Long, short of winning a major

Sergio Garcia could have done more than just win the British Open Sunday had his eight-foot putt on the 72nd hole at Carnoustie tumbled into the cup.

He would have become the first player to win a major championship using a belly putter or a long putter.

Instead, those forced to desperate measures with a putter are still winless in golf’s most important events.

Vijay Singh, who goes back and forth with his putters, had gone back to a conventional-length putter when he won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits three years ago.

Putting, as anyone who has ever tried it knows, is a hateful thing. It has ruined more men than wine and women.

That’s why players try all the things they do in an effort to roll the ball into that little hole. If a snow shovel worked, golfers would use it.

But there’s something about the long putter, or the shorter belly putter that you anchor to that spare tire around your waist, that runs contrary to the spirit of golf’s rules.

There may come a day when I’m forced to use the long putter, at which point my opinion will change 180 degrees but, for the time being, I’m glad no one has won a major using a long or belly putter.

Sadly, a bitter ending for Sergio

Late Sunday evening, the sound of Irishmen singing – someone suggested they’d had a few pints – could still be heard at the Carnoustie Golf Links after Padraig Harrington won a British Open that had been a long time coming.

It was worth singing about.

Let’s take a moment here to appreciate Harrington. He’s an exceptional player who’s not spectacular at anything other than getting the ball in the hole. That’s a nice skill to have when you’re in the business of major championship golf.

He’s a tireless worker who’s come close enough times in majors to know how wickedly difficult it is to win one of these things.

Harrington is also immensely popular with players on both the PGA and European Tours because he’s a good guy who works hard, tells you what he’s thinking and goes about it the right way.

Even Sergio Garcia had to be happy Harrington won.

At least you hope so.

Garcia is a strange case. He’s a terrific player who has seemingly everything going for him except for a putter, that occasionally sticks needles in his eyes, and an attitude that works against him.

After his playoff loss to Harrington Sunday, Garcia played the woe is me card, citing all the ways the world is out to get him.

When he hits the flagstick, like he did on the second playoff hole, his ball always bounces away from the hole instead of landing beside the cup. He never gets any good breaks. The guy raking the bunkers at No. 18 took too long. Blah, blah, blah.

Come on, Sergio.

It’s easy to understand his frustration and that’s great. If he didn’t care he wouldn’t be where he is. Sergio’s passion is who he is.

He played terrific golf for three days and when he got wobbly, Sergio pulled it together in the pressure of Sunday afternoon and made you admire his toughness getting to a playoff.

When he lost, though, he started blaming fate. But fate didn’t shoot 38 on the front nine or plug his approach shot in the bunker on the first playoff hole.

It was a bitter way to go, for sure, after such a good week.

Maybe Garcia didn’t hear the Irishmen singing Sunday evening. He wouldn’t have liked the tune.

It's there for Sergio's taking

The British Open couldn’t be set up any better for Sergio Garcia to win.

He has a three-stroke lead over Steve Stricker with 18 holes to play and he’s six clear of everyone else.

Best of all for Garcia, Tiger Woods is eight strokes behind.

This is Sergio’s moment. Now he has to seize it.

Garcia has grown justifiably weary of answering questions about why he hasn’t won a major championship so far. This is his 35^th professional major and it’s time he finished one off.

He’s leading at Carnoustie because he’s played better than anyone else. Saturday was a fine example of managing himself around 18 holes, avoiding the costly mistake while taking advantage of the scoring chances he gets.

Garcia hit long irons off the tee on several par-4s to make sure he didn’t find the fairway bunkers that are, effectively, a one-stroke penalty.

He’s not making every putt but the difference this week is Garcia is putting with confidence. Having made the sensible move to the belly putter after the U.S. Open last month, Garcia feels good on the greens again. When he looks up, he sees the ball starting on line, something he wasn’t seeing often enough with a conventional putter.

There are plenty of doubters when it comes to Garcia but I feel like this is the one he wins. It’s important for him to get off to a good start in the final round and it would help Garcia if the conditions aren’t severe. He doesn’t look forward to playing in difficult conditions.

