{"id":2013,"date":"2007-06-12T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-13T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/tours\/pga\/us_open_at_oakmont_journal_tuesday"},"modified":"2007-06-12T22:47:36","modified_gmt":"2007-06-13T02:47:36","slug":"us_open_at_oakmont_journal_tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/pga\/us_open_at_oakmont_journal_tuesday","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Open at Oakmont Journal: Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2007When I arrived at lunchtime yesterday, Lot C was half full. Today, at 7am, I parked in the first row. As you might have guessed, the course was relatively empty as well, and in fact the last four or five holes didn’t even have new cups cut yet or flags installed.<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods teed off today with Bubba Watson just as I arrived, and we eventually caught Tiger on the eighth hole as I walked the course backwards getting architectural shots. Read on for the rest of my journal notes from Tuesday at the U.S. Open.
\n
\nTiger Woods<\/strong>
\nTiger Woods gave his interview today – no news. He’s a master at fully answering a question without actually saying much. On the course, according to most accounts, Tiger is striking the ball well but is still struggling with his putting. Woods again spent over an hour on the putting green under the watchful eye of Hank Haney, as he did Monday. As is usually the case with Tiger, it’s one of two things: poor alignment (usually left) or failure to release the putter head. Tiger appeared to be working on both.<\/p>\n

Johnny Miller<\/strong>
\n“If the course stays like it is now and doesn’t get firmer or faster, it’s in perfect shape and 280 should win. If it gets firmer, someone who gets lucky or has a hot putting week will win, not necessarily the guy who plays the best.” In other words, Johnny likes how the course is playing today. It’s a teeny bit harder and firmer than yesterday. I agree with Johnny: the USGA would do well to keep the course at the current level of firmness.<\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson<\/strong>
\nI ate lunch next to Dave Pelz as Phil Mickelson gave his interview (after Johnny and Tiger). Phil has been wearing a small brace on his wrist and says it only hurts when he swings his driver. He’s under strict orders not to sign autographs or do anything to further stress his wrist. The prospects of Phil playing well and being healthy enough to play well are shrinking or gone.<\/p>\n

When asked about the brace, Phil said he can tighten it to gain more support or loosen it to help circulation. My first thought was “is that legal to use during play?” Phil later admitted it helps support at the top of his backswing and stops his swing from getting too long or loose, then asked “now that I said that, is it legal to use?” I don’t have the time to check the rules of golf, but my hunch is no – that’s not legal.<\/p>\n

Oddly, Phil thinks that Oakmont is so penal it is going to force guys to hit drivers. This, of course, is the opposite of Tiger’s approach, and frankly, doesn’t make much sense to me. Old Phil? A bit of gamesmanship?<\/p>\n

More on Phil’s thoughts here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dave Pelz<\/strong>
\nPelz was on the range with Phil early this morning, then walked with Phil while he played nine holes (with Fred Funk and a few others). Pelz was measuring the speed of the greens using a special, computerized stimpmeter that’s accurate to within an inch. Phil said in his interview that 12 of the 18 greens are within five or six inches of each other, but that some of the greens are as slow as 11½ and that others are above 14.<\/p>\n

The problem, by the way, with a standard stimpmeter according to Dave Pelz is that they require a flat spot 10-13 feet long, and Oakmont has no such flat spots.<\/p>\n

Sergio Garcia<\/strong>
\nPick him for your fantasy team. Bear in mind, I<\/em> won’t be picking him, but everyone else, please, spend the money and get him on your team. Then when he misses the cut and whines some more because he can’t stop hitting hooks off the tee into the Church Pews, I’ll pull ahead in the standings.<\/p>\n

The Wind<\/strong>
\nThe wind came up today at about noon. Shots into the ninth were visibly affected, and the narrow landing areas on some of the driver holes tightened considerably when the wind blew. Again, without trees, there’s nothing to shield the wind.<\/p>\n

Church Pews<\/strong>
\nSpeaking of the Church Pew bunkers… it’s worth mentioning that there are a second set of new pew-like bunkers on the left side of the 15th hole.<\/p>\n

Photos<\/strong>
\nI’ve taken a lot of photographs, but most won’t appear until after the U.S. Open finishes. I simply don’t have the time or computing horsepower (though it’s more about time!) to process and edit the pictures I have taken. Some are pretty nice, and as we did with The Memorial, we’ll publish them shortly after the tournament is over.<\/p>\n

Stay Tuned<\/strong>
\nI hope to post updates daily with my observations and notes from the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pelzmeter exists, and despite a ten-minute conversation on the fifth green with its inventor, Fred Funk ain’t buyin’ it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pga"],"yoast_head":"\nU.S. Open at Oakmont Journal: Tuesday (PGA) - The Sand Trap .com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/pga\/us_open_at_oakmont_journal_tuesday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"U.S. Open at Oakmont Journal: Tuesday (PGA) - The Sand Trap .com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Pelzmeter exists, and despite a ten-minute conversation on the fifth green with its inventor, Fred Funk ain't buyin' it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/imgs\/pga\/2007_us_open_logo_oakmont.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@the_sand_trap\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@the_sand_trap\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erik J. 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