no cure and a five-year survival rate of around 50%. I couldn’t count on being alive in 2023.

But here I still am, and I think I’ll make it through this weekend. Actually I am doing very well and look forward to a good number of years more, especially with the advances in treatment for my disease.

The motto of my blog is “Little things that make a big difference.” I could modify that to say that my being able to see the U.S. Open at the LACC is a little thing that means a lot.

The Six Most Important Shots at Augusta

Jack Nicklaus was quoted in GolfWRX today about what he thinks are the six most important shots at Augusta. These are the ones you really have to pay attention to and know how to hit. Not to mention the catty remark about the rest of the course.

“Everybody knows Augusta pretty much, there’s [sic] about six shots at Augusta that you better pay attention to.

“Your tee shot at two, your second shot at 11, tee shot at 12, your tee shot at 13 and the second shot at 13, and the second shot at 15.

“I don’t think 16 – that doesn’t bother me, I don’t think I’ve ever hit it in the water there.

“So those six shots, if you play those shots smart, play them intelligently, and put them in the conservative side of the ledger, the rest of the golf course is not very hard.”

Elsewhere, one of the old guard is worried about the camaraderie or lack of it at this year’s Past Champions dinner. We know Greg Norman won’t be there, so it should go just fine.

The only thing I think of that could go wrong is that there would be nothing on the menu that noted rural Florida epicure Bubba Watson is willing to eat. Fix him a bowl of Cheerios.

2023 Masters Preview

Winner: John Rahm (-12) over both Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka at (-8)

Just in case you just arrived from another planet, let me tell you that it’s Masters week again.

Will Scottie defend? Will Rory complete the career Slam? Will a LIV golfer win? Will Jim Nantz take sappiness new heights? (“And that will live on as a putt for the ages” “Jim, it was just a one-footer for a bogey.”)

Will Tiger make the cut, and if he does, will he be granted the use of a cart to finish the final two rounds because after the first two he can barely walk?

Answers: No, no, no, yes, yes, and no but yes.

How can you not watch?

Oh, yes. Here’s the recently revealed real story of why Gary McCord got bounced from the Masters announcing team.

Gosh, I love this tournament. So do lots of other people.

The Masters seems to be a religious experience for so many golf fans. I really don’t know why that is, though I can guess.

Of all the majors championships, this is the only one played on the same course year after year. As such, it has become so familiar that I’ll bet you can close your eye and think “6” and an accurate image of the sixth hole comes immediately to mind. Same for all the other holes. Could you do that for TPC Sawgrass, which you have also seen every year for years?

And, it is no doubt the most beautiful course we see on TV all year. These things make it special.

It does have tradition, created by its ties to Bobby Jones.

All of this makes many people put it at number 1 in the ranking of the four majors.

(As for the beauty thing, though, here’s a photograph of Augusta National in the summer.)


But is it the greatest major? Well… It’s not the championship of anything, but rather a high-class invitational. It has the smallest and some observers would say the weakest field.

Two former champions with nine Masters titles between them offered a different opinion last week, though. Both Jack Nickluas and Gary Player rank it fourth among the four modern majors.

Nicklaus because “it’s not meant to be ahead of those others” and “I’d put the Masters No. 1 as far to play in and enjoy doing that kind of stuff. But as far as importance of the game, and being American, the U.S. Open is No. 1.”

Player said, “It’s the youngest of the majors. The others are steeped in tradition and history… . Nothing comes to the top without time.”

And then Player said, “If it wasn’t [sic] for the players, [Augusta] would just be another golf course in Georgia.”

Them’s fightin’ words, Gary.

The course membership, desperately trying to keep its course relevant, has Augusta National playing to 7,545 yards this year. The major change is the 13th hole, which was lengthened by 35 yards from last year thanks to the purchase of land several years ago from the neighboring Augusta Country Club.

It got to be so that if you didn’t get a 4 on this hole you had lost a stroke to the field. This year, a 5 will be a good score, and you might see more than a few 7’s.

Here are the current hole yardages compared to the original 1933 yardages.

Front:
1933: 400-525-350-190-435-180-340-500-420
2023: 445-575-350-240-495-180-450-570-460

Back:
1933: 430-415-150-480-425-485-145-400-420 — 6,690
2023: 495-520-155-545-440-550-170-440-465 — 7,545

Now here’s a real treat for you. In 1959, Sports Illustrated published an article by Bobby Jones on the golf course. Following about a 1,000-word essay on the course, each hole is presented with an attractive schematic drawing and Jones’s description of how the hole should be played.

You will read how Augusta was designed to be played, until it had to be defended from the modern long ball beginning with Tiger Woods over twenty years ago.

How to find that article in just a moment.

Where’s what it says about the thirteenth, then playing at 475 yards:

“We call 13 a par 5 because under certain conditions of wind and ground few players will risk trying for the green with a second shot. In my opinion this 13th hole is one of the finest holes for competitive play I have ever seen. The player is first tempted to dare the creek on his tee shot by playing in close to the corner, because if he attains this position he not only shortened the hole but obtained a more level lie for this second shot. Driving out to the right not only increases the length of the second but encounters an annoying sidehill lie.

