Tuesday Practice Round

2010 US Women’s Open

Oakmont Country Club

Oakmont, PA

First of all, I had absolutely no trouble falling asleep Monday night. This pack mule was t-i-r-e-d after the first day on the job. Contrary to my expectations, however, I had no trouble getting out of bed in the morning and no aches or pains to speak of. It was into the shower, into my clothes and off to the course for another practice round, this one starting a little later in the day, but with largely the same cast of characters.

And indeed what characters they are.

Today’s foursome was composed entirely of Spanish-speakers – Juli, Aza, Belen Mozo (a USC Trojan, with whom we will be playing Thursday and Friday and Veronica Felibert, a Venezuelan professional who also played college golf at USC. Whatever it was that they talked about while walking down the fairways must have been hilarious, because there was a great deal of laughing going on. As I said to Missy, it made me wish I spoke Spanish, because they appeared to be having way too much fun.

Today’s practice round was a little more about scoring for Juli and a little more of her temperament came out and I felt she was a little tighter than on Monday. We missed a few shots into some interesting places and the notion that a shot hit poorly should be a shot irrevocably lost became more evident.

One of the things I don’t think I’ve yet mentioned is that the rough appears to be astoundingly short for a US Open venue. I don’t know what the USGA statistics are supposed to be but it looks to me like the rough is only about 4 inches high at the most. This is the rough, remember, which nearly broke Phil Mickelson’s wrist, but it was much higher then. As Aza remarked on Monday “the rough is so short because the rest of the course is so hard.” And it is difficult. The greens are so slippery and so contoured that it seems nearly impossible for the players to hold approach shots close to pins. It wouldn’t be out of whack to pull out the old comparison – hitting to and putting on these greens is like trying to land a golf ball on a Volkswagen Beetle and expecting it to stay on the hood, then trying to putt to the left front headlight and hoping the ball stays on the car.

Ain’t gonna happen.

While I was waiting for my dinner companions in downtown Pittsburgh Tuesday evening, I sat at the restaurant bar and enjoyed a large bottle of Pellegrino (all to myself!). With lime, thank you. Wendy Ward (former ASU golfer, current LPGA tour pro) was also having dinner at the same restaurant and approached the bar to ask for change. I took the opportunity to wish a fellow Sun Devil a good week of playing and we got into a nice chat about the course and how amazing it really is. She and I had a conversation similar to the one Missy Farr-Kaye and I had about Oakmont’s style of play during Tuesday’s practice round. Oakmont, it seems to me, was meant to be played in the manner that the great links courses of Ireland and Scotland are played. If you look at the history of the course, including recent history (with the removal of the 5000 trees), that intent becomes evident. But more to the point, looking at the course itself makes that clear.

There are very few greens which are receptive to the American style of target golf. The times a player will be able to attack a pin and have the ball stay there will be rare. The targets on this golf course are areas in front of the greens and on the fronts of the greens themselves which, if hit with the appropriate speed and direction, will allow the ball to run up on the green and hopefully nestle into the right area to allow one to have a reasonable putt. Add to the contours of the greens their slipperiness and it makes for a terrific challenge. Wendy Ward told me she was excited to be playing at Oakmont, that the challenge, the history of the place, etc., was all very exciting and invigorating for her. We’ll see how she feels in five days after the tournament is over.

If I were to give an example or an analogy….

I happen to love playing Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle. I like the feel of the course, the greens are usually the best in Seattle, I like the people in the club and the food in the grill. The head pro there, Dan Hill, is one of my favorite people in Seattle golf. He and I have a running gag about the players who own the competitive course records at BGC – Paul Casey (60) and Anna Nordqvist (63). Yup. Sun Devils, playing in Pac-10 Championship tournaments. Paul’s ASU bag from that tournament is still in Dan’s office.

The first 3-par on the front side is a particular favorite of mine. It’s uphill, plays longer than its yardage and the green is protected by a large and relatively deep bunker front right. The last time I played there, just last week in fact. I made a nice par from the bunker, curling in a 7-8 footer from a little above and to the right of the front center pin position.
Imagine how Dan’s constituents would feel if every day that they played that hole, they were playing to a green which is about twice the size – 8000 square feet, with mounds and swales throughout the green and edges to the green which run away sharply into pitching areas, eight-foot deep bunkers and tall grass. Imagine standing on the tee box knowing that the proper tee shot for a middle left pin is to play the ball to the right edge of the green 10 yards short and watch the ball curl 50 feet to the left. Forget worrying about being above or below the hole (though you know that anything left above the hole is a likely three-putt). The goal is to be putting, even if it means putting from the fringe or a collection area.

