If golf were in the Olympics this year...

   If golf were in these Olympics (it returns to the Games in 2016) the United States would have four players in competition -- Tiger Woods, Webb Simpson, Bubba Watson and Jason Dufner.

   No Phil Mickelson.

   The way the selection process is set, players will be chosen based on their world ranking on a certain date. The two top-ranked players for each competing country will qualify. If a country has four players among the top 15 in the world, it will be allowed to enter four players.

   That's not likely to change.

   What should change is the Olympic format. Right now, it calls for a 72-hole stroke-play tournament just like almost every other golf tournament.  So much for imagination or creativity. As others have suggested, how about two-man team play or something else? 

   Since they still haven't started building the Olympic course in Rio, it's not too late to tinker with the format.

   

Kiawah ready for its PGA moment next week

  It's been seven years since Kiawah Island Golf Resort learned it would host the 2012 PGA Championship and more than three years since championship director Brett Sterba set up shop to begin putting the physical pieces together at the Ocean Course.

   On Monday, it all comes to life.

   "After all the years of waiting for this, for it to be here next week is exciting," resort president Roger Warren said. "The major stuff is done. We're just putting the finishing touches on things now. We'll be ready."

   Each PGA Championship has its logistical challenges and this one is no exception. 

   Ticket sales were limited so that no more than 30,000 people will be on site during tournament rounds. With no public parking within the resort and very limited roads leading into Kiawah Island, the traffic plan received high priority and officials are optimistic it will limit congestion near the resort.

   The Ocean Course is a dramatic setting, framed by the Atlantic Ocean. It has challenging spots for spectators to walk among the dunes that line most holes but special viewing areas have been created with large gathering spots for fans. 

    Warren said officials anticipate 10,000 fans for practice rounds Monday, 15,000 on Tuesday and around 20,000 on Wednesday. Somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 are expected each day beginning Thursday.

   "The thing I'm looking forward to is the reaction of people when they arrive at the course and see the scope of the effort that has been put forth," Warren said.

Simpson 'so thankful' for Willow Grace

  Webb Simpson and his wife, Dowd, are parents of a daughter, Willow Grace, who arrived Saturday.
   "We are so thankful," Simpson said in a short message Sunday morning.
   Willow Grace is the couple's second child. They have a one-year old son, James.
   With both mother and daughter doing well, Simpson plans to return to the PGA Tour in another week when he tees it up at the PGA Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.

Bobby Jones used clubs that were later outlawed

  While the discussion continues about whether the R&A and USGA will ban the anchoring of long putters in the future – there seems to be a growing sense that they’ll be outlawed in 2016 – such a change wouldn’t require asterisks by major winners who used belly putters.

   Peter Dawson, the R&A boss, pointed out in his Monday press conference that Bobby Jones won some of his major championships using concave-faced clubs that were later deemed to be illegal.

   There’s no asterisk next to Jones’ achievements.

   It would and should be the same for any players who win majors with anchored putters now if the rules are changed in the future.

   According to Martin Dempster’s story in the Scotsman this week, 16 of the 156 players in the Open Championship used belly putters while 27 players used long putters.

   No wonder the issue is getting a serious look for golf’s ruling bodies.

Is decision near on belly and long putters?

  Is a decision looming on the legality of the long and belly putters?

  It sounds like it.

  During his post-Open Championship press conference Monday, R&A chief executive Peter Dawson explained that his organization and the USGA are giving the subject a long, serious look. Not coincidentally, the question was raised again after belly putter-wielding Ernie Els won the Open after long-putter whiz Adam Scott kicked it away over the final holes.

   You had to wonder what the R&A suits were thinking watching Scott, Els and others putt with sticks that don't fit the traditional version of what a putter should be.

   Perhaps the belly putter is slightly more tolerable to the game's ruling elders than the broomstick-style that has helped Scott so much but the notion of seeing a new generation of youngsters growing up with putters stuck in their bellies or sternums must be disconcerting to the traditionalists.

