Hacking at Oakmont
 

The U.S. Open is my favorite sporting event. Racing can't compare, not even close. These guys have real talent.

This course appears to be a monster, despite yanking 5000+ trees out. If you haven't heard, I'm sure Johnny Miller will tell you all about it and his 63 in '73 this weekend if you tune in. :rolleyes: He's an icon there now. Pure Poa greens...... man.

La Tigra looks to be in the deep grass crouching, I hope that it stays that way. Hopefully he'll cruise to an 80 or 81 tomorrow. It sure was nice to see Cabrera birde 18 to knock Phildo out, along with all the other +11 duffers.

Has anyone here played Oakmont?

I love the game of golf, and am rather proud to say that my last round was -2, which was last fall. I only play 3-4 times a year, but yet still hooked. Haven't teed it up this year, yet.

Tiger's out, who wants who?

Any discussion of golf that involved scores is not my cup of tea. Lets focus on what really counts: Drunken vandalism with the cart.

I get my moneys worth when I am on the Golf Course. I get to hit the ball a lot of times...and get to chase it from one side of the course to the other. On courses that I have played fairly often I get to know all the trees on a first name basis.

-2 and only play 2-3 times a year. With that kind of talent you could play the tour and make couple of mil a year. Miller's 63 at Oakmont may be the best round of golf ever played. Remember it was on a Sunday, the US Open, and at Oakmont and has so far stood the test of time - 34 years. I am not big on miller and his mouth but he could play. I would not count tiger out just yet.

HIstorically, if Tiger's not leading or tied for the lead after Saturday's round, he wont win. He needs to jump over 12 other players and make up 5 shots today to get the lead.

Too bad Lefty has a bad wrist and missed the cut. Els, Janzen, Lefty, Furyk, Vijay, and the rest of the big names are scuffling.

Even par will win it.

Just back from two 12 hour days at Oakmont, rough is long 5"(+) and greens are lightning fast and will only get faster w/ no rain in sight.

I was at Oakmont on Thursday, the fairways are like greens, the rough is luscious, thick and on steroids, and the greens like marble top counters...... just unreal. These conditions just make the pro's whine and cry for a week. I just can't stand Phil complain that the course is to blame for his pain.

Ed

MisterB, I think I saw you there, didn't you have a 107th Oakmont baseball cap on??

Friday morning while I was there, it took me 20 minutes to get over the spectator bridge, what a bottleneck, fortunately everyone was calm and in a good mood. Oakmont is a pretty *****ty spectator course, from my perspective, hard to get around and some of the green views are from quite a distance. We did enjoy it though, now to watch today and tomorrow on the TV, great to have been there and seen those greens in person.

Tiger just cranked it w/ driver off the 1st tee. Fairways are very narrow and a lot of guys are hitting irons off the long par fours, leaving 180yd+ to some of the greens. Tough track!

Love golf but it does not take any courage to walk 18 holes... ;-)

Both Tiger and Hamilton are geniuses in their respective sports.

Remember, Hemingway once said " there are only two sports in the world, Bullfighting and Motorracing, the rest are just games."

180 is just an 8 iron, or an easy 7. However, 7200 yards is quite long for a par 70. I do like that the par 5's are only reachable by the extremely long knockers. I don't think I could get home in two on twelve unless a hurricane was at my back. TV doesn't do the greens justice, or so I understand.

Well, ***** for that matter, it doesn't take courage to play many sports but it (golf) does take heart, stamina and great skill. Golf is better than fencing.

Hemingway was a good writer but I have known some gentlemen who would make him look like Casper Milktoast.

Think back on Ben Hogan coming back from a serious automobile accident, told he would never walk again. He won a major the following year.

Motor racing is not a sport in my book, it is simply an expensive pastime, most of the time, the one with the most money wins, not the case w/golf.

If golf isn't a sport, then there is no such thing as a sport. No other activity in the world uses more muscles as the human body does in a single swing of the golf club, if done properly. It's also very challenging mentally. It's a game of inches, where the few between your temples matter the most.

My prediction on Eldrick is going so well!:mad:

Is that really true? I wonder what the stats are for that. It seems like if he's at least within striking distance after Saturday (particularly if he's in the last group), he wins often. But I don't know the actual numbers.

I agree, if golf isn't a sport, there's no such thing as a sport.

Motor racing is a sport, but not a very pure one, in fact it's probably the least pure of all sports. Hard to think of other sports where winning is so heavily dependent on the equipment and the rules, instead of the athlete.

And as far as Hemingway's other "sport," I don't really count cruelty to animals in a rigged "game" a sport.

It was actually three. He included mountain climbing as well.

The modern punk-ass equivilent is "if you can't die, it's not a sport", seen embazoned accross "extreme sports" fans' tee shirts around the world.

Hemmingway was right. The modern punks are right. It used to be "sport" entailed some risk to life and limb.

I find golf about as exciting as I find baseball. I find baseball about as exciting as I find watching grass grow. Neither qualifies as "sport".

I assume you mean you find watching golf and watching baseball as exciting as you find watching grass grow.

golf,


a good waste of earth.

Bow hunting moose... now there is a sport.