Just imagine the party Garcia might throw if he wins the claret jug on Sunday.

Shoot, it's fish and a barrel

The culinary offerings in Scotland are, at least by American tastes, different.

That’s not to say bad, just different.

They love their potatoes and black pudding and grilled tomatoes for breakfast.

They’re quick to throw a cucumber slice on a sandwich, too.

But when you go looking for a Scottish delicacy at the British Open, you just follow the smoke. When you find its source, you’ll find Iian Spinks’ original Arbroath smokies.

And you’ll also find a line of people waiting for them. At noon local time Friday, the line happened to include a substantial portion of the American media corps, each taking turns forking over four pounds ($8) for a headless, boneless golden brown haddock on a paper plate.

Spinks’ little tent is set up near the main spectator gate and beside it is half a whiskey barrel dug into the ground and covered with damp Hessian sacking or, what we’d call burlap.

The fish, which hang tied by their tail to a stick before being smoked, cook for about 40 minutes over oak and beech and when they emerge, they’re bronze on the outside and beautiful on the inside.

The bones are pulled out and the fish is handed to you on a white paper plate. You tip it over slightly to drain a little fish juice out and then go at it with a plastic fork.

Wonder if the guy has any interest in coming to the Wachovia Championship?

British Open weather: Cold, rainy, perfect

This is the way the British Open is supposed to be – cold, gray and wet.

And the bad stuff is expected to arrive by Saturday.

A local joked that summer came to Scotland last Sunday and has left again for another year, and it feels like it.

Walking around Carnoustie today requires a rain suit (they’re called ‘waterproofs’ over here), a hat and a strong constitution.

It’s been a while since the Open has felt like this. Last year, sunscreen was in high demand, as was anything icy cold. This year, hot chocolate is the drink of choice.

It would be OK if it were just cold. It would feel like the Masters this year.

It would be OK if it were raining.

But put them together and you have a perfect day to sit in front of a fireplace, not play golf.

“If it had been windy, too, I might have been inside drinking something,” said Joe Durant, who was the first player out Thursday at what they call “half-six” in the morning here.

It’s not often you see Tiger Woods walking the course with his hands tucked into thick mittens, but it happened Thursday.

Puffs of steam sprouted from the mouths of players and fans who braved the elements.

It didn’t feel like a day for golf.

But it felt like a day at the British Open.

Clothes come off in Scotland

Don’t take this the wrong way but your clothes come on and off a lot when you’re in Scotland.

It’s a weather thing.

One minute it’s warm and sunny, the next minute it’s cold and breezy. Even if it’s not raining, it looks as if it could at almost any moment.

In the media center at the British Open, daily weather updates are distributed, offering reasonable guesses at what the conditions will be later in the day and later in the week.

As I write this, I’m reading a forecast that says there’s only a 20 percent chance of “heavier showers” today. The long shot came in because it’s raining so hard outside, it’s hard to hear inside the big media tent.

To their credit, weather forecasters here make no promises. Beside their forecast for Saturday (stormy and cold as Colin Montgomerie on a bad day) are the words “low-medium confidence.”

Beside the Sunday forecast (cloudy with a 50 percent chance Tiger Woods will win) are the words “low confidence.”

In other words, they’re not bragging about their Dopplers.

Because the weather never stays the same on this edge of the North Sea, dressing properly has more layers than a James Joyce novel. Beyond the obvious necessities, there’s a shirt, a sweater and a rain jacket. The Scots, by the way, don’t call them rain suits. They call them waterproofs.

Sometimes you wear all three. Sometimes two. Sometimes one. Sometimes you do all three during one walk around the golf course.

More later.

I need to go get my jacket.

Charisma, spellbinding play lasting memory of Ballesteros' career

If you ever saw Seve Ballesteros play golf in his prime, you haven’t forgotten it.

He played golf with a rare passion and imagination, unlike anyone in today’s game and like few others ever.

