Tomorrow, at 7:00 AM, Rick Fowler, Casey Wittenberg and Bo Van Pelt will begin the 2009 U.S. Open when they tee off on the first hole of the Black Course at Bethpage Golf Club outside of New York.
A few thoughts the night before…
…Just as the Philadelphia area has experienced excessive rain over the last few weeks, so has the New York area. As a matter of fact, they’ve had rain 29 out of the last 35 days. This means the course will play soft and many will say this is an advantage to the longer hitters since tee balls will have very little roll on them. On the other hand, you can argue that it actually helps the shorter hitters. Normally, the hard greens wouldn’t be receptive to the 3 and 4 irons the shorter hitters will use to approach them, but with all the rain, those long-iron shots might just hit and stick. Advantage short-hitters.
…Tiger Woods won the Memorial tournament two weeks ago and his game featured quite a bit of accuracy off the tee, something we aren’t used to seeing from Tiger. If Tiger is that accurate this week at Bethpage? Fugghettaboutit.
…This week marks the tenth anniversary of Payne Stewart’s win over Phil Mickelson at Pinehurst. To this day, it is one of the best golf tournaments I’ve ever watched and I think many would agree with me. Excellent golf played on a wonderful course, concluding with a dramatic victory full of sportsmanship. Sadly, Stewart died in a plane crash just a few months later.
…Speaking of Phil Mickelson, he needs a little help. I don’t want to jump on the guy too much since his wife, Amy, was recently diagnosed with cancer, and there’s no doubt he’s handling it amazingly well. But having said that, I have to point out something about Phil that has been bugging me all year: his wardrobe. Take a look at this:
As if a white belt and shoes with black pants and shirt weren’t bad enough, Phil doesn’t exactly have the, uh, physique. to pull of that kind of cut in a shirt. And the white piping only makes it worse. And the button down collar? Really Phil? Really?
Don’t get me wrong, the white shoes and belt combo can be cool if done the right way, after all, Harry Kalas rocked the “full Cleveland” quite often.
Phil, until you slim down a bit, get a fuller cut shirt and, if you are going to do the white belt/shoes combo, wear lighter colors.
