OAKMONT, PA – They’re called “half-par holes” be cause they play either much easier or much harder than the par on the scorecard states, and they are often the key to winning a golf tournament. Be it stroke play or match play, the ability to negotiate the razor thin edge between a birdie (or even eagle) or a triple bogey is the difference...
—Friends to Jay: “Who’s going to win the U.S. Open this year?” Jay to Friends: “Oakmont, that’s who.”— Of all the major championship venues I’ve seen in my career as a sports writer – and I’ve see everything from Augusta to Pebble and back – Oakmont is my favorite. Cresting the hill of the second...
HAVEN, WI – With a tip of the hat and a golf clap to Una Jones of the PGA of America, here’s everything you need to know about the magic number – 63, now accomplished 27 times. HIROSHI IWATA JOINS CLUB 63 With a 9-under-par 63 in the second round, Japan’s Hiroshi Iwata tied the all-time 18-hole scoring mark in a major championship...
Jay’s Plays on the Golf News Net Radio Network, U.S. Open Recap and Tournament Coverage! Tom Rinaldi of ESPN – Tom Terrific talks turkey about Chambers Bay and the Open leaderboard. Cybergolf’s Jeff Shelley – Jeff talks First Green and its wild success with the USGA. Dave Christiansen of Gamble Sands GC in Brewerton, WA – a fantastic...
[Editor’s Note: Bringing back an old favorite column, Jay writes this U.S. Open wrap-up in the form of a Father’s day letter to his 91-year old Dad.] SNOQUALMIE, WA – Dear Dad: For the 11th year in a row, because of the U.S. Open I’ll miss seeing you for Father’s Day. I’m really sorry for that, and I wish it were different. The...
UNIVERSITY PLACE – “It’s too brown! It’s too bumpy! It’s too British!” they moan plaintively. Yes, the whiny blockheads are out in force this year, as they usually are at the U.S. Open, complaining about how unusual golf’s annual Final Examination is. It’s actually flabbergasting: They’re not complaining about how...
UNIVERSITY PLACE, WA – Chambers Bay Co-architect Bruce Charlton smiles and claps his hands as a stat appears on the TV broadcast of the U.S. Open listing the brutish, uphill, 508-yard, par-4 seventh hole as the hardest hole on the golf course thus far in the tournament, a 4.43 stroke average as we go to press. “We wanted there to be swing holes. We wanted...
UNIVERSITY PLACE, WA – I have to weep for our society because we have lost it as a species when we can’t all instantly fall in love with Chambers Bay, the site of the 2015 U.S. Open, hard by Puget Sound’s rugged waters, where forest-fragrant air gently caresses verdant, dew-dripped tree-covered hills. “Idyllic” is the first word that...
Special to AWITP by AWITP Correspondent Rodney Zilla As we go to press today, the Utica Comets and Grand Rapids Griffins are finishing the early skate at Van Del Arena for Game 5 of the AHL Western Conference Finals. The puck drops at an unusual time – 5 p.m. Eastern, and that has us here at AWITP scrambling so we can get down to Tony’s on time. It will...
Happy Masters week everyone! It’s Christmas in April! We’ve got a busy schedule all week for you with coverage here, at Cybergolf, and with the Golf News Net. Our Masters preview will be up at Cybergolf this afternoon. (Hint: We pick an American.) Then we’ll have game story and columns duties for Cybergolf for Saturday and Monday mornings...
PINEHURST, NC – Martin Kaymer may have won this U.S. Open at breakfast this morning – he walked into the Pinehurst Starbucks and ordered oatmeal. Who does that? Normally it’s grande lattes with cloyingly sweet flavor syrups, or fattening sugary donuts, or some meat, egg and cheese calorie bomb. Ordering oatmeal at Starbucks when everybody else is...
PINEHURST, NC – [Editor’s Note: Jay is missing his 25th college reunion at his beloved Trinity College in Connecticut, but wrote this tournament recap in letter form to his classmates so he could be with them in spirit. Go! Fight Win!] Dear Classmates: Greetings from the bucolic splendor of Pinehurst, North Carolina – where even the convenience...
PINEHURST, NC – It was nine years ago when Dan Maples and his family took me out for a Saturday night on the town in a limo during U.S. Open week. During dinner the whole town stopped by the table to shake his hand and chat. Dan just smiled warmly, thanked them kindly by name, and asked about their families and what they were doing. Everybody loved him, and he...
Meet Will Carpenter, (no relation to Nancy!). Will and his friends show why golf fans are the most creative in the world. See the logo on his shirt? That’s a turtle back green (Ross’s specialty). It’s all the rage at Pinehurst this week. Moreover, as the broadcast continues, listen for the fans yelling, “Donald!!” Any time a balls rolls...
PINEHURST, NC – While Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, and Adam Scott, kept themselves in the pack nipping at leader Martin Kaymer’s heels, several other big names will be heading home if they don’t start stringing birdies together. Here’s a quick look at some of the superstars who struggled with Pinehurst No. 2’s curvy greens...