When Seve announced his retirement from competitive golf Monday at Carnoustie, his game had long ago faded away, leaving him to chase balls out of bad spots, unable to summon the magic that once marked his game.
But his impact was enormous.

At his best, Seve was spellbinding. He attacked the game and the course, winning five major championships in a career that can’t be judged solely by the trophies he won.

Seve reached beyond the scores he shot. His impact was in how he played and how he changed the sport.

Ballesteros was Europe’s Arnold Palmer.

He never seemed to grasp the notion that American fans and journalists admired his style while remarking about his ability to make pars and birdies from seemingly impossible places. Seve seemed offended by the remarks but he shouldn’t have been.

Perhaps that’s why he apologized to writers Monday for any times when he might have been rude or gruff and there were some of those.

He was brilliant around the greens and had a movie-star charisma about him as he marched around golf courses, his brow creased.

When he smiled, Seve could light the world.

His legacy may ultimately be his effect on the Ryder Cup. Before Seve, it had become an exhibition, neither competitive or emotional. He made it both.

Seve breathed fire into the Ryder Cup while inspiring a generation of European players who altered professional golf’s global landscape.

He called it a career Monday.

It was a great one.

Ron Green Jr.

A day at the Old Course

I had always imagined what it would feel like to stand on the first tee at the Old Course at St. Andrews with a driver in my hands and the eyes of the townspeople and golf’s ghosts watching me.

Now I know.

I felt nervous. Excited but nervous.

And, not wanting to miss what appears to be the widest fairway in the world, I hit a 3-wood just to be safe.

After years of anticipation, I finally played the Old Course last Thursday and, having already fallen under the spell of St. Andrews during the 2005 Open Championship there, my affection for the place was deepened after a day ‘round the auld sod.

It’s no great revelation that the Old Course is a quirky place, a relatively flat, tree-less piece of linksland that starts and ends close enough to town that it’s possible to fire a golf ball into someone’s apartment.

Some people don’t like or don’t get the Old Course. The story goes that when Sam Snead first passed the place on a train, he remarked, “It looks like there used to be a golf course there.”

I loved it.

The humps. The bumps. The double greens. The gorse. The pot bunkers. The views of the town.

I loved it all.

It didn’t hurt that we caught it on a beautiful day, partly cloudy, temperatures in the upper 60s and barely a breeze until late in our round.

Playing the Old Course, especially for the first time, is about more than making pars and bogeys and (one) birdie. It’s about hearing the whispers of time and knowing you’re walking the most historic ground in the game.

It’s not the kind of golf we’re used to playing. You play the Old Course on the ground, bouncing shots into greens, watching them twist and turn on their way.

The fairways are not perfect. There’s no special grass on the greens. It’s just grass and it’s mowed shorter on the greens.

When you play the 17th – the famous Road Hole – it’s unnerving when you’re told to aim your tee shot over the ‘H’ in the Old Course Hotel script painted on the shed directly in front of you. But it’s a thrill when you do it and find your ball one foot off the fairway and an equally bigger thrill when you rip a 4-iron onto the front of the green while the people watching from the Jigger Inn alongside the fairway applaud you.

They didn’t applaud the three-putt that followed.

When you walk over the Swilcan Bridge on No. 18 and to the final green, tucked beside a street, you remember seeing Jack Nicklaus birdie the last hole he ever played in major championship golf.

You remember that Bobby Jones and Sam Snead and Seve Ballesteros and Tiger Woods have won the Open at St. Andrews.

I will remember more than my 81. I will remember the feeling.

Ranking the top 10 N.C. golf courses

If you’ve ever seen the marvelous movie, ‘High Fidelity,’ starring John Cusack as a lovesick music buff, you know that guys love to rank things. Top 10 songs. Top 10 movies. Top 10 cheeseburgers.

The Golf Channel has a series of Top 10 shows running this summer and, seemingly every day, somebody has a list about something.

