Tiger Woods is turning into Mr Jelly. Ask the world’s greatest player to hole a 10-foot putt on the final green and on goes the famous death stare.
Ask Woods to hit his opening tee shot at a major and suddenly the spectators are diving for cover. The guy is a loose cannon, a public menace, a danger to wildlife.
Woods’s hand flew off the club as he made contact with his first drive of the 2009 US Open and the ball spiralled wildly to the left.
It was so far off the intended line that Woods lingered for 30 seconds on the tee awaiting confirmation that his ball had been found. He hit exactly the same wild opening drive at last year’s US Open at Torrey Pines.
California and Torrey Pines all seemed a world away on Thursday when heavy rain turned the woods of Bethpage Park into the Amazon rainforest. Only three hours of golf were possible before rain flooded the greens and play was eventually called off for the day at 2pm.
The forecast is so bad that there is every chance that this could be the first US Open since Larry Nelson won in 1983 to head into Monday without a play-off.
Jim Hyler, chairman of the United States Golf Association championship committee, said: “We may be looking at Saturday morning to get the second round finished, get the cut and go from there.”
Woods is still favourite, but you would not have known it from the few holes he played here.
He was so far left off the first tee that he cleared all the high fescue and landed on a trampled area a few yards from the steps of a merchandise tent. Sadly, Woods ignored the opportunity to duck in and splash out 28 dollars on a groovier cap. Strictly business he whacked his ball into a greenside bunker, splashed out to six feet and rolled in the putt for another boring par.
After a few minutes it became apparent that Woods needed a wet suit more than a cap. When he whacked a three-wood off the fourth fairway spray flew up off his ball like a Ferrari aquaplaning through a chicane at Monaco.
When his drive hammered into a tree on the fifth hole, there was more splash as the ball rebounded back into the long grass.
At least this drive cost Woods a double bogey, but he gets away with his nonsense driving at far too many American venues. Remember his wild hook off the first tee at the final round of this year’s Masters. Cartographers were scratching their heads to work out whether his ball had come to rest on the ninth fairway or the eighth fairway. Tiger was that far off the map, but had another perfect lie.
European courses tend not to be so forgiving, which may explain why Woods’s only Open victories have come at the anachronism called St Andrews and a tinder-dry Hoylake, where all the sap had been burned out of the rough and the bone-hard fairways allowed him to abandon the driver.
Most Open venues are not so generous. At Royal St George’s in 2003 Woods’s opening tee shot sailed to the starboard and was never seen again. Nor did he get away with it at the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club when he hooked his opening tee shot into a pond.
Thursday’s weather brought back damp memories of the K Club in September and it was only a matter of time before the USGA suspended play. When Woods’s group reached the second green they had to stand around while eight men squeegeed the putting surface. A giant sponge roller, known as the water hog, was then pushed into action.
Padraig Harrington and many of the European contingent could not get to grips with the conditions. Harrington was four over par when play was initially suspended at 10.15am. Lee Westwood and Simon Dyson bogeyed their opening two holes, Luke Donald ran up a couple of sevens and poor David Horsey, making his US Open debut, triple-bogeyed his first hole on his way to a 10-over-par 45 for the front nine.
Despite the fact that only three hours of play were possible (and only two hours of prime time players) the USGA rejected the idea of refunding all the New Yorkers who made so futile a rain-sodden journey. According to the rules, the moment that Ricky Fowler hit the opening tee shot, their money was washed away.
Last year the US Open tennis descended into farce when the organisers refused to reschedule the semi-finals despite the fact that Hurricane Hanna was blowing its way up the Eastern Seaboard. TV money spoke a lot louder than ordinary fans.
The USGA are less at fault, even if Bethpage’s 18th fairway is literally built on a swamp. But with hospitality tents empty all over the course in these times of economic ravage, they could have shown the average paying punters a bit more generosity.
Ian Poulter, the leading Briton on level par, slammed the United States Golf Association when play was suspended for the day after rain flooded several greens.
The USGA had announced on the eve of the US Open that players would not be allowed to clean and place their golf balls under any circumstances, despite all the mud being picked up from the sodden fairways.
Poulter said: “It’s a schoolboy error. We have said that over the last couple of days. The balls are picking up big clumps of mud. I understand the reasons but common sense should prevail.”
When Jim Hyler, the vice president of the USGA, then suggested that play might soon be possible if there was a window in the weather Poulter said: “Guys you will laugh your head off. We have just been told by the USGA that when it stops raining they can get this course playable in one hour.” A few minutes later, at 2pm, play was called off for the day.