Sounds like links golf to me.

And that’s only every hole. There are no breathers at Oakmont.

Juli and I agree that one of the keys to the course is getting through the first few holes on each side. It’s a course which is designed to upset your equilibrium from the moment you step on the first tee. The first hole itself is the perfect example. It’s a 437-yard par 4, downhill. From the tee shot landing area, the slope is down 9, and, oh by the way, the green doesn’t hold and has a subtle slope away. On Monday, we landed on the green and found the ball 5 yards deep in the rough behind the green. Tuesday, we landed front edge center and found the ball off the green in the first cut to the left and deep. The proper shot is probably to land the ball 10 yards short and hope it rolls on. However, there’s a swale on the front right of the apron and if you hit it on either side of the swale, the ball will carom away from the green – either way left or right depending on where you hit the swale. If you hit the swale dead on, the ball will likely pop up and stay there, something like 25 yards from the likely pin placements. What I’m saying is that from 167 yards, you have a 10-yard opening to hopefully remaining on the green.
But I’m scaring all of you.

I have a few anecdotes from the day and then will ask myself a serious question.

On Tuesday, we played the back nine first and then went through to the front. As we crossed over from 18 to first tee, there was a bit of confusion in our group. Not only was there a large contingent on the tee itself, the grandstand by the first tee was pretty full and the area behind the ropes around the tee box and the pathway to the tee was about 3 patrons deep. We held back about 20 yards up the slope leading down to the tee box, assuming that we were waiting for the group on the tee to tee off and move ahead. Our players were also strung out along the ropes, signing autographs and chatting with family and fans. A tee box marshal, however, came running up in somewhat of a panic, assuring us that it was really okay for us to be on the tee and that we should get our players out there and peg it up. As we were the game playing through, the folks on the tee were required to wait for us.

That would be Michelle Wie and her playing partners.

Just a couple of holes earlier, at 16, we’d experienced something interesting. 16 has two sets of tees. It’s listed as a 209-yard par 3, but there is also a short tee listed at 139, about 100 yards to the left and ahead of the 209-yard tee box. On Monday, Juli played from the long tee and on Tuesday, we played from the short one. Tuesday, the rest of our group played from the long tees and Juli and I and her head coach sat on the tee box, waiting for the group in front of us to play (from the long tees) and then, we assumed, our group to play from the long tees. The crowd started to move away from the long tee and we assumed that our people would be teeing it up next. Juli stuck a peg in the ground and we started looking over the shot, thinking about angle of approach, where the ball would roll to, how to get to the pin, etc. Then we heard clanking behind us and were rather brusquely brushed aside by a couple of caddies and their players from the group ahead of us who’d decided to also play shots from the short tee.

Get out of the way, rookies.

At the first, half an hour later, as we were rushed onto the tee, there stood the Queen and her royal subjects, including one tall, craggy one wearing his trademark Panama hat. I have to assume that it made Juli a little nervous and somewhat off her tempo to be rushed to the tee and to discover that we would be hitting in full view of a large crowd, Wie and her entourage. To her credit, in my view, Michelle was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. At least that’s how I chose to view her. She might also have been annoyed at having to wait, but I thought she was probably trying to stay out of our way.

The guy in the Panama hat was having none of it. Clearly, Leadbetter likes standing out in a crowd – that’s why he always wears the hat, after all, but what made it really creepy for me was that the entire time we were on the tee box, I felt like he was staring at me. Well, hell. He was staring at me. I know this because I stared back. This has happened to me the entire time I’ve been here – people who think that they’ve seen me before. I’ve been asked if I’ve been a sportscaster, a PGA touring pro, a PGA Tour caddie, etc. Weird.

Anyway, Wie certainly has a presence. She is recognizable from just about anywhere at any distance. She carries the same sort of charisma amongst the women as Phil and Tiger carry amongst the men.

And that leads me to the question I wanted to ask myself.

Monday as we approached the famous 9th green, the back end of which becomes the practice green at Oakmont, the players in our group began to giggle amongst themselves. On the practice green was one player who stood out among all the rest. She’s tall, blonde and she was dressed mostly in black, but the accents on her clothing, the ribbons in her hair and the laces on her black golf shoes were her trademark Day-Glo pink.

Paula Creamer.