In that spirit, I’ve compiled my 10 favorite courses in North Carolina. It doesn’t mean they’re the best, though most are familiar, just that they’re courses I like to play when I get the chance.
Some familiar ones aren’t included because I’ve never seen or played them. Wade Hampton, the Country Club of North Carolina, Diamond Creek and Eagle Pointe are just a few of those. Everyone who’s been to Wade Hampton raves about it but it’s hard to include it if I’ve never seen it.

My top 10 is:

10. Cedarwood Country Club in Charlotte. OK, it’s my home course so I’m playing favorites here but it’s a terrific members’ course, originally designed by Ellis Maples then retouched a couple of years ago by Kris Spence. The last five holes are one of the best finishing stretches around.

9. Old North State Club in New London: Some lists have this course near the top in the state, though I can’t put it that high. It’s great fun to play, even if the par-4 ninth hole is harder than boot camp. The 16th, 17th and 18th holes play along Baden Lake and are as much fun to play as they are to look at. If anyone ever invites you to Old North State, go.

8. Elk River in Banner Elk: It’s a beautiful Jack Nicklaus design with two distinct nines. One plays through a meadow while the other climbs and twists along a hillside. It would be a great place to spend the summer.

7. Linville Golf Club in Linville: This is a classic, old-style mountain course that you could play every day without tiring of it. The par-4 third hole has been included on many best holes in the world lists and justifiably so. Linville doesn’t beat you up the way some courses can. It caresses you like a cashmere sweater.

6. Pinehurst No. 4: When this course was remade by Tom Fazio a few years ago, it went from good to excellent. It’s not unlike its sister, Pinehurst No. 2, in that it challenges you around the greens with its sweeping run-offs. The putting surfaces aren’t as contoured as No. 2 but reaching the greens asks a lot of players. There’s a reason the U.S. Amateur will use it next August.

5. Pine Needles in Southern Pines: Everything about Pine Needles oozes comfort. The lodge. The staff. The course. But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy golf course. Pine Needles, as the Women’s Open showed, is a superb test that continually gives you fun shots to play.

4. Charlotte Country Club: It’s the old classic in Charlotte golf and figures to be even better when the current renovation is complete. With its huge trees and rolling layout, it has the feel of the clubs in the Northeast and it’s as good as anything you’re going to find. It tests every part of your game, charming you in the process.

3. Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte: There’s a reason the best players in the world play the Wachovia Championship every year - and it’s not the money nor the Mercedes they get to drive. It’s the golf course. Look at the list of winners in the five years of the Wachovia - David Toms, Vijay Singh, Joey Sindelar, Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods. It’s major championship worthy.

2. Grandfather Golf and Country Club in Linville: For sheer beauty, nothing matches Grandfather. It’s gorgeous. It’s always wickedly hard. Don’t hit it sideways because you’ll never find your ball in the rhododendrun and mountain laurel. Putting the always-slick greens is serious business, and the only bad thing about the stunning par-4 18th hole is it means the end of your round at Grandfather.

1. Pinehurst No. 2 (shown in photo): It’s golf at its purest. It’s not filled with dramatic beauty. It has just one small pond. But it’s where every great American golfer has played and it’s better now than ever. The genius in Donald Ross’ design is in forcing players to play the correct shots into the greens, which are small works of art. It’s the kind of course where you can hit every club in your bag and the more often you play it, the more you appreciate it.

Observations during another weather delay at the Open

Observations from the U.S. Women’s Open, at least that part of it that has been played between three weather delays:

-Michelle Wie has some serious problems in her golf game.
She sounds like someone on the verge of developing the driver yips as she talks about how uncertain she is of her ability to hit fairways off the tee. It’s not her wrist but her confidence and that’s harder to get back than a healthy wrist.

-When Wie said Thursday there was a thin line between 69 and the 82 she posted, you had to shake your head. She saved herself several strokes by holing medium-length putts in the first round.

-However it happened, it’s a very good thing she won’t be playing in the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic.