Good on Poulter. It is easy to knock sporting officials, but the USGA does sometimes defy common sense. On the eve of the championship Hyler said: “We’re not going to play lift, clean and place. If it’s not fair to be playing the ball as it lies, we’ll suspend play. We’ll stay here until we get a champion.”
With such appalling weather forecast for the next few days, Hyler was asking for trouble and it appears that he has got it. Lee Westwood said that the mud was causing the ball to squirt sideways.
Laughably Hyler said that if there were puddles on the greens then the players might be allowed to move their balls round them. So it is all right to move your ball to a different spot on the green, but not to clean and place it on the fairway. Bizarre.
As usual the press conference was packed, standing room only, but there was something different this year. Tiger Woods was not the only presence in the room.
When Phil Mickelson’s name was mentioned the atmosphere changed. Woods abandoned his usual, bland “it is what it is” mantra and spoke from the heart.
Most people have already handed Woods this US Open victory, but for once the majority did not want to know what he ate for breakfast or why he had changed the loft on his driver or reverted to an old set of golf irons.
They wanted to talk about Mickelson. They wanted to know how Mickelson was going to cope when a lightning storm of love levelled the premises during Thursday’s first round.
As the whole golf world knows, Mickelson’s wife, Amy, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. What they do not know is how Mickelson will cope when the New York crowds – who love him anyway – well up behind him.
Woods said: “Is it easy? No, it’s not easy. When my dad was sick, that’s kind of the natural progression anyways. Your parents are supposed to pass away before you. But to have a spouse, you’re supposed to go together. I couldn’t imagine dealing with what he has to deal with on a daily basis.
“Everywhere you go people are reminding you of it, and you can’t get away from it. And you think that the golf course would be your escape, but it’s not. You’re surrounded by people wishing you well the entire time and hoping everything works out.
“They keep reminding you of the same circumstance you’re dealing with on a daily basis, and you just can’t get away from it. It’s hard, and I don’t know how they’re doing. But certainly it’s difficult.
“Amy’s a sweetheart. And all the years that we’ve played doubles and table tennis, Elin and myself and Phil and Amy, those are priceless times. Myself and everyone out here hopes that she gets well and she’s back out here as soon as she can.”
Asked how Mickelson would cope with the noise, Woods said: “It’s going to be loud. I can only speak from my experience with my dad. You don’t sleep much. It’s hard. To find energy from outside the ropes, sometimes that’s a great thing.”
Those who think that Mickelson can somehow ride this surge of love when he arrives at Bethpage on Wednesday may be deluding themselves. Even Woods could not find a win at the Masters for his dying father.
And in the immediate aftermath of his dad’s death, old stone face himself missed the cut at the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot, the only time as a professional in a major. Of course it did not take Woods long to find himself again. A month later he won the Open at Hoylake, the most emotional of his victories.
Padraig Harrington, as ever his own man, took a slightly different line on what Mickelson can expect. Speaking from his own experience after the death of his father in 2005, Harrington said: “I can’t see the crowds being in any shape or form a negative for Phil.
“The easiest place for Phil at times to be would be on the golf course, because nobody’s asking him any questions when he’s out on the golf course.
“Certainly when I was going through an emotional time, I found it very difficult to discuss something like that. I’m just like every other person, never dealt with it before and not 100 per cent sure how to deal with it.
“But when it comes to golf, obviously I’m reasonably good at hitting a little white golf ball and I know how to talk about it. I think when Phil’s out there on the golf course, that’s probably the easiest place for him to be at the time, because he’s good at that part.
“I felt I didn’t have the experience to be open in front of the world media explaining things like that. I would assume for him it would be better on the course and the crowds will help.”
Harrington found that the golf course was his escape. Woods found that it was flanked by hundreds of reminders. Mickelson may just stand somewhere in the middle.
When he is in the centre of the fairway he can lose himself in yardages and club selection – but when Mickelson walks from tee to green, every well-wishing face will be a reminder of his world away from golf.
I’ve stalked this putt from every angle, but whichever way I look at it, it seems to break the same way. Tiger will win the US Open this week.
Look at what he did when he won the Memorial at Muirfield village eight days ago. Tiger hit 14 fairways out of 14 on the last day. If he does that at Bethpage then it’s game over. I don’t think Tiger will be gifted the US Open, but I do think he’ll win it. He has to be the overwhelming favourite.