   If you ask me, you shouldn't be able to anchor a club to your body during a stroke whether you're doing it like Scott does it, like Els does it, like Bernhard Langer used to do it and like any other putting-afflicted soul does battle on the greens. It doesn't mean I'm right, only that I think golfers should be required to make a stroke, not use a pendulum.

   That's not to discredit in any way the major championship victories of Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson or Ernie Els. If belly putting or long putting is so great, everyone would do it. They don't. 

   It's not a cure-all. But it's a growing trend and while the argument can be made it's already too far down the line to draw it back now, it bears examination.

   "Anchoring is what we're looking at, method of stroke, and it's all about putting around a fixed pivot point, whether that fixed pivot point is in your belly or under your chin or on your chest," Dawson told reporters Monday. "I don't distinguish between the two. It's a matter of stroke issue."

  Don't expect an immediate announcement but perhaps something later this year.

  And if you've abandoned the short putter for a belly or long putter, keep a short putter around just in case. 

Sims shoots 59 in eGolf event

 Michael Sims of Bermuda cracked perhaps golf's most dramatic barrier Thursday, shooting a 12-under par 59 in the second round of the Southern Open at the Country Club of Salisbury.

   Sims, who played four years on the Web.com (formerly Nationwide) tour, became the first player to break 60 in competition on the Charlotte-based eGolf Professional Tour.

   He birdied his first eight holes Thursday on his way to an 8-under par 27 on the front side of the Donald Ross-designed course. Sims made four putts of 10 feet or longer among his eight opening birdies.

   "What's cool is that the 27 on the front nine is my lowest (score) by two," Sims said. "I shot 29 on this tour a few years ago."

  A birdie at the 10th pushed Sims to 9-under par. After four consecutive pars, Sims birdied the par-5 15th, holed a 22-foot birdie putt at the 16th and had a tap-in birdie at the 17th. He parred the finishing hole to post 59.

   Sims said he had forgotten the par was 71 and thought he had shot 60 when he missed a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 18

   "I hit that birdie putt and left it a few inches short and thought, 'You have to be kidding me,'" Sims said. "When the other guys in the group congratulated me, I remembered that it was par-71. Pretty surreal feeling."

   Sims, who shot 71 in the first round, will enter the final round of the Southern Open Friday trailing 36-hole leader Drew Weaver by one stroke.

-- Ron Green Jr.

A Charlotte version of the Tavistock Cup?

   Jeff Conyers has an idea.
   He wants to create a Charlotte version of the Tavistock Cup, the early-spring shootout among touring pros representing their respective golf clubs in the Orlando, Fla., area.
   It would be different here. It wouldn't involve tour players unless, say, Johnson Wagner wanted to play for Quail Hollow or Robert Karlsson got involved for Longview, but the idea is to bring together teams representing 15 golf clubs in the Charlotte area.
   Each team would have a foursome, perhaps two foursomes, and there would be a one-day tournament for what would be called the Shepherd's Cup.
   In addition to the golf aspect, the event would be a fund-raiser for the Shepherd's Center, a non-profit organization that provides for seniors, helping empower them in a variety of ways.
   The organization hosts a one-day captain's choice event at Olde Sycamore to raise funds for the group. Last year, 14 foursomes participated.
   Watching The Tavistock Cup, which originally pitted the pros from Isleworth against those at Lake Nona in Orlando, got Conyers thinking about creating something like that here.
   It's a good idea.
   There are interclub matches among various clubs during the year but this would, ideally, bring all the clubs together one time. It would also allow for other foursomes to participate.
   Conyers said he's already received the support of some club pros in the area and he's attempting to reach out to every local club to assess the interest level.
  If you're interested, contact Jeff Conyers at 704-321-0490 or via email at jeff@InsureEd.com. 