-I’m surprised by how high the scores are at Pine Needles. The rough is not killer but the greens and the areas surrounding them have extremely demanding. Players are having trouble getting the ball close to the hole and really struggling to save shots when they miss greens.
They’re getting the full Donald Ross effect.

-USGA officials knew they were gambling with the weather by playing the Open at this time of the year but this has been a bad draw.

-The two previous Opens at Pine Needles were played about a month earlier when the chance of afternoon storms is not as great. The trade-off for playing the Open now is to have the Bermuda grass fully grown in, making the course play as it was designed to play.

-The weather delays are a nuisance but they don’t mean the Open won’t return to Pine Needles in another eight to 10 years.

-It’s fun to watch Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel play golf. They have a style about them that so many players lack. What a story it would be if they could get in the mix here on Sunday – or whenever this Open eventually ends.

Ron Green Jr.

PGA needs drug-testing

Last week, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said the PGA Tour intends to adopt a drug-testing plan to alleviate any concerns about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional golf.

Good.

And why has it taken so long? For the record, let me admit that stories and chatter about drug-testing makes my eyes glaze over. To borrow a line from a Dan Jenkins book, put the words steroids, deficit or committee in a
headline and it's guaranteed to make me read something else.

But since we live in a justifiably skeptical sports world, there's no reason the PGA Tour shoudln't adopt a drug-testing policy. I understand it's not as easy as just saying you're going to do it and having it done but the tour has been slow to act, believing -- probably correctly -- that it doesn't have a signfiicant problem.

Still, when Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and others say the tour should be pro-active, they're right. The LPGA tour will begin drug-testing next year as will the European Tour, though the details on the whats and hows and whys are still vague.

David Fay, executive director of the USGA, said Wednesday that drug testing is "inevitiable" but he couldn't say exactly when it will arrive. He put the onus on the professional tours to take the lead but said the major golf organizations, including the USGA, need to be involved.

Most of golf's testing has been directed at equipment, aimed at identifying non-conforming drivers. The PGA Tour needs to get a strong plan -- with strong penalties -- in place and eliminate any questions about what players may or may not be using. Golf does not lend itself to the kinds of abuses we've heard about in other sports but it would be naive to think golf hasn't had guys who have experimented with performance-enhancing drugs.

There are gray areas with golf. Do beta-blockers count? I have a friend who's a sports psychologist who has worked with tour players for years and when the subject of having a couple of beers on the golf course came up one day, he said they probably help allevate tension by working as beta blockers.

John Daly, however, proves that's not always an effective way to deal with your demons.

It's time for the PGA Tour to get on with its drug-testing plan. Make it as tough as Oakmont and no one will dare test it.

It's hard not to like Angel Cabrera

Trying to make sense of a U.S. Open that managed to be compelling despite fewer birdies than an Optimist Club outing:

· It’s hard not to like Angel Cabrera. I mean, here’s a guy who can absolutely mash a golf ball and isn’t afraid to light up between shots. That was perfect for Oakmont, in Arnie’s back yard, considering the King was always being photographed with a cigarette dangling from his lips.
“There are some players that have psychologists,” Cabrera said. “I smoke.”

· And I wonder, does El Pato (the duck) always wear yellow on Sundays?

· When Tiger Woods reflects on this near miss, two things may come to his mind - how much better his Saturday score could have been and the skulled pitch shot he hit from behind the third green Sunday that led to his only double bogey of the week.
The 69 he shot in the third round was as high a score as it could’ve been and it easily could’ve been three or four shots lower.
He didn’t play particularly well Sunday - he never seemed to find his rhythm - but he relied on his heavenly short game to continually bail him out of trouble. But the skull he hit at the third hole was shocking and, as he said so many times, you can’t win the Open if you make doubles.

· In his last four majors, Tiger has finished 1-1-2-2.

· And consider this stat: In his first 21 majors as a pro, Tiger won seven and never finished second. The next 21, he’s won five and finished second four times. Sound like Nicklaus?

· Bubba Watson impressed me. I didn’t think he had it in him to be as consistent as he was at the Open.

