D2 THOMAS BOSWELL
When the ‘championship’ arrives, expect magnificence
boswell from D1
For example, after visiting here, the Congressional folks now know that next June, they will need 18 tractor trailers, all of them 53-footers. That doesn’t sound like an awful lot. “But that’s just to supply the merchandise tent,” Klinedinst said. That hints at U.S. Open scale.
Everything that’s for sale or on display, everything to eat or wear, is set much farther back from the actual golf course, preserving the beauty of a venue that has been deemed one of the dozen best in the country. From Congressional’s massive clubhouse, nothing commercial will be visible to those gazing down the water-guarded 18th hole — just the sweeping, tree-lined golf course and packed grandstands. But the USGA, golf ’s
governing body, also requires sites that have enormous grounds surrounding them, or entire extra golf courses onto which their extravaganza, designed to sell or celebrate every aspect of the game, can sprawl at will. If you wander at a U.S. Open, trying demo clubs, reading about golf courses of the future or buying your 17th towel for a friend, it’s guaranteed that, fairly soon, you’ll be so disoriented that you’ll say, “Where the hell is that 7,532-yard golf course? I’ve lost it.” Total morning-until-nightfall kingdom-of-golf immersion, all burnished and grandiose: That’s the Open’s goal. For Woods’s event, Congressional didn’t even need to contaminate an inch of its Gold Course, leaving it for members’ use. For the Open, nine holes of the Gold will be appropriated so that everything from driving ranges to parking lots will be allowed elbow room worthy of medieval munificence. The actual attendance of the Open is a poorly-kept secret — about 45,000 tickets. (The USGA lottery to buy tickets remains open at their Web site until June 30.) But what other event also requires 5,500 volunteers, including a dozen marshals for every player? The media needs quarters the size of a circus tent, but it barely constitutes a spec on an Open landscape that always includes a massive clubhouse — though none, perhaps, is quite as magnificent as the palace at Congressional. Sometimes, the USGA’s sense of self-importance can be galling. But give them one thing: They understand the difference between a golf tournament and a national championship. “Don’t ever call the Open a
‘tournament’!” said Brundred. “All the USGA staff, they drill that into everybody. It’s ‘championship,’ not ‘tournament.’ “Took me six months to get
that right,” muttered Klinedinst. “And it’s a ‘hole location,’ not a
‘pin’ location,” said Brundred. Yeah, yeah, and a “teeing ground,” not a “tee box.” Go on, laugh, please. But just as the Masters calls its fans “patrons,”
there’s a nice element of deliberate psych-out in this trivial verbal pretense. Golfers are often impressionable young men. The U.S. Open is supposed to make them shake in their soft spikes. So, why not use all the tricks? For example, if 18-year-old
Ryo Ishikawa, who shot a 58 on the Japanese Tour, is to win here at Pebble Beach, he will not only have to battle the rough and swift greens, but stand up to the distracting majesty of the Pacific Ocean and the enormous pavilions and tents villages that make an Open seem larger than life. The Open wants to “identify” the greatest golfer, not have some half-formed, partially-tested fellow as its king.
“If an 18-year-old wins here at
Pebble, we may have the longest rough you’ve ever seen next year at Congressional,” said Klinedinst, chuckling. Since Mike Jones took over responsibility for setting up Open layouts in ’06, after a couple of over-the-line embarrassments when luck trumped skill, the championship has switched to graduated rough, rather than hay, and the phrase “hard but fair” is even heard. Just as in ’97 when Ernie Els
edged Colin Montgomerie by one shot, Congressional promises a test where skill, not caprice, will be measured. The fluky Disaster Hole, like the 14th here at Pebble, which can distort a player’s whole week, is nonexistent at Congressional. Instead, almost every hole, except the par-5 sixth and 16th holes and the short par-four eighth hole, are far more likely to administer a string of bogeys than a birdie opportunity. “Just one hard par 4 after another,” Brundred said. “It’s brutal. But you’re not going to make an eight.” For many years, there was
debate about what sort of player was “selected” as champion by the Congressional layout, since both long hitters and shorter knockers with fabulous short games both seemed to succeed. Now, the verdict for ’11 has already arrived. “The game has changed. It will be a big hitter,” Brundred said. “To win the ’11 Open, you’ll have to hit it long, but in the fairway, and then putt well on greens where they want the stimpmeter to be 13.5 to 14.” To get their greens to that lightning speed, Congressional officials have actually had to reshape some of the greens, making slopes less severe. “Otherwise, you might just
putt the ball back and forth all day,” said Klinedinst. With U.S. Open nerves and Congressional grandeur in all directions, that may happen next June, anyway. At our national championship, anything can happen and always does. As you watch the last day at Pebble Beach, feel free to daydream. Subtract the Pacific Ocean, and that’s what’s coming to town. Only 361 days to wait.