I like golf, tried playing it and I suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck... took lessons and everything.

I can't hear you over the whine of a V8 at 19K rpm...

I would pay $1,000 of my own cash

to ride my kx250 HARD on a decent golf course while guys are getting ready to play.

I wonder how much the dvds would sell for

+1

It would probably sell out, then the money would talk.
Episode 1: Jim Brenner with a KX 250 shoved up the arse.

Episode 2: Jim's yard, a few duffers and a couple wedges.

Episode 3: An S300 broken off.

wow, lighten up golf-whiz. Your name Francis by any chance?

Can't fathom ever doing it. I'll play putt-putt golf occasionally and I've gone to a driving range once or twice just to get some aggression out, but it's still not nearly as good as the batting cages.

George Carlin said it best, "watching golf on TV is about as exciting as watching flies f*ck".

Last name, we met, yes.

Sorry, I get a bad attitude when the spoken word, or a threat is directed toward a golf course. It's the jealousy that I can't comprehend.

I actually like playing golf, and could shoot in the 70's back in grad school (when I should have been at the lab bench instead of at Brookside). And carts are evil...I always walked the course. Except for stunts.

That being said, from an impartial 3rd party standpoint, it is a ridiculous game, and taking a look at guys like Daly and Stadler make it hard to say "golf" and "athlete" in the same sentence with a straight face. It is one of the most difficult games in the world though...

I don't think it is jealousy. Golf is a silly game. I like it a lot, but still a silly game. And some of the people who play it are raging pricks. I've run into some of the biggest jerks in the world on the golf course. Some great ones too. Like any hobby.

And golf courses are generally pretty bad for the environment. Except for Bushwood...

:D

rotflmao

I spent way too much time as a little kid following my dad around a golf course. He was pretty good, I guess, winning some local tournements and such. Didn't matter to me at the time; I simply learned to hate the game. The only real benefit was I learned to cuss way better than the rest of my eight year old contemporaries. They thought I was pretty cool.

I think I'll watch "CADDY SHACK" today

I used to play a lot of golf...in flight school I would dip in the very high 70's once a month or so, course dependent.

I play maybe three times a year now, almost always a best ball drink-ex. (My old office hosts the annual Bedroom Invitational for the coveted plaid jacket.)

That said, the only golf I can stand to watch on TV is the last day and the final few hours of a major only if it is close. I love the pressure.

When I was throwing down with the jr.s back in the late 80's early 90's the Kuene family was huge in Dallas. They had all the tools. I played one round with Hank where I should have had his dad removed from the course. He was coaching him, it didn't matter though, my 1 iron quieted his driver. He (Ernie) is a dick, plain and simple, much like tigers dad was. Trip must be the milk mans boys, he's alright.

My dad taught me etiquette, I learned the rest on my own.

There's a$$hats any place you go in life as evidenced by some of the dickheads here, just something one has to accept in life.

I'll watch the Open today. I always watch the majors. I have enjoyed golf my entire life and always will. Those that don't appreciate the game, that is fine. There are games I'm not into as well.

To me, golf is a character builder. Played many a round with customers and friends over the years, there is much to be learned about a person from the way one behaves on the course, nothing to do with what they shoot.

People that don't like the game, that's fine with me. We're all probably better off w/o them on the course.

Many times I think you're actually trying to make me vomit. :)

One reason I choose not to play is because of said a$$hats. If I'm one of them, then I can only help the pace of play by not engaging.

I hate to admit, but La Tigra has it to lose. Aaron Baddeley will most likely fold like a cheap suit. Maybe some of the players at 215-216 can fire nice rounds.

Been watching for an hour now and haven't seen the fairway yet.

I thought you said you wanted to lose weight. I'm just trying to help...

What a great championship! La Tigra lost it just like I envisioned. I guess he's pretty much done now, might as well enjoy retirement at 32. Stick a fork in him.

I love the game of golf and I am a fair player myself having a USGA index of 15.6. I find the majors to be fantastic events and I love to watch. My only beef is that they’re played at places which IMHO are never (with few or 1 exception) really accessible to the public. In the US Open’s case I would hardly call it open.

My mother is a very fine golfer, extreme low handicapper, and we were discussing Oakmont. She’s played some fine courses around the world and I asked if she’s played there. “yea sure Jewish woman are allowed to play there all the time”

Remember one time I was with some buds, four-wheeling through the woods in my Bronco. We were in some uncharted territory but keeping a good pace. We chanced upon a nicely-finished trail and figured 'why not' and followed it. Well it seems that path was a maintenance road for a golf course.

Cruising along at a good clip, we suddenly burst onto the green of a hole at the local private country club. I slammed on the brakes in horror and stopped. The recent rain had left the green soggy, and we plowed some nice deep muddy grooves into the turf.

A golf ball dropped from the sky near the green. "Plop". It sounded like a cannonball. We looked up to see a group of very irate duffers alternately regarding us, and their golf clubs. It seems they had all thought of a new use for their irons. I pulled the wheel hard left, pulled a muddy 180' doughnut, and sped off into the woods. I cannot remember when we stopped laughing.

How'd you do on the back nine?