I asked Missy Farr-Kaye, as we approached the green, if she thought Creamer was wearing just a little too much pink. Her answer surprised me.
It’s the age-old debate about the LPGA Tour and women’s sports in general. It’s a question which comes up in my mind all of the time, as I live in a house populated by women athletes. It’s a question which I thought about during the Tuesday practice round chasing around after four chatty, giggling, Spanish-speaking attractive young women who are also supremely talented athletes. As the father and step-father of women, I’m torn by the debate.

These ladies have game. People should see their games.

Sex sells. Should the LPGA use sex to sell itself?

Missy’s answer to me was that she thinks Creamer is great for the game. What 18-35-year old male wouldn’t find Creamer attractive? Likewise, what 18-35 year old male wouldn’t have found our foursome on Tuesday attractive? Missy takes the position that attracting people to the women’s game is paramount. Their talent will ultimately win out, but getting people to watch the game is the first important step. That Paula Creamer stands well out from the rest of the crowd is great for the game. She’s a recognizable face, with her trademark pink.
And therein lies the rub for me. In my personal view, people who love golf should watch LPGA events because they are great golf events and these are great players. It sort of rubs me the wrong way that I have to write about this event as the United States Women’s Open. I believe we should admire and marvel at a player’s talents regardless of gender. Masses of people watch PGA Tour golf and involve themselves in the ongoing Phil-v-Tiger debate. (I’m a Phil guy, by the way. No dur…hello? ASU?) The men’s personalities are no less the subject of scrutiny than their games. The women out here have sick game and they certainly have personality. That should be celebrated no less than the men’s game.

Moreover, the atmosphere at this event is a stark contrast to the atmosphere at the PGA Tour events I’ve worked/attended. There are hordes of children roaming Oakmont this week, and not just because admission for kids is free. I heard a young girl complain to her dad that she didn’t want to go home – they were watching the functional equivalent of grass growing – players standing around chatting and occasionally stroking a putt on the practice green. Grass, by the way, which a greens person would be sure to cut back to the roots if it were discovered to have grown at all. On one tee box on Tuesday, we all laughed as a man tried in vain to quiet his howling baby. On the PGA Tour, some Tour official would’ve immediately had the baby removed. At the 10th tee on Monday, as Juli teed off, I heard a young boy behind me in the gallery exclaim “I wish I had her swing.”
As we walked from one tee to the next on Tuesday and I stood by while Juli signed autographs, a young boy stuck out his cap and a red Sharpie and politely asked me for my autograph. I asked him why he would want it and he replied “you’re out here working hard just like they are and I want your autograph too.” I signed on the bill of his cap.
So these ladies have game, they play on great courses and the atmosphere at their events is great for families interested in golf. People should see this just as much as they should see Phil and Tiger go mano-a-mano. This is golf history no less than Johnny Miller at Oakmont in 1973.

Perhaps Missy is right. Perhaps the LPGA should continue to promote its product by promoting all of its greatest assets – its players – and in doing so, if those players are able to stand out by allowing the whole person to be seen, including their attractiveness as well as their golf talent, maybe there is nothing wrong with that.

I also happen to love tennis and I suppose it’s just as true in that game. After Thomas Berdych upset Roger Federer at Wimbledon this year, one of my Facebook friends posted the result and one of her friends responded that it didn’t hurt that Berdych was also so good looking.
Time to lighten up.

Between being exhausted and trying to get some laundry done and food eaten, this two-day journal entry has taken me three days. I covered the heavy topic (sex sells), probably inarticulately, and I think you all have a sense for just how brutal I think this golf course is going to play. It’s now Wednesday mid-day. Off to eat some lunch and meet Juli and her parents at the Andy Warhol Museum. As her parents are architects, we had planned to visit the famous Frank Lloyd Wright design, “Falling Water” which is here in the Pittsburgh area, but it’s closed on Wednesdays. I have a ticket to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony give a 2010-11 preview this evening and I have to get more rest.

Game on tomorrow at 2:42 Eastern. We are the very last group off the first tee and so we’ll be playing well into the evening tomorrow and it’s going to be mega-hot and humid. The next two days are going to be an incredible grind. Once we finish Thursday evening, we have to be back on course at I think I said 9:06 the following morning (off the 10th tee). I honestly doubt I’ll have the energy to be very entertaining after the first round and provide a journal entry, but we’ll see. Live scoring will be available over the internet (I think it’s www.2010womensopen.com) and medical reports can be found on any Allegheny County police radio band (for caddies being carted off the course on stretchers).
My feet are killing me.

I’m having a great time.