· Really now, other than Tiger, who’s going to look good wearing that red shirt he had on Sunday afternoon? I know Nike isn’t trying to sell shirts to those of old enough to remember Orville Moody but I don’t see a big rush coming for those Tiger shirts.

· Aaron Baddeley. Oh no.

· You can bet that the Open will be back at Oakmont in about 10 years. And it should be. But make it just a little bit easier, please.

· Did Jim Furyk learn anything from Phil Mickelson’s mistake last year at Winged Foot?
Why did he hit driver at the 17th hole, knowing it brought bogey into the equation? Hit an iron off the tee, wedge it into the green and try to make birdie that way. That was a crushing way to go after birdies at 13, 14 and 15 were writing a classic comeback story.
Furyk said he didn’t know he was tied for the lead at the time and he’d hit driver again in the same situation. It killed a great story about a western Pennsylvania guy winning at Oakmont.

Woods was teasingly close to flawless

History will record Tiger Woods’ third-round score at the U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club Saturday as a 1-under par 69 and it will look, days and years from now, like just another good score in a long line.

But Woods flirted with Johnny Miller territory Saturday and had he been able to redirect his golf ball a total of, say, three inches, he might have shot 63 himself.

That’s how good Woods was in terms of ballstriking in the third round. When he birdied the third and fourth holes to get the attention of the tournament leaders before they teed off, a ripple of excitement was finally in the Oakmont air.

It looked and felt as if something spectacular were going to happen thanks to the chiseled man in the turquoise shirt. He was in control of a golf course that had been in control of everyone – save Paul Casey on Friday – since the tournament began.

Walking the back nine with Tiger on a Saturday afternoon warm enough to put a sheen of sweat on most faces, it was like watching a master at work. The few fairways he missed – until his tee shot at No. 18 leaked right into a bunker – were by a yard or two.

He kept firing iron shots at the flag, posing after them.

"Very clinical," playing partner Nick Dougherty said.

And the putts kept burning the edge of the hole. An eagle putt at four peeked in. A downhill slider at the fifth singed the lip. A birdie at the 13th played peek-a-boo with the hole.

It was teasingly close to flawless.

And it left Tiger teasingly close to another major championship.

Ron Green Jr.

Is the U.S. Open ready for Bubba?

Well, I missed another chance to retire early.

Imagine the odds I could’ve gotten two days ago on Bubba Watson being one shot out of the lead midway through the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

The Open and Bubba go together like stripes and plaids. But on a course that has dinged, dented and destroyed many of the best players in the world, Bubba and his pink-shafted driver are cruising along like it’s a friendly game back home in Bagdad, Fla.

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Bubba posts a number somewhere in the 80s either of the next two days, but so far he’s handled Oakmont like it’s no big deal.

He’s throttled back his power, played smart golf and he’s suddenly a factor in a major for the first time, though he admitted Friday evening he’ll "feel like throwing up" all weekend.

He won’t have his buddy Boo Weekley in his pairing tomorrow, which will significantly decrease the biscuits and gravy talk, but in a tournament searching for a personality beyond that of the course, Bubba has stepped forward.

It seemed like every time you looked up Friday, there was Tiger or Phil or David Toms chopping it out of trouble. Then there was Bubba hanging around, letting the tournament come to him.

Bubba has taken to playing early-morning practice rounds with Woods recently, picking the brain of the world’s best player on any number of subjects related to golf. One thing he hasn’t asked Tiger about is how to handle the pressure of being in contention on a major championship weekend.

That’s something, Woods said, everyone has to learn for themselves.
Now it’s Bubba’s turn.

Ron Green Jr.

U.S. Open goes high tech

The U.S. Open, which helped define old school, has gone high tech.

The USGA, which oversees the Open, has made available to the media and some other guests, a neat little gizmo that looks like a Blackberry but isn’t cluttered with all those annoying e-mails.

This little silver magic box is called myLeaderboard and it’s a handheld electronic leader board you operate with, appropriately enough, a golf tee that helps you scroll up and down the screens of information.