Bunker shots: Phil, Webb and Half Moon Bay

   Splashing out a few bunker shots:
   -- Did you ever think you'd see Phil Mickelson post seven straight over-par rounds on the PGA Tour?
   That's where his game is now as he heads across the Atlantic to play the Scottish Open this week before the Open Championship next week. He shot 79 in his one full round at The Memorial, wasn't a factor at the U.S. Open and flamed out in two days at the Greenbrier.
   He said his game isn't that far off but the results suggest otherwise.
   -- Peter Williamson, who won the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst over the weekend, doesn't have the big amateur profile of some other players but he's getting there.
   Williamson was a three-time Ivy League champion at Dartmouth, was medalist in the expanded 54-hole qualifier at Pinehurst and never trailed in his finals victory over Clemson's Thomas Bradshaw.
  -- It was surprising to see Webb Simpson come unglued on the back nine Sunday. With nine holes to go, it looked like Simpson was on his way to a second victory then he shot a fat 40 coming in, falling quickly out of contention in a tournament where he was the only leader with a victory on his resume.
   Talking to reporters afterward, Simpson, who had gone 59 consecutive holes without a bogey, said, "It's just the nature of the game. You go from not making any mistakes all week to making them all on the back nine."
   He'll learn from it and be fine, I expect.
   Simpson doesn't plan to play again until the WGC event at Firestone next month while he and wife, Dowd, await the birth of their second child later this month.
  -- While on the West Coast last month, I got a chance to play the spectacularly attractive Half Moon Bay Ocean Course.
   It's one of the prettiest golf courses I've ever been on and, if you're in the San Francisco area, it's worth the short drive south to Half Moon Bay. The views, from almost every hole, are tremendous and they did a nice job designing wide fairways and accessible greens to keep resort play moving.
   Even if you don't play well, the experience is enough to make you smile.
  

Dottie Pepper finally gets her chance

   Meg Mallon got it right by making Dottie Pepper one of her assistant captains for the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club.
   And, hopefully, it will lead to Pepper getting the chance to captain the U.S. Solheim Cup team somewhere down the road.
   It would probably have happened by now had Pepper, who played at Furman, not been caught calling the American team "choking dogs" when she thought her microphone was off during the 2007 matches. She's always been brutally honest and fiesty and it came back to bite her, even if she thought her comments wouldn't be heard by anyone without a television headset on.
   "I had kind of made good with it a long time ago that, hey, I screwed up. The guy on the switch screwed up. We all screwed up. And that if that was the way it was going to be, that was the way it was going to be. I couldn't change that," Pepper said in a press conference announcing her appointment.
   Some people felt the comment killed Pepper's chance of ever being part of a Solheim Cup team but, fortunately, it didn't.
   If you remember Pepper, you recall how her emotion practically glowed in the international competition. She was criticized for her exuberance but that's her nature.
   She'll be a terrific addition to Mallon's team. They compliment each other, Mallon calling herself a broad brush person while Pepper is good with logistics. It's also a necessary step in setting Pepper up to captain the team down the road, maybe in 2015.
    Wouldn't that be fun?