“Whatever position may be reached with the tee shot, the second shot as well entails a momentous decision whether or not to try for the green. With the pin far back on the right, under normal weather conditions this is a very good eagle hole, because the contours of the green tend to run the second shot close. The danger is that the ball will follow the creek, and the most difficult pin locations are along this creek in the forward part of the green.

“Several tournaments have been won or lost here, even though the decision may not have been obvious at the time.”

We’ll see if the added yardage makes that much of a difference.

Update: It did. Lots of players laid up with their second shot to pitch on with their third.

To get to the article from the linked page, click the GALLERY button on the lower left and scroll using the arrow button on the right until you get to page 44 of 104 (extreme lower left).

Please have fun with this 54-year-old magazine. Other highlights are:

Jimmy Jemail’s HOT BOX on page 8.

The Triumph TR-3 advertisement on page 14 (only $2675).

Page 56 shows a picture of Ted Williams and rookie Pumpsie Green, the first Black player for the Boston Red Sox, the last team the major leagues to integrate.

Chapter 2 of Tommy Armour’s new book, “A Round of Golf With Tommy Armour” starts on page 79.

And articles on horse racing, yachting, bridge, and trout fishing. SI was a very upper-class East Coast magazine back then.

The Masters was a different tournament back then, too.

My Day With the LPGA

I went to the Amazingcre Portland Classic yesterday. It is the oldest continuous tournament on the LPGA circuit, having begun in 1972. These are my impressions.

First of all, these ladies are good. Really good. Remember the last time you went to the range and hit one really good shot, the best you can do?

I watched them warm up, and the shot they hit is better than your best shot and they hit it every time. That good.

It looks on TV like they all swing the same way, but from up close, and we got really close on the tees, they are all different. Some swing smoothly throughout. Some give it a little oomph just before impact, some just wind up and whack it. But you know? The oomphers and whackers are gals you haven’t heard of and likely never will–a word to the wise.

Nelly Korda. I watched her warm up. The rhythm, calmness, and grace of her swing was breathtaking. It is something that doesn’t show up on TV. You have to see it in person to understand it.

On a 546-yard hole, she waited for the green to clear before she hit her second. A woman next to me in the gallery had a laser range finder and measured Korda’s shot. Asked her, “What did you get?” and she said, “267”. Sure enough, Korda hit the ball just a few yards short of the green. She chipped on from about 60 feet to three feet and sank the putt for an easy birdie.

Overall she played very well from tee to green. Her approach shots left her with one makeable birdie putt after another, but they wouldn’t go in. One frustrated gallery member commented, “She should be 12 under by now!”

The problem is that the greens on this course look pretty flat, but they aren’t. I was watching lip-outs all day.

Coming down the 18th fairway, following the Georgia Hall group, there was a head cover lying the rough. I picked it up and found that came off one of her clubs. I gave it to her caddy, and while she was hitting, he gave me a ball from her bag!

In the morning, it was very quiet. Not many people had shown up yet. Often my buddy and I were the entire gallery.

We followed Anne van Dam for a while, because she hits it a ton. Then we followed Leona McGuire for a few holes, but she wasn’t having her best day and ended up missing the cut.

We also followed Christina Kim for a few holes. She has slimmed down, and isn’t really that big to begin with. She wasn’t doing her silly thing, but had a doing business face on the whole time and played well.

It used to be that we would see fairway, fairway, fairway off the tee, but these gals are hitting it so hard and so far now, that the misses are starting to show up. Still, lots of fairways get hit.

Slow play has been mentioned as a problem on the LPGA Tour, but I didn’t see any of that. Everyone was ready to play when it was their turn. One the green, they tended to take one look, stand up, and hit their putt. Of course, you can do some of your green-reading ahead of the time.

I only saw one player who was using the Aimpoint method, along with her caddy. She missed a ~20-footer about a foot to the left. Aimpoint is a gimmick, in my book.

One thing is clear above all. Like I said, everyone out there is really good. But a shot here and a shot there, just that much, is what separates the stars from the weekly grinders from the ones who just aren’t good enough.

Go see an LPGA tournament if there is one near where you live. Unlike the men’s game, the ladies’ game is similar enough to yours that you can understand it, and be inspired by it.

2021 U.S. Open – 4th Round

Winner: John Rahm (-6) by one stroke over Louis Oosthuizen

The fourth round of golf’s premier tournament looks like it will be the best one in years.

Thirteen golfers are close enough to win as the round starts. Five of them are previous major winners (Oosthuizen, McIlroy, DeChambeau, Johnson, and Morikawa) and two others (Rahm and Schauffele) are in the brink.

If I were one of the leaders at -5 (Hughes, Oosthuizen, and Henley) I would force everybody else to take chances to catch me by my shooting for the center of the green, playing for pars all day, and taking birdies when they come.

-7 wins.

Don’t miss this one.

