Reasons to Love an Open at Torrey Pines

It’s US Open time, and another public course gets its day.

Trap Five LogoAs I write this, it’s the evening before the first round of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, and I’m pretty darn excited about this one. It should be a pretty good championship on a pretty good course… one that you and I can actually play by simply coughing up the daily rack rate or purchasing a package through one of the course-side hotels.

Torrey Pines is always a cool stop on the PGA Tour, bumpy January greens notwithstanding. Where else do you see people in hang gliders soaring along the cliffs lining a golf course? (But not during U.S. Open week; they’ve been temporarily banished to other aeries along the coast.) As a choice for a U.S. Open, Torrey Pines has its detractors, but my hunch is it’s going to play well on TV and provide an interesting Open.

Here’s five reasons I’ll be watching all the coverage I can.

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2008 U.S. Open Predictions

The staff weighs in on the season’s second major championship.

Thrash TalkThe 2008 U.S. Open starts today, and the world’s best will attempt to tame Torrey Pines en route to major championship glory. The two best golfers in the world, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, both have a great history at this golf course. They have received the most headlines going into the event, and they will be paired together the first two rounds at least.

Tiger and Lefty will be the favorites, but who else has a good shot at winning the second major of the year? Also, who might be a dark-horse pick, and who might disappoint? Sand Trap staff members predict these things and more in this week’s article. If you have anything to add, please comment below or discuss it in the forum.

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Golf Talk [Episode 091]

It’s U.S. Open week, and if there’s one thing I know to be true, it’s that Tiger at 80% is better than more than 80% of the contestants.

Golf Talk PodcastIt’s a week of majors: the men are playing the U.S. Open and the women have an LPGA Championship winner. We take a look at the Tiger-Phil-Adam pairing, body parts (Tiger’s knee and Adam’s pinkie), and we check in on Michelle Wie, too. All that and a whole lot more in this (unedited) episode of Golf Talk.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 091 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.

For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.

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Bob Vokey Launches Website

Bob Vokey has hit the big time. He finally has his own website.

Bag DropAdding to its stable of premium specialty sites such as Scotty Cameron .com, Fitting Works.com, and Titleist Tour Blog .com, Titleist last month added a website at vokey.com for wedge maker Bob Vokey, giving the wedge guru his rightful spot among those with their own domain name.

Offering a wealth of wedge information, background information on Bob Vokey, as well as limited release products through the Wedge Works, Vokey.com is a one-stop shop for those who play Vokey Design wedges, are looking into adding one to their bag, or who are just interested in what make Bob Vokey tick.

Join me as we take a look at what Vokey.com has to offer.

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Volume One Hundred Forty Seven

Someone at the USGA has their eyes on the television ratings

Hittin' the LinksGood Day and welcome to Hittin’ the Links. It is again major time on the PGA Tour. The U.S. Open begins Thursday, but the hype and coverage begin well before that. I have included several links to help you out in you pursuit of U.S Open information. It is a good week to watch golf.

Also in this edition, we look at the results of the Golf Digest “10-Handicapper-Couldn’t-Break-100” results from Torrey Pines, see what the PGA Tour could learn from the USGA, take attendance on the best players without a major list, look at this week’s golf destination, and check in on this week’s tournament winners from around the world.

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Sponsorship and Golf

Why doesn’t Pepto Bismol sponsor a PGA player?

Trap Five LogoCan you imagine Woody Austin, missing a putt, bashing himself over the head with his putter, and then taking a pull on bottle of Pepto that his caddy hands him. Then the announcer says, “Pepto Bismol, it soothes over the rough patches.”

Watching the players at this past weekend’s Memorial, it suddenly hit me how many players are sponsored by fairly surprising companies. When I think of golf sponsors, I tend to picture equipment manufacturers (TaylorMade, Titleist, and Ping, among others) and investment companies (because golfers all have money, right?). But there are plenty of others that don’t at first seem as well suited to golf.

We don’t see sponsors like Roy McAvoy’s in Tin Cup – “Look at me. I’m playing for… Rio Grande Short-Haul Trucking, Brink and Brown Sanitation, First State Bank of Salome, Wally’s Smokehouse… You think a guy like me bothers to think about the percentages?” – but I kind of wish we did. Still, there are some surprising sponsors out there.

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Scotty Cameron Studio Select Putters Review

Scotty Cameron cans the insert, adds some weight and perhaps the sweetest grip in his new Studio Select line.

Studio Select NewportsScotty Cameron has pretty much held the same weight/length characteristics with his various Newport lines over the years with few exceptions. For the most part, the 33″ length was matched with a 350-gram head, the 34″ with a 340-gram head, and the 35″ getting a 330-gram head. Other than swapping shafts with a heavier head (or vise versa), you were pretty much stuck with whatever weight head came with the correct shaft length for your physical makeup and putting stroke.

For those of us who prefer a little more heft in our putter head and don’t want to use lead tape, the new Studio Select line fits us perfectly. The Studio Selects feature removable weights that let you fine-tune the weight that works best for you.

I’ve spent the last two years using a Studio Style Newport 2 and really like the softer feel of the insert, so even though the Studio Select Newport 2 looks similar, I was a little hesitant to give up the feel to which I’d become accustomed. Read on to find out if I ditched the insert and went all milled.

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2008 U.S. Open Storylines

This week, I give my take on a few hot topics heading into the year’s second major.

Thrash TalkThe world’s best will head to Torrey Pines (South Course) next week for this year’s U.S. Open, and there are numerous storylines worth talking about. Tiger Woods finished second at The Masters a couple months ago and then had knee surgery two days later. He hasn’t played a competitive round since, and it will be interesting to see how things go when he tees it up in the season’s second major.

Any time a U.S. Open is played, the golf course gets a fair amount of attention as well. Often times the course setup is borderline unfair for the golfers, but how tough will Torrey Pines play? Also, can Phil Mickelson finally recover from his collapse at the 2006 U.S. Open? Can an International win this event for the fifth year in a row? All these topics and more will be covered in this week’s Thrash Talk.

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Golf Talk [Episode 090] Unedited!

Due to a death in my network of peers as well as a small computer mishap in the rush to get this podcast done (note to self: don’t save over a file you need to use later), this week’s edition is brought to you “uncut” and largely unedited.

Golf Talk PodcastKenny Perry wins in a tough Memorial, then decides to skip the U.S. Open, Tiger’s knee may still not be as healed as he’d like, HGH isn’t going to be tested, and a whole lot more in this episode of Golf Talk.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 090 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.

For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.

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