Andy Griffith leaves us memories and reruns

   When my eight-year old nephew saw an image of Andy Griffith on the computer screen today, he stopped and said, "Hey, Andy Griffith."
   What other 86-year old entertainer would an eight-year old recognize?
   It speaks in a small way to who Andy Griffith was, not just to my boomer generation, but to seemingly every generation that will be celebrating the Fourth of July on Wednesday. He was Andy Taylor, the great American sheriff and moralist.
   Andy Taylor was a television creation but what made him enduring is how much we wanted him to be real. Andy Griffith was real and, though most of us knew him only through the characters he played, I hope he was something like the sheriff who didn't carry a gun.
   When the news came that Andy -- if you're born in North Carolina, you're born on a first-name basis with Mr. Griffith -- had passed away in Manteo, I felt it. Maybe you did, too.
   He had that kind of effect on many of us.
    'The Andy Griffith Show' went off the air more than 50 years ago but it has lived on through syndication, the rare television show that can be shared by three generations. It was about Barney Fife and Opie, Ernest T. Bass and Aunt Bea, Helen Crump and Thelma Lou.
    At its heart, though, it was about Andy.
   Andy Griffith did many things in his career but he is best remembered for being the sheriff of an imaginary town where most of the trouble was caused by Barney. Andy Taylor wasn't perfect but he set a nearly perfect example for Opie and the rest of us. It was simple but it felt right.
   Think about this: How rare is it to come across an 'Andy Griffith' episode you don't remember?
   Barney's side car?
   Aunt Bea's pickles?
   The goat that ate dynamite?
   Seen it, seen it, seen it.
   Miss Crump, I think I luv you...
   You can probably hear it.
   Andy Griffith gave us that and more.
   To borrow a line from perhaps the best episode of 'The Andy Griffith Show,' a lot of hearts feel empty today.
   But don't our memories seem nice and full.

   

Linville: Playing mountain music

   There is an everlasting charm to Linville.
   If you've been there, whether to take the edge off the summer heat, spend a night at the Eseeola Lodge or just driving through to look at the October leaves, you probably know what I'm talking about. It's just a small mountain town at the foot of Grandfather Mountain, the kind of place you could drive through without noticing but if you've been there, chances are you brought a piece of it home with you.
   Linville was missing its traditional summer softness this past weekend, the thermometer nudging 90. A Charlotte resident, who's had a summer home in Linville for 25 years, said Thursday was the first time he'd turned the air-conditioner on in the evening in all those years.
   Still, there was a freshness in the unseasonably warm mountain air. The flowers, whether in a professionally landscaped garden or growing wild on a hillside, were spectacular. If I were a gardener -- I have the withered skeletons of potted plants to prove I'm not -- I could list the various types of flowers that were in bloom. Instead, think of the best colors in Crayola's 64-crayon box and most of them were on display either in window boxes, little gardens or just off the side of the road.
   The wedding party ducking into the Eseeola Lodge Saturday afternoon couldn't have found a Hollywood set better as a backdrop for their big occasion. The little stream out front. The mountains on both sides. The scent of summer in the air.
    When people ask me my favorite golf courses in North Carolina, I always include Linville Golf Club. I've been fortunate enough to play there a handful of times and spent Saturday afternoon there with Appalachian State football coach Jerry Moore, Harris Prevost and my dad. It's the kind of course you'd like to play every day and those are more rare than you might imagine.
   Moore is one of the region's great natural resources and he fits the North Carolina mountains like a good sweater. Prevost is the Tiger Woods of finding golf balls. He once found 100 on the 11th hole at Grandfather Golf and Country Club, a testament to high handicappers, his tenacity and his refusal to ever pay for a Titleist. He was one shy of a finding a dozen Saturday -- and that doesn't count the two times he fished my Titleist 1 out of two different creeks.
   My dad still tells the story of playing at Linville decades ago and seeing two guys in his group hit it inside five feet on the first hole. Beat that, one said to him. So he did. He holed his second shot for an eagle.
   Late Saturday afternoon, we drove through Banner Elk, climbed a curvy road up the hill at the Elk River Club and found ourselves looking across the mountains from the deck of Max Muhleman's house. Muhleman is the man who convinced George Shinn and David Stern that NBA basketball could work in Charlotte and then did the same with Jerry Richardson and Paul Tagliabue bringing the NFL to Charlotte.
   Besides earning Muhleman the everlasting appreciation of Charlotte sport fans, it earned him a commanding view across the golf course below and the mountainside in the distance. He deserves a statue outside one of our arenas but the view from his deck will do.
   That evening, a big moon hung over Grandfather Mountain in the distance, its light a summer night's blanket.
   On Sunday morning, the skirl of bagpipes could be heard coming from a church.
   Another day, another chorus of mountain music.