boswellt@washpost.com
S
KLMNO GOLF
SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010
CHARLIE RIEDEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS “It’s extremely difficult,” said Graeme McDowell, who led after two rounds. “The golf course is very fair; 17 is borderline unfair, perhaps.” The hole that’s ‘nearly impossible’
Pebble Beach’s No. 17, a 208-yard par 3, befuddles world’s best
by Barry Svrluga
pebble beach, calif. —The most famous, most memorable shot ever played at Pebble Beach Golf Links came off the wedge of Tom Watson 28 years ago this weekend. He was battling Jack Nicklaus in the final round of the U.S. Open. His ball was down in some rough behind a green. He sized it up, got the face of the club on the ball, pitched it onto the green, and it rolled in the cup. How enduring is the image of
Watson running after that ball, celebrating? He can walk these grounds now, refer to it — as he did earlier this week — as “the lucky chip at 17,” and everyone knows what he means. Yet that memory, as cherished as it is, obscures the reality the 17th hole brings to this version of the Open. The seventh hole, a tiny par 3, is among the most pic- turesque in all of golf, and Satur- day it played at under 100 yards —the first such hole in Open his- tory. The seaside stretch of 8, 9 and 10 is among the best trio of par 4s in the game. The par-5 14th provides a nauseating ap- proach to a green that holds al- most nothing. But as Watson said, “17 is the critical shot on this golf course,” and it could go a long way toward deciding the 110th U.S. Open over the week- end. “It’s extremely difficult,” said
Graeme McDowell, who led the tournament at the midway point, but felt fortunate to play the 17th bogey-par. “The golf course is very fair; 17 is borderline unfair, perhaps. It’s one of the greatest holes in world golf, but I don’t really know how I can hit that back left portion of the green. It’s nearly impossible.” The setting: 208 yards on the scorecard to an oceanside green that is 32 yards deep from front to back, but essentially has two
a bogey at 17. “I’ve tried twice. Just over the bunker, you’ve got five yards where you can actually land the ball in the rough. If you get it within five yards of 220, you’re doing well. That’s the only way I can see you can hold the green.” Through two rounds of the Open, no hole had played more difficult, averaging more than a half a stroke over par (3.516 strokes, to be exact). But the more pertinent statistic might be the number of players who held the green. Through two rounds, the hole had been played 312 times. Tee shots held the green 61 times — or fewer than once in ev- ery five players. The next tough- est green to hold at Pebble was the 502-yard par-4 second, which more than one in three players reached in regulation. “Sometimes, you might have
1982 ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
Tom Watson reacts after his memorable chip on No. 17 that helped him clinch a win over Jack Nicklaus in the U.S. Open.
putting surfaces. If the pin is in the back left, as it was the first two rounds, leaving the tee shot on the more accessible front right is ill-advised, because the green pinches in — it looks some- thing like a snowman lying diag- onally — and it’s possible to be left with a long putt that has no direct line to the hole. That means players must play
at that back left flag — despite that portion of the green being only 18 yards deep, and it is pro- tected in the front by a deep bun- ker. The wind typically blows from right to left, but it often can’t be felt at the tee box, which is tucked inland. Factor in the terrain on the green — essen- tially a bowl, with a downslope in the front portion propelling shots that land there over the back edge into Watson’s rough — and the hole becomes stomach- turning. “That’s the smallest green to
hit that length of shot that we play in — well, I have to say in [all
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Blacksburg twins help break national mark The girls from Blacksburg (Va.)
High set a national high school record in winning the distance medley relay championship at New Balance Nationals on Satur- day.
Kathleen Stevens, Sarah Dor-
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rell, Hannah Brown and Joanna Stevens finished in 11 minutes 31.26 seconds on a warm evening in Greensboro, N.C., eclipsing the mark of 11:31.81 set at this meet in 2008. Warwick Valley (N.Y.), the previous record owner, was run- ner-up in 11:41.21. Blacksburg, which won the dis- tance medley Championship of America at Penn Relays with a meet record, was in fourth place during the first two legs of the race, but Brown, who was on the 800-meter third leg, made a pow- erful move that brought the Bru- ins into first. Joanna Stevens, Kathleen’s twin sister, sealed the history-making performance by running the final 1,600 meters to cheers in 4:48.14.
“I screamed. I couldn’t contain
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myself,” Joanna said. “Our names are on the record books.”
— Carl Little
PRO FOOTBALL Defensive lineman Richard
only from Comcast.
Seymour signed his $12.4 million exclusive franchise tag tender with the Oakland Raiders.
The move means all the Raid-
ers’ veterans are under contract for next season. The team an- nounced the signing on its Web site, adding that the process of signing rookies would begin soon.
