Well, isn’t this interesting now. I think Barnes and Glover are toast. One of them (I think Barnes) is in the spinach on the second hole. Conditions should finally be tough tomorrow, and Tiger and Phil are lurking. I think Tiger would have to get to at least -4 to have a shot, but he only has 11 holes left. Still, he’s one of only two guys in the top ten who is under par for the day.
I’d think that this is Lefty’s best chance to win another major, though I’ll be rooting for David Duval.
P.S. Johnny Miller said something cryptic about Duval during the telecast. He said something like Duval lost his motivation after winning the British, but that was only one of many problems he suffered. I know he had some physical issues, but the implication I got from Miller was that there were personal issues as well. Any idea what those were, if they existed?
Duval says when he was on top, it was a “is that all there is” feeling. He had a series of nagging injuries from wrists to vertigo. Now he lives in Colorado, the hot bed of pro golfers. The game just was not his "everything’. Still he has a sweet ,effortless swing. His putting is still good.So just one more day.
Hey, Colorado is home to Hale Irwin (3 US Opens), Steve Jones (1), Craig Stadler (1Masters) and his son Kevin (up and comer). John Daly lived here for a while, too.
You would not pick your ball up to check if it was embedded. :rolleyes:
There are two possibilities:
He needed to identify his ball, and this required removing it from its lie, in which case, upon identifying it, he would be allowed to replace it as close to the original lie as possible, or
They are playing with a local rule allowing the lift, clean and place of embedded balls. This prevents you from having to hit a ball buried in the ground.
I didn’t see which it is that happened. If there is a local rule about embedded balls, yes, you would get to clean and place.
He would not have been taking the practice swings anywhere near to where his ball lay. For the very reason you suggested. If the camera angle was from directly behind, the foreshortening effect of the lens might have made it look otherwise.
Believe it or not, I think the USOpen was played with the local embedded ball rule because the ground was sooooo wet.
He was picking the ball up to see if there was a crater from ball impact. Frankly it looked fishy to me because i don’t think there would be any way a ball could impact the ground through gnarly rough. They determined that the ball was not embedded and he replaced it without cleaning it.
Well, I find that hard to believe, but I suppose it is possible. But unless they actually talked to someone after the fact, I wouldn’t rely upon anything the announcing crew said about the subject, and that includes the often helpful presence of someone from the USGA, who would just be guessing about it.
That is very clearly the way they announced it.
He called a rules official over right away, and did everything under the official’s supervision.
I think they said he lifted it and then they examined whether it broke the surface of the ground or something - which seemed to be their definition of embedded.
It was really odd.
We’ll see if Barnes can hold it together.
IMO Glover has a better chance of hanging tough. As phenomenal as Tiger is, you’d hope one of these 2 guys could hold up a 9-stroke advantage!
Both those guys - heck, everyone in the field - have shown the ability to be ultra-hot and ultra-cold for stretches this week.
And everyone knows my prejudice. If not Glover, I’m hoping Mick, Mahan, or someone else plays a stroke better than el Tigre.
Any word on conditions out there? I’m doing my best to keep up with just the leaderboard up here at work.
Course sure looked like hell on the tube. Amazing to see the players have to wade thru mud from green to tee.
Where is the best leaderboard on-line?
Te one at usopen.com sucks
I can’t figure out how to get it to show individual players’ scorecards to track their progress hole-by-hole.
LG just gave one up, and Barnes escaped after duck-hooking his drive into the trash on #2.
Since I’m talking to myself here - - I thought I’d coment that Fisher - whom I’d never heard of before - looked awfully solid the last 2 days.
He might well be my choice for dark horse, should Glover/Barnes pull major fades.
The US Open site has a post on just this ruling. Nothing specific on the embedded ball rule - tho it may be buried (heh) in the post on rounds 1-2 rulings.
Duval triples a par 3, and Lefty takes an unplayable, and Tiger bogeys to make the turn even.
If ever pars were a golfer’s friend …
Son-of-a-gun should hit irons off every tee, and aim for the center of every green. Of course, when you are an aggressive player, it is easy to get sloppy if you try to play too safe …
Mickelson looking increasingly like the probable winner. Tiger has blown his chance; after 14 I’d have thought he was finally putting it together, but when he misses putts like the one at 17, you know he’s just not focused properly.
Glover and Barnes are playing that old time game, choke me, choke me!
Barnes is plus 7 today. He is trying to stave off embarrassment. Phil is looking like he wants it. Barnes just now missed an eagle putt badly.
I see Mike Weir utility clubs all over the pro shop next week.
- I thought I’d coment that Fisher - whom I’d never heard of before - looked awfully solid the last 2 days.