It’s Tuesday. Very
early morning brought more thunder, lightning and rain. They suspended play before it started, closed
the parking lots and we waited. Lucky
for us we did not have an early shift or we would have spent a few hours
waiting in the car! Actually, it turned
out to be a pretty day and low 80s. This
made us happy.
I have decided if we are Grandstand Marshals again I am going
to say we are available Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. There really isn’t much going on when players
are coming through at irregular intervals.
We had four marshals keeping track of maybe 30 or 40 people at most at
any one time. A raucous day it was
not. I am convinced that the weather
scared a lot of people away as it was not nearly as busy today as it was
yesterday. That’s unusual. But for those players who did come through we
had a stellar view right down onto the 6th green which is a rather
straightforward par 3.It’s quite interesting to watch the players practice around the greens. Every putt, every chip is pretty darn great. But like us when they take the game from the practice tee or green to the course things just do not work out quite as planned. If it did each one of them would be par or better – which most of them are not. So obviously that means they are just like us. Right?
When you watch play on 6 green note that the green has a pretty severe slope from front to back. Yesterday the flag was in the middle and there were a few shots close. Rahm hit it to 5’ and got the birdie. Once they get to the green they drop putter heads or tees in other places and practice putting and chipping. When the pin is in the front of this green guaranteed they will try to be short rather than long. There’s pretty severe upslope but trying to get there from way down in the back would not be a happy thing. And conversely if the pin is way down in the back putting down that slope would be scary.
We have not had the opportunity to walk a lot of the course because we are in one place the entire time. Tomorrow we are on 16 green which is as far out as humanly possible. I bet we see a whole lot of the 2nd nine on our trek out there. We are considering taking an overnight bag. Thursday our first day not working we plan to really see the course.
For those of us familiar with Chambers Bay it is arguably very similar. Erin Hills does not, however, consider itself a links course. We are trying to decide how the two compare. The first thing is the fairways here are up to 75 yards wide on some holes. That’s huge! This begs the question – will this be a bombers’ paradise even though it is very long? It appears you REALLY must miss your drive to miss many of the fairways. But, if you do you could be in fescue hell. I’m told some fairways are fairway/2’ fescue with nothing in between. But then again, I read some fairways have 10 more feet of a second cut. Will just have to wait and see.
I have been told the sand traps on some holes are death. I did see 9 and 18 green and they do look unwelcoming to say the least. I’m anxious to see more of them and how players deal with them when play begins.
The greens look and are said to be in magnificent condition. I keep going back to weather but rain does in fact affect the way the course plays. Locals say it has been a wet spring but the course was dry – until yesterday. Tomorrow looks like it could be somewhat wet. Thursday should be the best day of the week. Friday/Saturday who knows? Sunday afternoon looks good. But what will the moisture do to the fairways? Stop balls dead? Or not. Will the players shoot darts at soft greens? Or not. All remains to be seen.
Wish tomorrow was Thursday.
Did see Sergio all decked out in – green! Who could have imagined? I have the feeling we might see him in some shade of green every week until at least early next April. Can’t blame him. Jordan came through and crushed my hopes of getting his autograph on my Chambers Bay 18th hole flag. He said he was only signing autographs when he was finished. I get it. But dang! Dustin Johnson looks like he just swaggered out of a saloon in the old west to have a gunfight with the bad guy. Steve Stricker is a perfect guy and he’s taller than you think. And I’ve seen him many times and never realized how tall he is.
In years past there have always been some seriously random outfits – on both women and men – and just crazy stuff that you expect to see when 40,000 people are wandering around. Today was a true head-scratcher. I see this young woman walking toward me applying – ready? Deodorant. I am not kidding. My first thought was why on earth are you applying your deodorant while walking around the US Open? My second thought was what possessed you to bring your deodorant to the US Open in the first place? The saying that it takes all kinds is truer than true.
Looking forward to having more to tell you about the course
tomorrow. It is a beauty to behold. I’m not sure the camera will do it justice
when Fox broadcasts but they will try. I
hear they are doing some cool stuff including drones everywhere.
Night…
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