2018 Major Tournaments & Ryder Cup

Good thoughts, Zim.

I thought Mickelson's rules violation was well calculated. He dashed around after his 5th stroke on the hole and got into a putting stance and, for his 6th stroke, he struck the ball in motion. That's a two shot penalty. It took him 2 more to get down. So he made a 10. Imagine the uproar if he'd holed the putt he made when he struck the ball in motion? Not likely, but possible. Then he'd have made a 7! It would have been different if, say, he'd simply stuck his putter out and stopped the ball. Then he'd have risked a DQ because he interfered with a ball in play instead of playing a moving ball. Semantics? Pretty much but the rules are the rules.

I remember a few years ago when Tiger appeared to be in jail behind a huge boulder that was thought to be stationary by nearly everyone. Except Tiger! He called a bunch of spectators over and they rolled the boulder out of the way, giving Tiger an unobstructed line to the hole. Then there was the idiocy of the rules when the Walrus' ball was under a bush in some tall grass and he laid a towel on the ground and knelt on the towel to keep his trousers clean and whacked the ball out from under the bush, marginally better than taking an unplayable lie penalty as it turned out. Except for the towel part -- that was considered "building a stance" and even though it was obvious that he gained no advantage -- except maybe the $5 bucks it might have cost to have his hotel launder the trousers! -- the use of the towel cost him a 2 stroke penalty. Except he didn't know that when he signed his scorecard and some viewer called it in to TV and Stadler ended up being DQ'ed when I believe he would have won even with the penalty. Different situations in some respects but it's the same in that the rules are the rules and they don't always work a just result.

I was pulling for Patrick Reed as he made the turn, but he fell apart on the back nine. I was hoping to see him get his second major in a row -- that hasn't happened since Tiger's wife beat him up with a driver. But I'm very good with Koepka winning back to back US Opens -- the first to pull that off this century! It was fitting that Curtis Strange -- the last to win back to back US Opens -- was doing the interview following the awards ceremony. I didn't see much play on Saturday, so I don't understand how DJ -- he'd been playing so well -- managed +7 and squandered what would have been a huge lead. He may have gone Greg Norman on Sunday, I guess, and that would have been worse. The bottom line is that there are just a ton of good players right now, any of whom is capable of getting red hot and winning any tournament. Add Fleetwood to the list.

You're right that the course conditions changed dramatically during the day. Some of that was wind, and that's always been a luck of the draw kind of thing. And some guys managed to shoot low scores on the bad days/bad times. Not many, but it happened. Because of the set up, the players always whine about conditions at the US Open. I think the zeal to keep scores close to par does interfere with the golf course and can render it an unfair test. Next year, they return to Pebble where the high rough will pretty much be all they need to do to keep scores fairly high. The winds almost always show up out there.

Casey lost The Travelers to Bubba Watson in a playoff in 2015. Bubba was near the lead when I tuned in today. Rematch?

If he's playing well, maybe it bodes well for him with The Open Championship coming up soon? He's never won a Major. Might this be Casey's year?

Feel the Open Championship will have a surprise winner this year, just my gut feeling, should be a good one none the less.

Something I wasn't sure I would ever see again, but flipped on the Open coverage and Tiger Woods was tied for the lead at -6 through 15. As I type this though he bogied 16 and Kisner birdied to go to -7.

Play is nearly over for the day.  Tiger slipped down the leaderboard as guys surged ahead of him, but then mistakes knocked some of them back down.  With only a few players still on the course, Tiger's -5 position that Zim noted is still good for a tie for 6th with six other players.

Jordan Spieth made an attempt to steal the spotlight from Tiger, carding a -6, 65 today.  Spieth is currently tied for the lead with Kisner and Schauffele at -9.

The winds are forecast to pick up to the 20 mph range tomorrow, which will contrast with the fairly calm conditions today.  

It will be very interesting!

Congrats to Molinari! That's a great win.

He had to deal with Tiger at the top of a major leader board on Sunday -- the first time that's happened in years. Rory ended up second. Tiger should have tied for 2nd, but bogeyed the last, giving the Europeans a sweep of the top spots.

One of the most impressive stats about Jack Nicklaus is the number of times he finished 2nd in the majors: 19 times!  Rory played hard to the end.  Tiger knew it was over and took his foot off the gas.  Rory played earlier and would have been trying to put up as low a number as possible.  I don't know how many of Jacks 2nds were of that type or how many were arguably chokes where he should have won.  That would be an interesting project!

Finally Jordan Spieth had a very tough Sunday, squandering a nice lead going into the last day.  He still had a chance on the back nine but just couldn't get anything going and really couldn't make a putt to save his sole.