U. S. Women’s Open – 2021

Winner: Yuka Saso in a three-hole playoff against Nasa Hataoka
Lexi Thompson was five over par on the back nine to miss the playoff by one shot.

The U.S. Women’s Open will be played at the Olympic Country Club this weekend. See my preview of the 2012 U.S. Open for course details. There is also a link to a hole-by-hole description of the course, by Ken Venturi, on that page.

You should see Sports Illustrated’s preview of the 1966 U.S. Open at Olympic. The table-top models of its key holes are a work of art.

Here’s a fact sheet about the history of the course.

And this is the link to the USGA’s official site for the tournament.

Just to get ahead of the first two links, the course has doglegs on which the fairway slopes away from the bend, it has small, no, tiny greens, and there is the wind coming off of the ocean nearby.

And there is no first cut off the fairway. Off the fairway, you’re in the deep stuff, period.

The hardest part of the course comes early. Anybody who plays holes 2-5 in even par has stolen strokes from the field.

Here’s the take from LPGA veteran Angela Stanford.

Shooting par for the four days will be no mean feat.

You have to watch.

A Unique Masters

There were many things about this year’s Masters that made it unique. Start with it being played in November.

This Golf Digest article gives you 18 more reasons why this was a Masters to remember.

I will add, that without spectators, we got to see the entire course in a new way–where holes are in relation to each other, where tees are in relate to the preceding green, like we never have before and will never see again.

Unless you can angle an invitation to play there. Good luck.

2020 Masters Preview

Winner: Dustin Johnson by five shots over Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im .

Before a major championship, I introduce the tournament, who I think will win, put in a bit of history, and all that. Not this year.

This year the message is different. This year might be the beginning of the end of The Masters at Augusta.

I got this off Alex Miceli’s The Morning Read a few days ago:

“Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…According to Carl Paulson, co-host of “Inside the Ropes” on SiriusXm PGA Tour Radio, DeChambeau teed it up last week with Sandy Lyle, the 1988 Masters champion, and the reports from Lyle were ‘jaw-dropping.’

“Here’s a recap, per Paulson via Lyle, of what DeChambeau hit into some of the holes”

No. 1 (Par 4, 445 yards): Sand wedge
No. 2 (Par 5, 575 yards): 8-iron
No. 3 (Par 4, 350 yards): Flew the green with 3-wood off the tee
No. 8 (Par 5, 570 yards): 7-iron
No. 9 (Par 4, 460 yards): Sand wedge
No. 10 (Par 4, 495 yards): Pitching wedge
No. 11 (Par 4, 505 yards): 9-iron
No. 13 (Par 5, 510 yards): 7-iron (hit 3-wood off tee)
No. 15 (Par 5, 530 yards): 9-iron
No. 17 (Par 4, 440 yards): Sand wedge”

And here is what Miceli said on today’s TMR.

Six years ago I posted in this space that the distance the pros were starting to hit the ball could make Augusta obsolete in a few years. That time might have arrived.

Bryson dismantled Winged Foot. We’ll see if he does the same thing to Augusta, which was no rough to speak of.

And then, since there is only one course on which The Masters and be played, and in, say, five years it cannot stand up to just being run over, what then?

If this year is the beginning of the end of The Masters at Augusta, is it also the beginning of the end of The Masters?

U.S. Open Preview 2020

Winner: Bryon DeChambeau by six shots over Matthew Wolff.

This week’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot in New York is just the tonic for this golfer. When I was a young golfer I imprinted on this tournament, sometimes called the National Open back then.

It was the greatest tournament in the world. “U.S. Open champion” was the greatest title to hold. The Masters was still a springtime novelty, the British Open hadn’t been discovered in this country, and the PGA was something of a head-scratcher.

Winged Foot is where Bobby Jones sank an impossible downhill breaking 12-foot putt in 1929 after having lost a commanding lead in the final round, to tie Al Espinosa and win the next day in a playoff. Jones said later that if he had missed he would have given up competitive golf. Today the members will challenge you to hit that putt. You can’t sink it.

Then there was the Massacre at Winged Foot, where the USGA got its revenge in 1974 for Johnny Miller shooting a 63 in the final round to win at Oakmont a year earlier. Hale Irwin won at seven over par.

It was the site of the most famous fonebone in recent U.S. Open history as Phil Mickelson had the trophy in his pocket on the 72nd tee and made a double bogey to lose by one to Geoff Ogilvie. Let’s not forget Colin Montgomery, who took four to get down from the fairway on the same hole also to lose by one.

Here are a few sites you might want to go to to get an idea of what the pros are up against this week. It ain’t pretty.

Official web site

Every hole at Winged Foot West

Seven important shots at Winged Foot

Playing the drivable par-4 sixth hole.

Bryson is going to bomb it.

Players comment on the course.

I think the course will produce a winner who follows what used to be U.S. Open formula–hit straight off the tee and putt the lights out. It should be fun to watch.

[Note: DeChambeau hit only 23 of 56 fairways, a U.S. Open records. So much for hitting straight off the tee.]