The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Mickelson withstands endurance test to seize Open lead
- Storm could dampen thrill of Open’s top-three group
- Basket cases added as markers for Merion challenge
| Mickelson withstands endurance test to seize Open lead Posted: 13 Jun 2013 04:13 PM PDT ARDMORE, Pennsylvania: Phil Mickelson played the first round of the US Open on Thursday at Merion on only three hours of sleep after a cross-country flight so he could see daughter Amanda's eighth-grade graduation. Battling exhaustion and a formidable course, Mickelson fired a three-under par 67 - his lowest US Open first round since 1999 - to seize the early lead at a long-sought major where he has settled for second a record five times. "Yeah, it might be abnormal, but it actually worked out really well," said Mickelson. "I got all my work done on Merion when I was here a week and a half ago. I knew exactly how I wanted to play the golf course." Mickelson, an American left-hander who turns 43 on Sunday and the clear fan favorite in cheers, departed Merion on Monday for his Southern California home and spent two days sharpening his game on his personal practice area. "I didn't feel I needed more time at Merion. What I needed was to get my game sharp," he said. "And having a nice practice facility and nice weather for the last couple of days allowed me to do that." Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion who also won the PGA Championship in 2005, was the US Open runner-up in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009 but hopes to finally collect that trophy on Father's Day. "If I never get that win, it would be a bit heartbreaking," Mickelson admitted. Being with his daughter was as important as preparing for the Open to Mickelson. "Really proud of her. She did a great job. I was really glad I was there," Mickelson said. "She told me, 'It's fine. Stay. It's the US Open, I know how much you care about it.' And I told her that I want to be there. I don't want to miss that. I don't want to miss her speech. I don't want to miss her graduation. She has worked very hard and I'm very proud of her." The last time Mickelson started a US Open this well, 14 years ago at Pinehurst, he was awaiting a potential pager call that would have sent him walking off the course to attend Amanda's birth. The call never came but Amanda did the next day, with Mickelson there after finishing second to the late Payne Stewart. Mickelson tried to say his cross-country flight wasn't unusual but he had only done it before for corporate outings and he wasn't planning on doing it again before round two, saying, "I don't want to push it, no." Mickelson caught a flight at 11 p.m. Merion time, landed two hours before arriving at the course 94 minutes before his 7:11 a.m. tee time. He also napped for an hour during a 3 1/2-hour storm interruption. "I feel great," he said. "I'll just go back tonight and rest, and I'll have all day tomorrow to rest and it's fine. It shouldn't be a problem." Mickelson opened with a bogey at the par-4 11th, used as a starting hole due to Merion's layout, but rallied with birdies at the par-3 13th, the first and seventh and a 30-foot birdie putt at the par-3 ninth to take the lead. "It was as good a putt from 30 feet as I could have," Mickelson said. "The odds aren't good, but it rolled in and felt great." At the ninth tee, Mickelson had admitted to caddie Jim Mackay he was fading. "I told Bones on nine tee box that I kind of hit a wall. And he said, 'Well, let's just take a little mental break as we walk down there.' And I ended up making the putt. So being able to tune in and tune out was kind of nice the last hole or two. "Lefty" began to fade before he began his birdie run on the first nine. "I might have used just a little caffeine booster at the turn, just to keep me sharp," he said. "I just wanted to make sure I had enough energy." Mickelson warned the course was only going to get tougher as dry weather arrives through the weekend. "This was as easy as this golf course is going to play," he said. "We had the best opportunity to score low. And we are all struggling because it's such a penalizing golf course. "It's a course that's withstood the test of time and it's challenging the best players in the world." -AFP |
| Storm could dampen thrill of Open’s top-three group Posted: 13 Jun 2013 05:28 PM PDT US OPEN organisers put Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott – the world's three top-ranked golfers – together on the first two days to create an electric atmosphere at Merion. But a severe thunderstorm predicted to hit in the afternoon could bring more lightning than the US Golf Association (USGA) really wanted to see when world No. 1 Woods, McIlroy and Scott tee off. A course that has already soaked up 6.5 inches of rain in four days has enjoyed two dry practice days but forecasters expect up to three inches of rain on the first day with severe conditions including a flash flood watch. "There could be some really high winds with us, potentially damaging winds, even some hail," USGA executive director Mike Davis said. "It depends on really what hits us or how lucky or unlucky we are." The course figures to be jammed with spectators watching the feature trio of 14-time Major champion Woods, seeking his first Major crown since the 2008 US Open, second-ranked McIlroy, the 2011 US Open winner, and third-ranked Adam Scott, the reigning Masters champion from Australia. "Some energy and electricity, playing with him at any time," Scott said. "And given the hype around this grouping and being a Major, it's going to be an