I’m a huge golf fan. I love playing it, I love watching it – especially the majors – especially The Masters and the U.S. Open. So I’m a bit disappointed that Day 1 in 2009 lasted only a few hours before the rain was too much to continue to play. Looked a lot more like a British Open than a U.S. Open where extreme heat is normally the weather headline.
It does bring up an interesting question about what kind of scores we’ll see this year. The forecast calls for wet weather all weekend long so we may be looking at a Monday finish again this year even without a playoff. On an exceptionally long course, the ball running in the fairway is a big help – that will be gone on a soggy course. US Open rough is brutal when dry, when this wet the common belief that a ball in the rough is equal to a one stroke penalty at the Open becomes “I hope it’s only a one stroke penalty” so it gets even more important to hit the ball straight off the tee – like Tiger did to near perfection 2 weeks ago in his win at The Memorial. So two big elements of the game will be tougher than usual but one will be easier. Golfers will experience unusually soft and receptive greens at Bethpage Black. They may need it when firing from 60-70 yards farther back from wet fairways. Should still be a great weekend of golf – just a little longer and probably a little different than we’re used to for a U.S. Open.
Sorry for the golf detour – I know not many of you come to a sports handicappers blogs for golf talk but hey, it’s the U.S. Open and I just can’t stomach talking about the Lakers winning another championship.
