2008 U.S. Open Playoff Live Blog

The 33rd playoff at the 108th U.S. Open asks one question. Who will win: Tiger Woods, or the guy who looks like the guy who cleans Tiger’s pool?

2008 U.S. Open at Torrey PinesLast year at Oakmont, after arriving at 5:00am and still being only the sixth to make my way to the 18th hole grandstands, I watched Tiger Woods miss a birdie putt to force a playoff. This year, from about 50% closer, he lipped the putt in.

How fitting it would have been for Rocco to play off last year. He too is a Pittsburgh area guy. We could have even let Jim Furyk join the fray, and re-enacted (in reverse) the 1962 U.S. Open, when Jack Nicklaus (of Ohio) took down Arnold Palmer (of “near-Pittsburgh” Latrobe) in a playoff.

Instead, we saw Tiger Woods grimace his way through a +3 start on the first two holes before he “took some things” to ease the pain. We’re sure nothing will ease the pain like winning, but as many have pointed out, Rocco has nothing to lose, and like Lee Trevino over Jack Nicklaus, his care-free attitude may just get him through (not that Rocco is the quality player Lee Trevino was).

Like yesterday, we have a chat room going. Join “usopen2k8” once again on AOL Instant Messenger to chat with us.

Here is our live blog of the playoff for the 108th U.S. Open from Torrey Pines.

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Volume One Hundred Forty Eight

How about some overtime!

Hittin' the LinksHello out there and welcome to another volume of Hittin’ the Links. I would like to send a shout out to all the dads out there; I hope you all had a fantastic Father’s Day. Hopefully everyone got in a little golf before settling down to watch the final round of the U.S. Open. And what a final round it was.

In this edition, we check in on the playoff for the U.S. Open, ask why somebody would go to the Open just to act stupid, take a look at some past U.S. Open battles, and see who had some anger issues in the middle of their second round. Also, we look into why golf carts are dangerous, investigate what happened to the AT&T Classic, take a peek at Rory’s PR campaign, and see how Michelle Wie made it into the U.S. Women’s Open.

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2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Live Blog

A live blog of the final round of the 2008 U.S. Open from Torrey Pines in La Jolla, CA.

2008 U.S. Open at Torrey PinesWe’re live blogging the final round of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

This Sunday, we’ll find out the answers to several questions:

  • Can Tiger overcome what is clearly a lot of pain, elevating himself to even greater heights in completing his third career grand slam?
  • Can Tiger top his back nines on Friday or Saturday? Will he even need to?
  • Can Lee Westwood become the first European to win the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin?
  • Will Rocco regain his form and put on a show? How about D.J. Trahan, Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Karlsson, or any of the others within five shots of Tiger?
  • Could someone possibly fire a Johnny Miller-like 63 to come from well back?

Click through to read the live blog.

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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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