No matter where you are on the course - and there are some faraway spots at Oakmont - the contraption lets you know exactly where things stand.

You can look up the hole-by-hole score of any player, find out where that player is on the course, access directions, get scoring statistics and tell you tee times. It does everything but read putts and ask if you’d like mustard on your hot dog.

It’s easy to use, even for someone like myself who has come no closer to a Blackberry than in a cobbler.

The screen is easy to read and it has full color graphics.

That’s going overboard because at the U.S. Open, there’s no reason to have red numbers.

Dougherty, leader of the band

Here's what you need to know about Nick Dougherty, the leader after the first round of the U.S. Open:

He's a 25-year old from Liverpool, England, who has one European Tour victory, was mentored by Nick Faldo and learned to play the flute after his father traded one of Paul McCartney's guitars for the instrument.

Seems everyone from Liverpool has a Beatles connection. Dougherty's comes from the fact his father was a friend of Pete Best, the guy who was a Beatle before the group slid him out in favor of Ringo Starr.

Dougherty's dad had one of McCartney's guitars and decided his son should learn to play the flute to keep him occupied on those lonely nights on the road while playing golf.

"His general idea was, 'When you're on tour, it will entertain you, to be able to sit in your room and play the flute,'" Dougherty said. "You can imagine it, can't you? TGI Friday's is much more fun."

Dougherty said he gave the flute to his brother and feels bad about it. Bad enough that if he wins the Open, he said he'd buy his brother a house.
It's too early to think about that but Dougherty insists he has changed in recent years, committing himself to golf more than having fun and he's become a better player.

"It's been two years of evidence that this was the right thing to do," Dougherty said. "You know, I was a young man and young men have fun. I don't regret it. Now I know the right way to run my life and go about my professional career because I know what not to do. "That was diplomatic, wasn't it?"

Yes, it was.

Early impressions from first round of U.S. Open

- The course at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club is as tough as advertised. Arron Oberholser started on the par-4 10th hole, hit the green in regulation and then four-putted. Nice way to spoil your breakfast.

- Sergio Garcia is about to be 0-for-32 in majors. He shot 7-over par 42 on his first nine holes.

- It’s hard to imagine better scoring conditions than this morning. There was plenty of rain last night to soften the course and it’s been cloudy and cool with a little breeze so far. So, yes, over par is going to win this tournament.

- You have to see the hole location on the 18th green to really appreciate it. It’s cut in a small valley on the right side of the green, essentially between two small mountains.

-Zach Johnson had a 60-footer that – and this is no exaggeration – he aimed at least 20 feet left of the hole and 10 feet past the hole. He then watched his ball roll up a slope behind the hole and then gradually slide back down the hill toward the cup. Not close enough. He still three-putted.

- Phil Mickelson is getting minute-by-minute attention because of his injured wrist. He hit practice balls earlier in the day and apparently couldn’t handle hitting a driver. At least that was the word circulating around the course.

Ron Green Jr.

Observations before the U.S. Open

Clearing up a few things before the U.S. Open begins:

Mother Nature must’ve thought Oakmont was too tough for the U.S. Open.
Despite the wishes of the USGA, a heavy thunderstorm drenched Oakmont Wednesday afternoon at 5 p.m., immediately changing the texture of the tournament.

Had it not rained, Oakmont was primed to play firm and fast with the green speeds being measured in nanoseconds.
But the rain changed everything. The course will play softer now, especially Thursday morning when play begins. It will be easier to attack hole locations but the rough, already a gnarly mess, will be more menacing.

Phil Mickelson played nine holes Wednesday at Oakmont, completing his final preparation for the Open, but he still has not hit a driver this week.
Mickelson, nursing inflammation in his left wrist, decided not to test his hand with a driver swing during his practice sessions Tuesday and Wednesday. Mickelson intends to use his driver in the tournament but took a more conservative approach in practice.
He looked just fine when he striped a long iron shot to within four feet of the hole at the 18th Wednesday afternoon, before adjourning to the practice green for some work and, finally, icing his wrist.