First Tee looking for new executive director

   The First Tee of Charlotte is looking for a new executive director with the announcement that Jennifer MacCurrach is leaving June 30 to return to Austin, Tex., where she will run the First Tee program there.
   MacCurrach came to Charlotte from Austin, where she will return.
   A search for a new executive is under way.
   In the meantime, Ian Bollinger will continue as director of instruction and Kaitlyn Jarman will continue as marketing and events manager for the program.

Big changes underway at Quail Hollow

  Quail Hollow Club is in the midst of another facelift.
   Several significant changes are underway that will alter the way the course plays next May when the Wells Fargo Championship returns. More changes are likely in the coming years in advance of the 2017 PGA Championship.
   Two holes -- Nos. 4 and 8 -- are undergoing major changes while the 11th, 12th and 13th holes are being tweaked.
   To accommodate a new short game practice area, the tee on the par-4 fourth hole is being shifted approximately 50 yards to the left and the hole will be lengthened to 508 yards from the championship tee. From the new tees, the hole will play straightaway, eliminating the gentle right to left movement of its former design.
   The move allows the club to expand its practice tees and create a new short-game area with three greens. The existing short-game area, located to the right of the practice range, will be converted into a tournament parking area.
   Among the features of the new short game area will be a sod-faced bunker, reminiscent of those on the famous links courses in Scotland and Ireland.
   The short par-4 eighth hole is also being revamped with a new green being built to the left of the existing green, which was among the most controversial on the course. The tees will be shifted slightly and the hole will play between 325 and 340 yards with an opening at the front of the green to allow long hitters to attempt to fit their tee shots between two bunkers.
   Bushes behind the 10th green and adjacent to the 13th tee have been removed and the tee on the 13th hole will be lowered and shifted to the right, changing the angle of approach to the heavily contoured green. Also, the back tee at the par-4 11th hole will be moved back in order to bring a fairway bunker back into play.
   The 12th green, which has been openly criticized by Phil Mickelson among others, is also being rebuilt to soften the severe contour.
   In addition, several cart paths behind the clubhouse and around the putting green are being removed. They will be replaced by a single path that will allow for better spectator movement.
  The project is expected to be completed by Aug. 15.
  Quail Hollow will convert to bermuda greens in advance of the 2017 PGA Championship and club president Johnny Harris said it's possible the transition could be made as early as next summer. The club is interviewing candidates for the superintendent position formerly held by Jeff Kent.
   "We knew we had to do some things," Harris said. "The changes will make it harder for the tournament players but not for our members. We don't have an Alister Mackenzie or Donald Ross heritage to worry about as far as making changes. If the board thinks it's the right thing to do, we're going to do it."

Lang gives Duke program long overdue LPGA win

   One of the most inexplicable streaks in golf ended Sunday when Brittany Lang won the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in Ontario.
  Lang became the first former Duke women's golfer to win on the LPGA tour.
  Talk about overdue.
  But golf, as anyone who's ever played knows, has its own way of doing things. Ask Jenny Chuasiriporn, the Duke golfer who lost the 1999 U.S. Women's Open to the legendary Se Ri Pak in a playoff. Chuasiriporn was a good player, not a great one, but for one charmed week she made herself a piece of history.
  It was Chuisiriporn's one shining professional moment but it was a great one.
  She was at the front end of what has become a golf dynasty, headed by Dan Brooks, who has the gift for spotting talent and cultivating it. Brooks and the Blue Devils have won five national championships, being similar in golf to what Mike Krzyzewski and his program have been to men's basketball.
   But LPGA victories had been an elusive target.
   From Amanda Blumenherst to Anna Grzebien, from Liz Janagelo to Virada Nirapathpongporn and from Beth Bauer to Candy Hanneman, Duke has produced outstanding players. The latest is Lindy Duncan, the reigning national player of the year.
   But for one reason or another, the LPGA victories hadn't come.
   Lang,a All-American at Duke in 2004 and 2005, has been close several times and is regarded as one of the tour's top players. But she needed a victory because that's what the best play for.
   When she got it Sunday, Lang got it for herself and for a program that didn't need LPGA Tour victories to validate its success but more than deserved it.
   "I can't believe it took me seven years to get a win out here," Lang said after her victory.
   Hard to believe it took the Blue Devils that long to break through. Perhaps, it's the first of many more.