By placing the tag on Seymour
in February, the Raiders guaran- teed Seymour a salary for next season of at least $12.398 million, which was the average salary earned last year by the five high- est-paid defensive ends in the league. The Raiders acquired Seymour
just before the start of last season by sending a 2011 first-round pick to New England. He was paid about $3.7 million last season.
CYCLING Cycling’s governing body will
perform tests at this year’s Tour de France to ensure that racers are not cheating by using motors hidden in their bicycle frames. The International Cycling
Union said in a statement that “a scanner will be used from the time of the Tour de France.” Re- cent speculation has focused on Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara, who denied he won Paris-Rou- baix and the Tour of Flanders this year with the help of a motorized bike. . . . Rui Da Costa of Portugal broke
GOLF
John Daly was four strokes off the lead after shooting a 1-under- par 69 in the third round of the Fort Smith (Ark.) Classic. Josh Broadaway (65) moved to the top of the leader board at the 6,873-yard Hardscrabble Country Club course. He led by one stroke at 11 under. Daly started well with birdies on the second and third holes and was within one stroke of the lead, but the two-time major champi- on bogeyed three of his final 12 holes. . . . South Korea’s M.J. Hur has the
lead after two rounds of the Sho- pRite LPGA Classic in Galloway Township, N.J., with comeback kid Paula Creamer right behind. Hur birdied the 18th hole for a
7-under 64 and one-stroke lead over Creamer heading into the fi- nal round of the $1.5 million tour- nament. The 20-year-old Hur had a 36- hole total of 11-under 202 in her quest for her second LPGA victo- ry. She won the Safeway event
away over the final six miles to win the eighth stage of the Tour of Switzerland. Robert Gesink of the Nether- lands maintained the race lead- er’s jersey, and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Arm- strong held seventh place, 55 sec- onds back. Sunday’s final stage is a time
trial.
last year. Creamer, who is playing for the
first time since having surgery on her left thumb in late March, had a second-round 65.
MISC. Carl Edwards swooped past Jacques Villeneuve on a restart with nine laps to go, then ran away from the field to win the NASCAR Nationwide series race in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Villeneuve made a wild charge to the lead with 12 laps to go. But another caution bunched up the field, allowing Edwards to make a decisive move. . . . Will Power won the pole for
the Iowa 250. Power gives Team Penske a rec-
ord seventh straight IndyCar pole position. Points leader Dario Franchitti, who won at Iowa in 2007 and 2009, will start fifth and Danica Patrick will start ninth. Justine Henin beat No. 7 An-
drea Petkovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to win the Unicef Open in Den Bosch, Netherlands for her first grass- court title in three years. . . . Undefeated freshman Matt
Purke limited Florida State to four singles and one unearned run over seven innings and Oma- ha newcomer TCU scored five times in the first inning on its way to an 8-1 win in the opening game of the College World Series. — From news services and staff reports
of] golf,” Watson said. “I mean, that green is much smaller than the ‘Postage Stamp’ [the famed eighth hole] at Troon, much smaller than that green. It’s a tiny, tiny little bowl thing. You land it short, you hit it on the downslope, and it goes right on over the bowl. It’s as tough a shot as you want. Just to get it on the surface there is a major achieve- ment.” The only way to do it: Hit the ball to the moon and land it soft. But because the hole plays longer than 200 yards, and the wind of- ten doesn’t help, players must somehow hit 3- and 4-irons that high. Others have chosen hy- brids. McDowell hit 3-iron through the green in the first round, 4-iron through the green in the second round. What to do? It’s baffling. “I don’t think I’ve got that
shot,” said two-time Open champ Ernie Els, who entered weekend play two shots behind McDowell, yet had made a double bogey and
to play to that front bunker,” Fairfax native Steve Marino said after a practice round earlier in the week. “That might be the best place to miss, because you have a chance to get up-and- down from there.” Marino’s first two results: bo-
gey-bogey. Other players, too, have suggested that playing toward the front bunker might be prudent. Indeed, nearly half of the players who found the sand — 61 of 123 — have saved their par. But asking the best golfers in the world to stand on the tee of a par 3 and aim toward a bunker is counterintuitive. “Talking to my caddie, front
bunker is the leave,” McDowell said. “But you go down there and hit a golf shot, you’re not going to lay it up in the front bunker.” Saturday, the United States
Golf Association offered the field a different pin, this one in the front right portion of the green. It was far more accessible. That almost certainly won’t be the case during Sunday’s final round. Expect the hole to be tucked back in the left. Expect the field to struggle with it. And expect the tournament to turn, right there. “It’s a bit unfair,” McDowell said. “But it’s a pretty spectacular hole.”
svrlugab@washpost.com
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