Tiger who?
What was that Mickelson guy’s first name again?
There is a new king of golf…all hail the king!
Let’s all take a deep breath and remember that it is after all – the end of the second day of the US Open. If Mr. McIlroy plays the next two days as he played the first two, then a coronation is in order.
The crowd was out in full force as is always the case when Phil plays and his fans are rabid. There were many, many Rory fans as well. Poor Dustin Johnson might as well have been playing another course. His play was uninspired and obvious he couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Phil played well but Rory played better. Poor Phil…every time he made a move Rory countered it. At one time he was 4 under for the day and had lost 2 strokes to Rory. It was amazing. Rory’s eagle on 8 made me think of Tiger – a little luck goes a long way.
By the time they made the turn the crowd had swelled tremendously. The 10th has a huge grandstand and stadium hillside seating plus the 18th hole grandstands can see the 10th green. It is an amazing site to see and by Sunday, there won’t be a blade of grass visible that isn’t part of play.
Sometimes stellar golf gets tedious – great drive, great approach, birdie! Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then came 18. Now there was some fun and this is where we folks on the advance team come into play. It might not have been easy to see on TV but both balls went left into the trees and were probably 20 feet from each other.
Of course Phil’s was deeper into the trees. It was time for Phil the Thrill to come to life. And this is when spectators get annoyed – at us marshals. By the time Phil could hit that ball through the trees we had to move the fans fan away from the fairway by 15’ at least. At first I thought he would hit through this rather large opening he had. What was I thinking? He finally decided to go between these two trees that were no more than 5 feet apart. I was kneeling down looking back at him and prayed he hit it right or it could have been in my face! The shot sounded perfect, looked perfect but the golf gods were standing right there on the green and blew the ball to the left just enough to find the water. Hate when great shots are rewarded in this manner. The golf gods giveth - think 2010 Masters - and the golf gods taketh away. What a bummer.
Now what was really surprising was Rory’s shot…his was much easier, he was much closer to the fairway, he saw what happened to Phil’s ball and perhaps he got a bit greedy. He could have put it in the middle of the green pretty easily but he was going for the flag. Of course, why not? His other 17 approaches were perfect and so this would be as well.
Not so fast little prince…remember those golf gods hanging out on the green? They were still there and decided a small spanking was in order. Or maybe his ball had pretty much had it on a very warm day of being blistered constantly and decided to take a swim. Either way it was an unfortunate double that ended one of the most amazing US Open rounds ever. How lucky were we to be there to witness it? Very.
Next best thing? We get to sleep in! We will likely be with Rory again or with one of the later groups. Not sure. Doesn’t matter because it is Moving Day. Maybe reality will find Rory. Maybe someone will go low and apply some pressure. Whatever happens it will be our thrill to be a part of it. It will be very hot, very humid and likely will include rain in the late afternoon.
The rain that arrives each afternoon has softened the greens of course. And made the course play long, naturally. Only one man has not noticed the play long part.
Can’t wait!
One very important last item – Happy Very Big Birthday to my sister Pam! You are beautiful, amazing and I love you.
I know the date says Saturday but this is Friday's post...didn't get it up until Saturday a.m.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment