The Heart Of Golf

What is it about this game?

What brings you to the course?

Why do you practice?

Why do you hit fifty, three-foot putts over and over? Is it the possibility of making your first birdie? Your first eagle? Or maybe it’s the day where lighting strikes and you get a hole in one. Maybe it’s for the camaraderie of getting the guys or gals together for the weekend. Maybe it’s the social atmosphere of being outside and meeting new people on the first tee. Maybe it’s the chance of breaking your own course record. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s for the simple chance at making that perfect swing.

Or maybe it’s because of the struggle we go through. The struggle to get better and most importantly, get through the struggle. Golf isn’t easy. This game doesn’t owe anyone, anything. We have to go out and get it. We have to spend hours on the range until our hands bleed. We have to spend that last hour on the range sharpening our short game.

For these said reasons, and reasons unknown, golfers from all over the world, embark on their own journey and experience their own struggle. That, my friends, truly is the heart of golf. It’s finding that love in your heart to get better, play harder, and compete at your highest level. It’s where you love the game so much you miss the feeling of struggling through a round, knowing tomorrow is going to be better. And you’re going to be better.

This game can bring us to our knees just as easy as it will bring us to the course at 5:00am. The first four holes can be magnificent and on the fifth tee box, a 7.8 earthquake hits your brain and for some odd reason, you shank it into the woods. You can’t figure it out. You look incredulously at your buddy and he just shrugs his shoulders. See,  he’s worrying about his own game. And the fact that he just saw you shank it, his brain is now flustered and hoping the San Andreas fault doesn’t crack.

But it does crack.

It happens to us all. Even the touring professionals. Take Rory McIlroy for instance. The kid, yes kid, dominated once again in a major. A year removed from his record-breaking performance at Congressional, McIlroy brought The Ocean Course on Kiawah Island to its bloodied knees. But wait, wasn’t McIlroy in a so-called “slump” earlier in the year? After holding off a charging Tiger Woods, and stoically winning the Honda Classic, McIlroy struggled with his game.

After a disappointing T40 at The Masters, McIlroy’s performance didn’t get any better. A missed cut at The PLAYERS Championship and another missed cut the following week at The Memorial, the golf world gasped and grabbed their inhalers needing more air. Rory followed those odious outings with yet another missed cut. This time, at The U.S. Open. What on earth could possibly be wrong with Rory? All the talking heads speculated until they all agreed to disagree on what was causing his bad play. Ahem, I will suggest with just one word what was “wrong” with Rory: golf.

Last I checked, golf is tough.  It’s really tough to be good for a long period of time. Fields are too deep with talent. I think we use the word ‘slump’ too often when golfers aren’t playing well. Golf happens. McIlroy, poised to win his first major, led the 2011 Masters stepping onto the tenth tee box. And then, golf happened. We all know how that horror story finished. But it turned out to be the best thing that happened to McIlroy. Two months later, he shut up the golf world and stomped the field at Congressional.

On Sunday afternoon, on a sunny and otherwise calm day at Kiawah Island, we saw a young man confidently walk down the fairways and calmly roll in putt after putt. We saw a player who was deemed to be in a slump, play like nobody could beat him. We saw the resolve of a champion brush off his struggle and turn them into a consummation. With a 25 foot birdie on 18, Rory McIlroy made history, yet again, at major championship.

The heart of golf isn’t hard to find. Rory found it. Are you next?

Hit ’em straight!

Eddie

The U.S. Open: An Olympic Sized Challenge

It’s not too often that we talk about PGA touring professionals walking off the 18th green with their tail between their legs. Their heads hanging low. Their heads shaking in disbelief after a lost ball, just one foot off the fairway into the rough. It happens to us all. Even them. Especially this week. Weekend hackers love to see the pros on TV struggle just like they do. This is the one week where the average golfer can somewhat relate to the pain you see on the faces of PGA Tour players.

The golf universe has gathered at The Olympic Club in San Francisco for the 112th playing of the United States Open Golf Championship. All the big names are in the field and so are some no-namers. That’s right, Dennis Miller is playing in the U.S. Open. No, not the comedian. I’m speaking of the teaching pro and Director of Golf at Mill Creek MetroParks in Youngstown, Ohio. A lot of you may be asking the question: How did a teaching pro get into the U.S. Open? And my answer is easy: He qualified.

Barely.

Miller made a 20-foot birdie on the fourth extra hole to earn one of three spots available at the sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio. What made the putt so dramatic is that Miller didn’t even see the putt drop. Putting from just off the green, the ball made its way to the hole looking good the entire way. Until it actually got to the hole, and hung on the lip for a few seconds. Just long enough for Miller to look away in disbelief as his dream to play in the U.S. Open, was shattered. But it wasn’t. Just as Miller turned away, the ball hanging on the lip, finally dropped, sending him to his first U.S. Open.

The U.S. Open is tough and full of rough. There won’t be an even lie anywhere on the golf course. Fairways slope left to right on a right to left dogleg hole and right to left on a left to right dogleg hole. Player will have downhill approach shots hitting downwind into a straightforward green. Uphill approach shots with a hanging lie to a green that slopes severely back to front. Confusing? Try playing the course. There is only one fairway bunker on the entire course and its location on the sixth hole is quite devious. Players will need  a 295 yard carry to get over the bunker. The par 3 third hole has five bunkers surrounding the green. A daunting task sitting at 247 yards from par, players will count their blessings walking away with a three. Oh, I forgot, the stimpmeter will be set anywhere from 12-14. For those who have never heard of a stimpmeter, it’s a device that measures the speed of greens. I won’t bore you with how they measure it but I will tell you the greens are brutally fast at those numbers.

Add all that into the equation, plus major championship pressure, equals one heck of a test of golf. Always known as “golf’s toughest test,” the U.S. Open in past years has provided more drama than a Lindsay Lohan arrest. In 2006, Phil Mickelson was a self-proclaimed ‘idiot’ for double bogeying the 72nd hole, losing by one stroke. Not to mention, he had a one stroke lead on the tee box. That’s the Phil Mickelson we all know and love. In 2008, Tiger won on a broken leg and may very well have changed Rocco Mediate’s career path with one stroke of his putter. Poor Rocco.

What kind of drama awaits us this year? Well, I ask that rhetorically of course, but lets take a look at some pairings that we as the media, get all excited about. The USGA loves to play to the crowd. In the past few years, they have paired world No. 1, 2, and 3 together. The tradition continues this year with Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, and Lee Westwood teeing off at 1:29 PST. Fans won’t have to wait too long to get the marquee group of Woods, Mickelson, and Watson. The USGA was licking their chops when they brilliantly thought of that pairing.

Mickelson and Woods were paired together for the first and seconds rounds in the 2008 U.S. Open and we all know how that ended. Is this another omen? Another unique pairing is Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, and Graeme McDowell. You have two former U.S. Open winners(Furyk and McDowell) paired with one of the games best players yet to win a major. It seems like only yesterday that Garcia was literally and figuratively, chasing Tiger Woods down the fairways at Medinah in the 1999 PGA Championship. Garcia has since had a fantastic career, but still hungers for that elusive major championship.

Come Thursday, all 156 players in the field will start out at even par. All hope to stay there, most will not. Half the field will leave Friday evening wondering what could have been and why they hit 7 iron instead of 8. One more bounce to the left and one less putt might have got it done. More circles than squares on the scorecard, please. The dreaded double squares, and triangles can stay away. “Other” scores need not apply. A few fours and fives across the board will do just fine.

Par is not a good score. It’s a great score. This week, it just might win the 112th U.S. Open.

Hit ’em straight!

Eddie