intense couple of days." Sunny skies are expected the next three days but an already-saturated course figures to produce less of a challenge in the year's second Major championship with greens holding more approach shots, although dense rough remains a threat. Mud clinging to golf balls in another worry with no lift, clean and place rules being used as players would normally have in PGA Tour events. "We wouldn't be adopting that rule this week," USGA championship committee chairman Tom O'Toole said. "And if it was so bad, then the obvious response to that, or consequence, would be we probably wouldn't be playing." But US veteran Steve Stricker warned that mud balls could decide a winner and 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell echoed that notion. "Mud balls are a problem. I think they're unfair ... it literally can cost you shots," McDowell said. "When it bakes and tops a little bit, there are going to be a lot of mud balls. I hope they make the right call. If it's picking up mud then I think we need to lift, clean and place just for a level playing field." A field of 156 players from 21 nations will compete over the 6,996-yard layout where Bobby Jones completed a 1930 sweep of the US and British Opens and Amateurs and Ben Hogan won the 1950 US Open after a near-fatal auto accident. Woods, chasing the all-time record 18 Majors won by Jack Nicklaus, seeks a fourth US Open crown after 2000, 2002 and 2008 titles to match the all-time record shared by Nicklaus, Hogan, Jones and Willie Anderson. "I would like to obviously put my name there at the end of the week," Woods said. "But I've got to do my work and put myself there." Woods, 37, has won four times this year, giving him 78 career PGA titles, four shy of the late Sam Snead's all-time record. He expects mud balls could be a factor by Sunday as well. "We haven't dealt with teeing it up in a tournament yet with it raining and drying out for a couple of days and the mud balls appearing," Woods said. "That is going to be interesting, especially the longer holes." Phil Mickelson, a five-time US Open runner-up longing to finally capture the only American Major that has eluded him, has a start after flying across the United States hours earlier to attend his daughter Amanda's eighth-grade graduation, missing two days of practice at Merion. Amanda is the same child whose impending birth in 1999 had Mickelson's caddie carrying a pager at the US Open at Pinehurst in case his wife went into labour so he could leave and be with his wife. Mickelson finished second. "I'll be ready on Thursday," Mickelson said. Merion offers front-loaded birdie chances on a mix of long and short holes, including two par-five sin the first four holes and a 115-yard par-three 13th, but the final five formidable holes will have players clawing to avert bogeys or worse. "You have to hang on for dear life those last five holes," McDowell said. "I can't think of a tougher finish that I've seen at a US Open." "Once you get to 14 it's going to be tough to make birdies," Woods said. — AFP |
| Basket cases added as markers for Merion challenge Posted: 13 Jun 2013 05:29 PM PDT AT MERION Golf Club, host to this week's 113th US Open, there are the usual sand traps, water hazards and out of bounds and then there are the wicker baskets. Unique to championship golf, the historic layout in the suburbs of Philadelphia does not use flag-topped sticks to mark where the holes are and instead employs small oval-shaped baskets made out of wicker. Looking for all the world like the punching bags used by boxers, they are painted red on the front nine and orange on the back. They are eye-catching and peculiar and add to the quirky charm of the East Course, which was opened in 1912, but helpful to golfers they most certainly are not. Flag-topped pins have the advantage of flapping in the prevailing wind and lending valuable insight to what shot needs to be played. No such help comes form the stubbornly stoic wicker baskets. Lee Trevino, one of four players to have won the US Open at Merion's East Course, in 1971 when he defeated Jack Nicklaus in an 18-hole playoff, recently summed up the problem they pose. "I thought they were the most amazing thing," Trevino, now 73, said. "They actually affect the way you play, because you always rely on the flag to tell you which way the wind is blowing. "The wicker baskets tell you nothing." How the baskets came to be used at Merion remains unclear with the club's website stating that the origin of the baskets "is a mystery to this day". One theory has it that they were the brainchild of the course's designer, Hugh Irvine Wilson, a Scottish immigrant who returned to his homeland for inspiration and liked the look of shepherds' staffs while on his scouting trip. More likely, though, was that at that time, such baskets were used at some British links courses to withstand seaside breezes and Wilson could have seen these, liked the look of them and brought the idea back with him to Philadelphia. Whatever the origins, the baskets will confront a new generation of golfers this week as the last time the US Open was held at the course was in 1981 when David Graham became the first Australian to win the title. Rory McIlroy, US Open champion at Congressional in 2011, encountered some modern-day technological problems right away when getting in some practice at the course last week. He and his caddie found that the lasers they use to gauge distances to the holes for their yardage books would not register on the wicker baskets in the same way they did on flags. — AFP |
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