Simpson to skip British Open as due date nears

  For Webb Simpson, the U.S. Open just keeps going.
  He got home early Monday morning, spent a day in Charlotte, let his father-in-law take the U.S. Open trophy to his office, did some interviews and, while spending time with his young son, James, tried to absorb what he had accomplished.
   The reaction has overwhelmed Simpson.
  "It's been great," Simpson told reporters at the Travelers Championship. "I've gotten so many texts or messages on Twitter. I got some emails from older guys who I've looked up to my whole life that I didn't expect. So that kind of just congratulatory reception from them has been great. And I've got a couple of emails from older golfers that I'm probably going to print out and frame and guys that I've respected so much in so many areas of life. They've just given me invaluable advice through these emails that I didn't expect.
  "Tom Watson wrote me a great email. Greg Norman left me a message on the phone and some other guys, Hale Irwin, who I've never even met before. Just guys that are legends of the game that have told me some things that I would have paid for."
   Simpson also talked with Arnold Palmer, whose name was on his Wake Forest golf scholarship. Palmer sent Simpson a note and they were together on Golf Channel's 'Morning Drive' show.
   Simpson is playing the Travelers Championship this week outside Hartford, Ct., honoring a commitment he made before he changed his golf life with his victory at The Olympic Club last Sunday. It's where Simpson played his second professional event in 2008 after writing a letter asking for a sponsor exemption in the field and he hasn't forgotten the tournament's willingness to give him a spot.
   With his wife, Dowd, due to give birth in late July to their second child, Simpson has decided he won't play the British Open next month.
   "I'm a guy who loves my family, and we're probably only going to have a couple more babies, so I have the rest of my life to play in the British Open. I don't want to miss the birth of the second child. So it's an easy decision," he said in his press conference.
  "After winning it's certainly a little harder not to go because I'd love to go and try to win another major, but in the grand scheme of things and grand scheme of life it's a decision that I know I'll always be happy that I made. Because the first experience watching my first son being born was one of the greatest experiences I think a person can have. And I don't want to miss it again."
   

Playing Olympic: One man's struggle

So you're wondering how hard The Olympic Club really was if Webb Simpson won the U.S. Open at 1-over par?

Well, let me tell you.

Tougher than the ice road truckers. It would scare the swamp people.

Because there wasn't a Monday playoff, I was among the media people whose name was pulled in a lottery, giving me the chance to tee it up at Olympic.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. And, to fully appreciate the challenge of playing a U.S. Open, our group decided to play Olympic just as it was played in Sunday's final round. That means the same tees, the same hole locations, the same trapdoors to step through.

I won't bore you with my scorecard. No one wants to hear someone else's hole by hole account of their round of golf unless they're getting paid caddie fee.

Let's start this way: Tiger played the famously difficult first six holes in 6-over par on Sunday. He beat me. By four.

But I did make a beautiful par at the tough, uphill par-4 second which seemed to be missing a fairway.

That was one highlight. We'll get to the other one momentarily.

A couple of things became clear while playing Olympic. It's the most visually intimidating driving course I've ever played. When the players talked about having to shape shots off the tee (sometimes hearing that can make my eyes glaze over), they meant it.

Imagine hitting a tee shot down a hotel hallway and having to turn it around a corner -- with ball-swallowing cypress trees on both sides. And if you miss the trees and the fairway, the rough is thicker than good clam chowder.

Trust me.

A playing parter missed the par-3 15th green by four inches -- four inches -- and we'd given up his ball for lost until someone almost stepped on it as he was preparing to drop another ball.

