2010 US Women’s Open
Oakmont Country Club
Oakmont, PA
1. You folks have got to read this:
http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=64725
I wasn’t a “sorority girl” either (I went to ASU), and this is not meant to be a source of amusement. Truly. Once you get past the teenager gobbledygook in the interview, you can see Michelle Wie’s version of what I’ve been babbling about. Note in particular what she says about how the course played a month or so ago when she blew into town for some practice rounds. See, the second paragraph of “FEARLESS PREDICTION #1,” below.
2. Fearless Prediction #1:
The winning score will be above par, perhaps as high as 8-10 over par. UNLESS…the weather forecast calls for a fair chance of thunderstorms on Friday, which, if accurate and there is sufficient rain, could act to soften up the course somewhat. Maybe.
Those of you who are golf historians may recall “Sprinkler Friday” during the 1973 US Men’s Open at Oakmont. If you don’t know the story, the greens were so dry and hard during the first round that year that the USGA gave the superintendant permission to water the greens for five minutes on Thursday night. Oakmont had installed a computer-controlled sprinkler system that year and whether the system malfunctioned, someone forgot to turn off the spigot or there was foul play, more than the allotted 5 minutes of water found its way onto the Oakmont greens that Thursday night. On Friday, the greens were receptive to approach shots and scores were, by Oakmont standards, very, very low.
Hence, a good soaking on Friday could make the greens really interesting on Saturday. And probably really irrigate the USGA.
3. Fearless Prediction #2:
The tournament will not be won by an American. Or an Asian. This course will be played best by someone with a creative mind who was born bouncing balls onto greens off the fairway. I’m picking a European to win. The other characteristic the winner will exhibit is that she will be patient and have a great sense of humor. Walter Hagen was right – this course is going to make duffers out of everyone. Unless, see “Fearless Prediction #1” – second paragraph.
4. The Candy Man:
While warming up for the Tuesday practice round, July was greeted and pampered by two manufacturer’s reps. One repped the maker of the mallet putter she’s using this week and the other repped a ball, shoe and club manufacturer. (Gesundheit…if you catch my Charades drift.) I was approached first by both reps, who were apparently wanting to break some non-existent ice or following some protocol about which I have no idea, before they approached my player. Now that July has used up her college eligibility, she can take advantage of those situations. And if July is going to be wearing caps in colors of her choice with the manufacturer of a particular golf ball embroidered in cursive across the front, you can bet your sweet bippie I will also be wearing the same (in white only, please, to contrast nicely with my ever-darkening skin). In fact, when I asked, there was no question that examples of same would mysteriously appear in my player’s locker.
It was only a few moments later (I went to Arizona State, Jerry, I’m a SUN DEVIL!) that I realized that what I really needed to do was to sashay over to one of them gaudily marked semi-trailers parked near the caddie house and declare that my player had just announced an immediate, pressing need for a set of forged [name of manufacturer/model here] (4-W) with half-inch over Project X 6.0 shafts, gripped with GolfPride oversized red and black half-cord grips and bent 1 degree flat to be shipped to her caddie’s house in Bellevue, Washington. And I mean, STAT! What’s to lose? It’s not like those guys would miss anything. There’s mounds and mounds of precious metal (irons) sitting in dozens of boxes in those vans and bored technicians just standing there waiting for some reason to sniff shaft repair glue and acetone. They can make up a set in less time than it takes me to write one of these here journal things. And they can harmonically balance the shafts, too, so the sweet music them irons makes is always in tune. Just like my pappy’s banjo.
[My pappy was Chinese and didn’t play the banjo.]
5. Just to Let You Know
I don’t like it when a manufacturer’s rep calls me “bro’.” I don’t have a brother. Certainly not one I haven’t met before and who is trying to butter me (not realizing I’m basically a nobody standing on that practice tee).
6. Culture in Pittsburgh
I nabbed a free ticket to a 2010-11 season preview of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra subscription season and went to Heinz Hall after dinner this evening. Very good band but the assistant conductor is pretty, um, uninspiring. The orchestra played an outstanding rendition of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, though. Just outstanding.
Great old concert hall.
The designers of modern concert halls really ought to be chained to a seat in one of the old, great concert halls and made to listen to a good orchestra, a good string quartet, a good soprano with piano accompaniment and a good acoustic jazz quartet in order to understand that concert halls do not need to be the large, cold, impersonal chambers with marginal acoustics built in the past few decades. The best halls are smaller, musty, ornately decorated glittering rooms like Heinz Hall (or Carnegie Hall prior to its “renovation”). I enjoyed playing in those concert halls much more than the modern caves. Granted, all concert halls are monuments to their financiers – Heinz Hall, Carnegie Hall, Benaroya Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, Grady Gammage Auditorium, etc. But old money was best.
7. East Coast professional orchestras have a distinct sound. I think, as much as I hate to admit it, I would’ve been a better East Coast orchestral cellist than a West Coast one.
But this is a journal about a major golf championship.
8. Good Night, Gracie
Whether I’ll be able to sleep is a great question. Thankfully, our tee time tomorrow is late enough – hell, it’s the latest there is at this shindig – that I should be well-rested, hydrated and fed before we meet at the practice tee for a little warmup and ego boosting. We’ll also have a great idea how the course is playing because a bunch of scores will be posted even before July arrives on the property.
Hasta la Vista baby!
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