2012 US Open at Olympic Club Discussion Thread

[The Recreational Golfer]

Andy Zhang, a 14-year-old from China, is in the Open after Paul Casey and Brent Snedeker withdrew.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/sports/golf/andy-zhang-14-is-youngest-united-states-open-qualifier.html?ref=golf

[scottyjoe145]

Originally Posted by ApocG10

If you truly believed that for one second, you would do it. I know if I thought I could make the tour, i'd leave everything else behind (except for my wife).

I have a wife and 2 kids and a wonderful job...  no way I can leave all that.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by scottyjoe145

I bet I know 4 or 5 guys that, if given the same lifestyle and unlimited funds, could easily play at their level.  They are good, but its not as rare as you would think.

I'll bet you don't.

How often do you see someone who, when teeing off people see and hear them from 50 metres away and go "Holy Jesus........." and basically stop dead in their tracks.

You see these people on Tour, not playing with their buddies on the weekend.

I have played with many professional golfers over many years, and have never played with one who I thought should be on the big tour or COULD ever have been. They were pretty much journeymen and guys who had there small moment of glory being in the top dozen or so in big Australian tournaments.

In contrast, I saw Danny Lee play when he was a 17 year old  amateur off +6 and could see how much game he had after one hole and could see that he had the game to make it on tour.

You're talking about a different breed.

[x129]

I think very few people get the opportunity to play golf versus the other ball sports. I know growing up it was never offered as an option.  There are also climate limitations.  It is better now than 10 years ago but if you are living in Wisconsin, it is hard to be a pro golfer when you season is only 7 months long.

That being said the odds of anyones +1 friend golfer spending 5 years practicing and turning into a PGA (or nationwide) pro is exceedingly small. There are thousands of high school, college, and minitour golfer trying this and most fail.  The +1 might even have the physical talent. But the mental part is huge also. Being able to focus for 30+ hours a week is hard. Doing the little things (gym work, diet, sleep,..) is also hard. It is easy to say that if I could make 5 million a year, I would do those things. It is a lot harder to do those things when their is no guarantee of a reward.

Originally Posted by apgolf

Yeah Right on Erik, the closer you get to the tour standard the more you can appreciate how very good the tour players are (took me a long time to work this out). I'm playing off scratch and I know that I would be around 4 shots away from the Tour Standard (4 shots over four rounds is 16 shots!).

I think the vast majority of people growing up in the US, Australia, UK and Canada have had a chance to play any ball sport as much as they want. If you are good enough it is something one pursues - because we all like doing things that we are good at.

[iacas]

I still wish this guy didn't look so angry, but it's the only one of these signs we've got:

I recorded Live From last night and will try to watch a few of the interviews. Tiger, Phil, etc. were all interviewed yesterday right? Anyone say anything interesting?

[Wally Fairway]

Originally Posted by scottyjoe145

The gap is numerically bigger...  yes.  I could teach a guy that shoots 100 to hit his driver in the fairway and he'll shave off 8 strokes at least.  On the flip side, there's no physical way a scratch golfer can shave 8 strokes off in any time frame.  On that we agree.

It is a shame that we can't arrange it, because I'd guarantee that given 5 years and unlimited funds, I myself could make the Nationwide, if not the PGA tour.

Good luck to you, I hope you make it.

And your plan is much more ambitious that the 10,000 day plan - as discussed here http://thesandtrap.com/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours

Originally Posted by Jonnydanger81

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet but it's a pretty interesting journey this guy is taking.  10,000 hours of practice (6 hours a day, 6 days a week for 6 years) starting from the hole backwards, working his way to become a "professional" golfer.  http://www.thedanplan.com/index.php

I saw a write up about it the other day and he's just over 1 year in right now.  He started literally just putting from 1 foot for a month or something.  Then moved to 3 feet, then to all over the green and after a year he's now I think around 75-100 yards away from the hole so he's never swung a driver or long iron before.

Obviously to all of us this is an absolute dream, as he mentions many times on his site, but just the experiment part of it is pretty impressive too.  If you read any of the backstory on the "10,000" hour theory, it pretty much states that with a predetermined athletic prerequisite, pure talent (that which a lot of people state professional athletes have an us mere mortals don't) is actually much more rare than we think and many things can be achieved by extremely dedicated practice.  Here is the essay on deliberate practice if you really want a long read http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.pdf

[bplewis24]

24 more hours...

[iacas]

It's been interesting to see the predictions in the contest. Lots and lots and lots of wasted entries. Lots of people picking Tiger, and Rory, too.

[Wansteadimp]

As I can't enter the prediction comp I've parted with some cash at the local bookies.

Some of these are people I've done money on down the years and couldn't bear for them to win without backing them, others are people I think stand a real chance and others have attractive odds and games that I think will suit Olympic, so my picks are (all each way top 5 quarter the odds): -

Westwood at 14/1

Donald at 16/1

Rose at 28/1

F Molinari at 90/1

Senden 125/1

Yang 150/1

Howell III 150/1

Manassero 150/1

Tiger was too short priced to bother backing each way and I don't like betting to win only on golf.

[Infamous 273]

here's what the folks @ yahoo think.  i need to set my lineup, and i'm still undecided.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by iacas

It's been interesting to see the predictions in the contest. Lots and lots and lots of wasted entries. Lots of people picking Tiger, and Rory, too.

I saw lots of entries where guys were picking them for their 2nd and 3rd entries, which makes no sense.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

I saw lots of entries where guys were picking them for their 2nd and 3rd entries, which makes no sense.

I know. I agree.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by iacas

I know. I agree.

I thought you were talking about me picking DA Points!  Phew!

[Chilli Dipper]

Originally Posted by iacas

It's been interesting to see the predictions in the contest. Lots and lots and lots of wasted entries. Lots of people picking Tiger, and Rory, too.

I posted my predictions early, without giving thought to the idea that many of the entries behind me would be using my second and third options as their first option, rendering those two choices irrelevant. I should have gone further down the board than I did with my alternates.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Chilli Dipper

I posted my predictions early, without giving thought to the idea that many of the entries behind me would be using my second and third options as their first option, rendering those two choices irrelevant. I should have gone further down the board than I did with my alternates.

The second and third choices are mostly to ensure that we have an actual winner. People should use them to pick some of the lesser known dark horse types, yes.

[Jimdangles]

After watching some of the "live from the us open" I kind of like Tigers chances more. They say the course favors a fade. I also didnt know phil has come up runner up 5 times without a win. I dont think anybody wants it more than him. Im so excited for this. Not to mention tiger, bubba and phil in the same group. Do they have their tee times yet?

[B-Con]

Is it just me, or does the fairway on #18 look like it bottlenecks down to all of 25 feet wide? [VIDEO]http://www.twitvid.com/I3SZH[/VIDEO] Might be just a perspective trick.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by Chilli Dipper

I posted my predictions early, without giving thought to the idea that many of the entries behind me would be using my second and third options as their first option, rendering those two choices irrelevant. I should have gone further down the board than I did with my alternates.

I went with Stricker #2 and Baddely #3.  I probably should have went Baddely #2 and somebody even further down #3.

Brandon