Personally i’m looking forward to Pinehurst, as long as they don’t “groom” the sandy wastelands and let the native grasses grow up through the sand then it should be very different and won’t be easy for the players
Interesting footage of the 1955 US Open at Olympic if you can bear the iphone putting ap ad 
http://www.golf.com/video/highlights-jeck-flecks-upset-ben-hogan-1955-us-open
Fleck’s swing look pretty darn good and check out the rough Hogan is in on the left of 18 (the legendary foot slip incident I believe) in the playoff at 1:35.
Cheers, G
Don’t have to worry about Congressional 2.0, not like you had to at the Big O anyway. So far I’m impressed all the way around with that crazy mean old bitch and I told ya’ll you weren’t gonna miss those stupid Xmas trees. Count one tree snausage for Phil already, main course to follow. Those trees eat balls like Americans eat McDonald’s.
Here are a few more pics
More shots
Bradley and I working Olympic a while back with persimmon and blades. I remember us both flushing 3 iron approach shots into #2 and both coming up short of the green after hitting solid drives.
Nice to see a few trees left on the course and some rough.
One of the commentators mentioned that the rough looked like old school US Open rough. Odd that rough would be labeled like that. Why not just keep US Open rough coming every year? Last year looks pretty silly. Needs an asterisk even in the modern era.
Doesn’t seem the bomb and gouge version of golf is going to fair so well. Two of the best B@Gers not having such a good go at it so far.
This is phenomenal. But the real question is… Is it as good as Lincoln Park now, the Jewel 
of the Peninsula?
Lincoln has better par 3’s, I think most who know both courses would agree.
Well its got like twelve of em doesn’t it like Pasatiempo? Jesus Christ I just compared my favorite course to a 3 foot long dump muni populated by every Asian tourist currently on the continent, one uberspectacular view and about three strands of Brown grass.
To be honest I’m completely and totally stunned that in all this time you never once mentioned De La Viega. I’ve been waiting for pushing three years, maybe you just keep it on the private forum because I know that’s your Valhalla. Its three inches wide, 6000 yds, it sucks and if you trip in the middle of the fairway you fall down a 100 foot chasm you can’t see and would have no clue was ever there. You know that’s your perfect golf course right?
Any thoughts on the US Open today?
Lots of A lister’s shooting 6 over. Put a little rough out there and a few trees forcing a bit of precision off the tee and we see some high scores. Scoring would be worse if the greens were still poa.
Maybe they learned something from the Canadian Open. They’ll probably hack down the rough to ease it up for them on Friday.
Driver 5 iron into #17 is playing like another par 4. #1 is usually a five par also. So we really have a par 69.
An email from a fellow pro noticed:
Only 33 players out of 156 are better than 50% off the tee, fairways hit.
I see the photos but were you really there? You couldn’t hold the fairway when it was a swamp let alone like this, the whole track is the side of that hill. The place is sideways dude. And as close to perfect as Olympic could possibly be. Even with the crap balls and everything this is gonna be best Open in 20 years at least. I’m thinking about going down this weekend and paying the scalpers its so good. Maybe I’ll see you picketing to put the Xmas trees back. I’ll be the one wearing the Bob Cousy jersey, holla.
My guess is the USGA has a target score in mind they want to see… so they will adjust the conditions as the week goes on. After last year’s debacle, now they want to go back to a traditional US Open set up for 4 days?
In the USGA events I played in, and from viewing many US Opens from the past, the course would always get tougher as the week went on. The rough got longer, the greens firmer and scores would rise like bread dough. I see the USGA as far too conservative to just let the course play as it should. They’ll be manipulating every day and everything they can. Terrible seeing all those belly putters out there on such a traditional course… but it’s their tournament to do as they please.
That track is traditional in the same way TS Eliot was traditional when he was killing himself with absinthe in Paris talking to the wallpaper. That place is just as crazy, how many other courses make you hit everything totally backwards? You know what would be PERFECT right now? More stories about the Fort & San Joaquin from the mayor of Burlingame. Good to know that more putts go in on brand new bent than poa too, I never realized that before.
When the poa starts to flower in the afternoon, it’s tougher for guys to make putts who have the backside of the draw… at least when there was a bit of grass on the greens. You need a little loft on the putter to get the ball out of the depression.
What other grass is easier to putt on than pure bent? No grain… doesn’t grow as fast.
While a lot of the trees are gone… and that is making it much easier…you used to be dead on any of those classic Bay Area tracks when you were in their shadows, there are still sidehill lies and smaller properly bunkered greens to deal with… and certainly more rough than last years Congressional Classic. Olympic will still be a ball strikers course compared to a typical PGA tour birdie fest.
14-year-old Andy Zhang gets a rude introduction to the U.S. Open
sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devi … -golf.html
Nowadays, a 14 year old can learn to hit it long, but not necessarily have the maturity to play a course like Olympic. Obviously you can’t just tee it up… swing as hard as you want and expect good results too often. There is a difference between playing well at Olympic and making it through a qualifying on a different golf course(s).
Finally enjoying watching golf again. This is great watching them go through some hardship for once. Is it me or do a majority appear to have reactions of spoiled silver-spoon brats used to not having to think and/or work for scores? Too used to just being on automatic and best putter for weekend wins? Today let me pick out some favorites just by who took their lumps and grinded. Furyk, woods, fowler really picked it apart in small pieces.
Tv must not show depth very good. fairways must really be on sloped and uneven ground. There seemed to be a lot of miss hits on approach even after good drives to fairway. I mean I expect rory, at this point, to be missing greens with wedge shots from fairway but today they all were doing it. Some were hitting into free side bunker even after just seeing playing partner do it. So tough course. I bet I would shoot 200 there. Lol
Woods wins this. The answer of if he could carry over his confidence and striking from Memorial is, yes. Thompson will not hold that lead as he putted lights out today. Woods Wins or will be in contention come Sunday. Can’t see him collapsing. Next month, sure…
Also watching Woods with his just unnatural looking new swing and follow through really makes me miss his 2000 version. Watching YouTube vids now. He was a smooth thoughtless machine back then, driving steel shaft driver 300y. Now, yes he looks good at times, but at this point I am pretty sure swing method has nothing to do with it. It also feels like he could lose his feel at any moment and collapse like he did at the Masters.
There is nothing impossible about Olympic. If you drive the ball into the correct side of the fairway, it opens up your shot into the green. If you hit a proper iron shot, you can keep the ball under the hole most of the day. Local knowledge helps for sure… as any great course should offer. Micheal Allen should be around on Sunday… even with the belly putter.
I was a little worried about the reports of the rough been fairly thin and sparse, but seeing the firmness of the fairways and greens today i think the rough is about right. If the rough was like it was at the Canadian Open, no one would break 80!
The pros today shouldn’t be in the rough.
When I play a golf course, I look down the fairway and assess the situation ahead. If there is trouble left and right, I will back down to a club that I feel I can get into the fairway 95% of the time. Most holes will have a favorable side to miss… so if I hit driver it shapes toward that direction. I can’t imagine going out to a golf course thinking that I will just swing hard and hope 50% of my drives find short grass, and that I will play confident golf from 7 missed fairways. I should expect 3 or 4 bogeys at best playing those percentages off the tee even with good recovery skills.
Professional golf should be excellent. If the world’s top 5 players average 5 over on an opening day of a national championship… well, to me it shows the state of the game, what the game is breeding, and the level of their competency for positioning the golf ball from tee to green.
I hope we see some better golf this week.
more tight pins for friday - hope todays action is as good as yesterdays - hoping Sergio goes well, though his putting will surely let him down if he gets into contention
