And so it is that we find ourselves with yet another thrilling Monday finish in the U.S. Open. Last year the force of nature known as Tiger Woods pushed play to Monday with a 12 foot putt nobody will forget. This year, the force of nature responsible for Monday’s play is Mother Nature and the torrential rains that have soaked Bethpage Black, resulting in low scores and more than the occasional delay.
The leaderboard at the start of today’s play looks like this:
Pos Player Total Thru --- ------ ----- ---- T1 Glover -7 1 T1 Barnes -7 1 T3 Mickelson -2 2 T3 Mahan -2 2 T3 Duval -2 2 T3 Fisher -2 1 7 Weir -1 3 T8 Woods E 7
Can Tiger Woods post a score of -4 or so? He’d need to go -4 on his last 11 holes. He’d be there now were it not for his double-bogey-par-bogey finish to his first round. Will Phil Mickelson’s aggressive play nab him his first U.S. Open? Thus far his many birdies have been offset by bogeys and doubles. What about David Duval? Unless he shoots a final-round 85, you’ve got to consider this his coming back party regardless of where he finishes.
And finally, will either the untested Lucas Glover or Ricky Barnes manage to hold on? Stay with us as we live blog the final round of the 2009 U.S. Open from Bethpage Black.
Nike’s latest line of irons, 
It’s fun to see some new up-and-coming equipment companies come out with some pretty innovative products designed to help lower your golf score.
In which we, your devoted Sand Trap staff tackle the following, and more:
David Baker has been playing golf for nearly nine years but golf was never his primary sport. David’s first love was baseball, at which he excelled enough to play in college. Now, for the first time, he is devoting himself to golf setting goals of playing competitively in tournaments and eventually winning his club championships. It will take a lot of hard work but I think we can send him in the right direction.
Good Day Sand Trappers and welcome back to another installment of Hittin’ the Links. The stage is set, the players are ready, here comes Bethpage Black! We know Tiger has done his homework, with his impressive win at the Memorial along with his new found love of hitting fairways he is most definitely the guy to beat this week.
Here it is two weeks until the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. Two weeks ago, the media was reporting on the recent demise of Tiger Woods and speculating that this year’s Open might be the most wide open in years. This week, following Tiger’s 14 of 14 fairways hit performance (and 87.5% for the week) at the Memorial, they are declaring him the winner even before the first tee shot is struck.