The US Open used to suit my game and with three second places and a third on my debut I have a fair idea of what is required. The key is understanding that par is a very, very good score. You hear players say that about the US Open but very few are able to live it on the course.
Look at what he did when he won the Memorial at Muirfield village eight days ago. Tiger hit 14 fairways out of 14 on the last day. If he does that at Bethpage then it’s game over. I don’t think Tiger will be gifted the US Open, but I do think he’ll win it. He has to be the overwhelming favourite.
The US Open used to suit my game and with three second places and a third on my debut I have a fair idea of what is required. The key is understanding that par is a very, very good score. You hear players say that about the US Open but very few are able to live it on the course.
Phil Mickelson can expect an emotional welcome from players, caddies and fans when he returns to the PGA Tour in the St Jude Classic, which begins on Thursday in Memphis, Tennessee.
The world No 2 has not competed since the Players’ Championship five weeks ago, having suspended his campaign after his wife, Amy, was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Mickelson has long been a fans’ favourite, while his wife is also a popular figure on the American circuit and the couple have received huge support since the diagnosis.
“It is hard to describe how much the outpouring of support has meant to us,” Mickelson said after the PGA Tour Wives Association urged players and their wives to wear pink during last month’s Colonial Invitational in a “Pink Out” of breast cancer support.
“We both had tears rolling down our faces. It was such an incredibly thoughtful gesture, not only for Amy but for the 200,000 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.”
Mickelson is playing in Memphis to prepare for next week’s US Open in New York. He heads a strong field, with four other players in the world’s top 12 competing alongside him. Sergio Garcia is featuring, along with Henrik Stenson, Padraig Harrington and Colombian Camilo Villegas.
Justin Leonard is back in Tennessee to defend his title and, like Mickelson, he is using this week as an ideal warm-up for the US Open.
“It’s a good way to get ready,” Leonard said. “Par is a good score and you’ve got to come here this week and grind out a lot of pars. That’s certainly going to be part of the task.”
The nearer that Jeppe Huldahl came to victory, the redder his face became. At one point it looked as if the 26 year-old Dane must spontaneously combust.
But this unknown golfer, without so much as a previous top-10 finish on the European Tour, held on with remarkable poise to win the Wales Open by one stroke from Niclas Fasth.
Huldahl had only one bogey in his final 36 holes, a scarcely credible effort for one so inexperienced. If the course was a glorified pitch and putt, you might have understood it, but the Twenty Ten course is full of brutal holes and the conditions over much of the weekend were awful.
Every time Huldahl needed to salvage a six-foot putt for par, he poured it into the middle. It was hard to describe the Dane as playing with sang-froid as his cheeks crimsoned. But to keep it together under such pressure, particularly with so disgracefully slow a playing partner as Ignacio Garrido, was verging on the mythical.
It is no reflection on Huldahl, but one wonders if Celtic Manor’s owner Sir Terry Matthews will be quite so thrilled with the outcome. Last year an Australian nobody won the first Wales Open staged on the Ryder Cup course. This year it was a Dane less famous than Hamlet’s right shoe.
Matthews said earlier in the week: “When I started the Wales Open 10 years ago it was a little bit of a joke, but it’s not a joke now they’ve brought the Ryder Cup in. The name and the brand now has a value.”
As a businessman Matthews will be painfully aware that Huldahl does not add value to his brand. The popular winner for Matthews would have been Nick Dougherty but the Englishman had a disastrous final-round 79.
When Dougherty’s approach to the last hit the pin and ricocheted 25 feet away from the hole, he just had to stand there and laugh.
The better news for English golf was that Gary Lockerbie, Danny Willett, Oliver Fisher, Paul Waring and Chris Wood all finished in the top 10. The average age of that quintet is just 22, they come from all over the country and from various backgrounds. The future looks brighter by the day.
It has been a curious week down at Celtic Manor. We have had an unheralded winner from Denmark, a variety of weather seasons and terrific oratory from the two Ryder Cup captains – but let’s leave the last word to Sir Terry.
The man who is bringing the Ryder Cup to Wales said: “I am very disappointed with the MPs who are cheating. They are taking every penny they can get from the shareholders, who are the population, who are the tax payers. If I was the king I’d clear out the lot and have all new ones put in.”
And with those wise words golf says goodbye to Wales for another year.
June 2009
June 19th, 2009 