By the time the U.S. Open returns to Pinehurst in 2014, Davis Love III will be eligible for the Champions Tour and the Open will seem fresh again at Pinehurst.
It was terrific two years ago at No. 2 but coming just six years after the first Open, it felt familiar. It will be different in 2014.

In case you were wondering, a few players have hit irons into the 288-yard, par-3 eighth hole during practice rounds. Hybrids and 3-woods have been the most popular club choice, however.

Interesting scene on the practice tee Wednesday – Vijay Singh warming up while talking to Chi Chi Rodriguez, who was wearing a black leather jacket despite temperatures in the low 80s. Wonder if Vijay was asking permission to start using Chi Chi’s famous sword dance after birdies?

Oakmont set to bludgeon golf's best

Oakmont is such a pretty place for a massacre.

It’s big and green and standing behind the Tudor-style clubhouse, it’s possible to see portions of 17 of the 18 holes on what club members and many others believe to be the toughest test in golf this side of Carnoustie.

But the U.S. Open is golf’s version of body punching an opponent into submission or intensive care.

That’s where Oakmont is expected to shine – like a really deep bruise.

We’ll of course have to wait and see if all the predictions of ballooning scores come true. There has been idle speculation that someone will post a score in the 90s this week. Since John Daly is not here, it’s tough to guess exactly who that unfortunate soul might be if it comes to pass.

Speaking of Daly, his act has grown tired. What once made him a colorful character has long since lost its charm.

But this Open doesn’t include Daly. It includes Phil Mickelson’s injured wrist, which is getting more attention than Michelle Wie’s bad wrists.

Mickelson had practiced but not played for two days at Oakmont before Tuesday morning, when he played a practice round with no apparent difficulty other than trying not to smile when he’d bust his driver 50 yards past playing partner Fred Funk.

Among the many interesting things about Oakmont is the fact the Pennsylvania Turnpike literally runs through the middle of the course; Nothing quite like hitting a tee shot to the 288-yard par-3 (yeah, right) eighth hole with the rumbling noise of 18-wheelers in your ears.

But then, Oakmont isn’t like anyplace else. The members love how tough their course is, brag about it in fact.

They cut out, depending on whose count you pick, somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 full-grown trees since the last Open was played here in 1994. The course was designed without trees and all those that had been planted to beautify the place had changed the character of the beast, so they were done away with.

Environmentalists may cringe but it a brilliant bit of work with chain saws. The place is spectacular.

Perhaps this Open will be as well.

Of perverse pleasure and four-putts

There will be an overdose of discussion in the next week about the difficulty of Oakmont Country Club, site of this year’s U.S. Open.

That’s not unusual. Every year there’s talk about how tough the Open course is because, for all the chatter about it being a total examination of a player’s game, the Open is about beating the starch out of players with bogeys.

Many fans take a perverse pleasure in watching the best golfers in the world shoot 77 as if there’s some fun in that. If you want to watch bogeys, spend 15 minutes at any course around and you’ll get an eyeful.

I understand the Open wants to be tougher than a $2 steak.

What I’ve never understood is why so many golfers want their home courses to be so hard. Oakmont members take special pride in how their course beats up everyone.

I’ve played Oakmont and it beat me up. The member hosting me said there’s an expectation that every first-time player at Oakmont - regardless of his or her handicap - will four-putt at least once on the diabolical greens. I can’t speak for everyone but I can say I didn’t disappoint my host.

Oakmont’s reputation is built on its difficulty and it’s been well earned. Playing it was maybe the most fun I’ve had getting beat up.

But this is not specifically about Oakmont, which is in a special category.

My question is why club members, who theoretically play golf for fun, want to make their course so hard the fun is buried under thick collars of rough around the greens and on 485-yard par-4s.

They take it personally if someone suggests another course is tougher than theirs as if there’s something wrong with that. Maybe it’s a macho thing.

Golf’s hard enough on an easy course. Why make it more difficult?