The greens were also smaller than they appeared. I've had dinner at tables bigger than the 18th green.

 Speaking of the 18th green, that was part of my other highlight. Nice 4-iron off the tee. Nice choke-down 8-iron up the hill and the same birdie putt Graeme McDowell had to force a playoff. His never had a chance. Mine hit the back of the hole and refused to fall in but it was an easy four.

One other thing worth noting: The burger dogs at the turn are as good as advertised. They're essentially cheeseburgers shaped to fit a hot dog bun but that's like calling the Mona Lisa a painting of a lady. The club doesn't own the halfway house. It's operated by an outside vendor who's been making the burger dogs for years, clogging arteries for decades.

They're fresh cooked when you order them and they're as good as hitting every fairway.

So what did I, who carries a 6.7 handicap index at Cedarwood Country Club, shoot?

It's not important.

The handicap computer will kick out that 96 anyway.

Photo: Lee Westwood uses binoculars to look for his ball in a tree on the fifth hole during the fourth round of the U.S. Open Championship golf tournament Sunday, June 17, 2012, at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.

The U.S. Open: Winners and losers

   Taking a last look at what happened -- and didn't happen -- at the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club:
   The Good
   -- Webb Simpson didn't lead the field in greens hit in regulation (58.3 percent), fairways in regulation (55.3) or birdies (13). But he made putts when he needed them and that wins U.S. Opens.
    Simpson's string of six straight one-putt greens midway through the final round proved to be the point of separation.
   -- Beau Hossler became a star. He didn't finish as low amateur -- Jordan Speith got that medal -- but Hossler became a crowd favorite with his play and his demeanor. He seemed unaffected by virtually everything. He's headed to Texas in another year. A guy named 'Hoss' playing for the Longhorns. Perfect.
  -- American golf seems just fine.
   It wasn't long ago this fall's Ryder Cup matches had practically been conceded to the Europeans. Six straight majors had been won by players from the other side of the Atlantic, Tiger was down, Phil was struggling and it was easy to hear European fans practicing their 'Ole, Ole' cheers for Medinah.
   Now the Americans have won three straight majors -- Keegan Bradley, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson -- while Matt Kuchar won The Players Championship. No wonder U.S. captain Davis Love III was smiling Sunday afternoon.
   -- Lee Westwood's attitude.
     He's tortured in majors like few others have been. His chances at Olympic died when his tee shot at the fifth hole lodged in a Monterey cypress, which eat golf balls the way kids eat candy. He looked like a bird watcher when he grabbed binoculars and tried to identify his ball in the tree.
   Still, he handled it beautifully. Climbing the huge staircase from the 18th green to the clubhouse Sunday after another disappointment, Westwood turned to his manager, Chubby Chandler, who was struggling up the steps behind him and said, "Pretend I'm wearing a short skirt."
   -- The Olympic Club: It was hard but players had no major complaints. There's already talk the U.S. Open may come back in another 10 years or so.
   The Bad
   -- Jim Furyk's finish. He missed the last five fairways in the final round, leading to a pair of bogeys that doomed his chances for a second Open.
   Pro golfers are creatures of habit and Furyk admitted he was flustered when he reached the par-5 16th hole and found the tee had been moved up 95 yards from where it had played earlier in the tournament. He wasn't prepared for that and said he couldn't get comfortable with the shot he wanted to hit. He wound up snap-hooking his tee shot into trouble, the beginning of his end.
   -- Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy: Numbers One and Two, respectively, flamed out on Thursday and couldn't save themselves on Friday.
   Donald seemed to try too hard and suddenly there are questions about McIlroy's focus. While both were huge disappointments, there's no reason for panic in either camp.
  -- Tiger's weekend: Perhaps the best that can be said is he scored better than Phil Mickelson on the weekend. When he needed it most, Woods couldn't hit fairways and couldn't make putts. He became just another guy trying to win and failing.
   -- The Bird Man: The clown wearing a Union Jack hat and crowing like a bird who disrupted the trophy presentation Sunday evening was last seen being escorted away on a golf cart wearing a bracelet of handcuffs.
   Credit to Webb Simpson for his quick reaction -- "Enjoy the jail cell, pal," -- and to USGA executive director Mike Davis who went middle linebacker on the guy.

Webb Simpson and the US Open trophy come home

   Webb Simpson, his wife Dowd and their new U.S. Open trophy took the red-eye home from San Francisco Sunday evening, jetting cross-country into a North Carolina morning new in so many ways.
   Simpson's gritty, impressive victory at The Olympic Club recast him as a professional golfer. There are good players. There are winners. And there are major champions.
   It was just the fifth major championship Simpson had played and while he believed he had the game to win a major, Simpson admitted he wasn't sure it would happen so soon.
   And here it is.
   Simpson joked that he had even more admiration for Tiger Woods, being able to win 14 times in golf's biggest tests. Simpson didn't want any more of the U.S. Open or Olympic.
   "I really didn't want a playoff," he said.
   It wasn't necessary when Graeme McDowell's last chance birdie putt missed on the 72nd hole.
   Simpson and Dowd watched the end on television in the locker room. When they weren't watching golf, they were watching videos on their phone of their son, James, who is just learning to walk.
   This was their first trip without their one-year old son and perhaps their last together until after Dowd gives birth to their second child, due Aug. 3.
    Two weeks ago, Simpson spent four days in Pinehurst, playing golf with his buddies, taking the nervous edge off his pre-Open preparations. He had missed consecutive cuts after his disappointment of not winning the Wells Fargo Championship at home, fixed a flaw in his swing and felt good flying west.
   Simpson felt even better flying home.

Can a 17-year old win the U.S. Open?

   Of all the potential story lines in the final round of the U.S. Open, none is more intriguing than the possibility -- with admittedly long odds -- of 17-year old amateur Beau Hossler going home with the trophy.
   "I still have the goal to be low amateur, but my goal now is to win the tournament," Hossler said Saturday afternoon with the bullet-proof mentality of a teenager.
   Why not?
   He starts the final round four strokes off the lead but with all the trapdoors scattered around The Olympic Club, it wouldn't take much for the leaders to move backward. If Hossler is the guy who moves forward, well, hello world.
   The U.S. Open is supposed to scare people. It hasn't scared Hossler. He looks like he's playing a friendly round with his mates from Rancho Santa Margherita High.
   You want emotion? He's not real big on that but his game says plenty.
   He's already booked to attend Texas but he has to finish high school first.
   It won't be a shock if shoots something close to 80 in the final round. It's a huge day and the golf course will be wicked.
   But maybe he'll shoot something under par. He thinks he can. That's the first step. 

McDowell: I don't fear success. I fear failure

   Rarely do you hear athletes talk about their fears.
   What's Tiger Woods afraid of? Who knows?
   But Graeme McDowell, who is 18 holes away from winning two U.S. Opens 90 miles and two years apart, made no secret Saturday night that he was wrestling with some demons before he teed off in the third round at The Olympic Club. McDowell was two off the lead before the round started and had the jitters, not unlike the feeling he had two years ago on Saturday at Pebble Beach.
   The difference this time is he's in the lead going into Sunday, not playing from behind as he did at Pebble Beach where Dustin Johnson soon chopped away his chances.
    "I've gone through these emotions all the time," McDowell said. "It's basic stuff. It's basically fear. Fear of going out there and messing it all up. The two fears we all have are fear of success and fear of failure. I don't fear success. I fear failure."
   McDowell said he expects to feel more relaxed Sunday than he did Saturday.
  "I'll just try to go out and do my job," he said. "If it's good enough, great. If it's not, perhaps I'll
drink a cold beer and get over it."
   Sounds like a plan.