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If you've been thinking about buying tickets to next year's U.S. Open, to be played at Pebble Beach in June, now might be the time to act. If you make a purchase by Dec. 14, the USGA will throw in a commemorative ball marker and divot-repair tool. You can learn more about the offer and buy tickets at usga.org.
The Press Tent is calling "repeat" on the No. 1 item on this list, but otherwise a great top 10 list.
Glover also brought the trophy and his wife up to the top of the Empire State Building.
(Photo: Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The U.S. Open is not going to finish on Sunday. After rain stopped Saturday evening's play and more rain fell overnight, the USGA pushed Sunday's restart time from 7:30 a.m. to noon.
Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director of rules and competitions, said the USGA decided to delay Sunday's restart because of the possibility of another heavy shower this morning in the Farmingdale area.
"Why bring the players in when there is a very good chance that we'd have to pull them off again?" Davis said.
If the weather cooperates, the third round will be completed around 4:30 local time. Players will then be re-paired for the fourth round, which is expected to begin at 5:30, with groups starting from the first and 10th tees. Davis said the final group would tee off around 7:20.
The reason for the hour delay between rounds is logistical. "There is a 25-minute shuttle ride involved in getting the players to No. 10 tee," Davis said. "So we think it would be blatantly unfair to the player, immediately coming out of the scoring tent, to be told, 'Go run and get on the shuttle to make your next tee time.' "
If the skies remain overcast, which is expected, then the USGA hopes play can continue until about 7:55 or 8 p.m. If the sun comes out, play could continue until 8:15 or 8:20, according to Davis.
The fourth round will resume on Monday morning, but specific times have yet to be determined.
"If we start at 5:30 [Sunday], there's about six hours of golf per wave, you're realistically only going to get about two to two-and-a-half hours of golf in," Davis said. "That's going to leave you about three and a half hours to go to finish up round four [on Monday]. So we'll finish before noon tomorrow, assuming that we don't get thrown something from Mother Nature that we're not expecting."
If there is a tie after the fourth round and a playoff is needed, it would start Monday afternoon if USGA officials were confident it could be finished before dark. If rain causes more delays tomorrow, a playoff could be pushed to Tuesday.
"If we are somehow delayed again tomorrow, we've already made the decision that if it got later than 3:45 or 4:00, we wouldn't start a playoff," Davis said. "The last thing we want is a playoff where they have to come back to play just one or two holes. That's just not the competitive situation that we want."
Based on the forecasts, however, Davis feels confident a playoff could be started and completed Monday afternoon.
Davis noted that Bethpage Black is draining well, and that light rain is not the problem. "Believe it or not, this course can keep handling this, as long as we don't get the downpours. The water is seeping down because it is a sandy, loam soil. So that's the great part. Believe me, if we were at some U.S. Open venues right now and this were happening, I can't even begin to think about what we'd be doing."
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- In the wake
of Thursday's no rain-check ticket fiasco, the USGA, as you likely know,
reversed course and announced on Friday that Thursday tickets will be honored on
Monday, if the U.S. Open extends through Monday, which it well could. Thursday ticket-holders can get a 50-percent refund if the tournament ends on Sunday.
On
Saturday, the USGA made another grand gesture: anybody who has a ticket to the
109th U.S. Open can bring the ticket, or ticket receipt, to the USGA
headquarters in Far Hills, N.J., for free admission to the USGA museum. The
museum, the oldest sports museum in the United States, has excellent displays on
various USGA champions, including Arnold Palmer, Betsy Rawls, Jack Nicklaus,
Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, among others. The normal
admission charge is $7.
There's also a history of the ball
and other equipment and a raft of historic clubs. Attached to the museum is a
nine-hole, wildly undulating putting green, designed by the architect Gil Hanse,
that museum-goers may play for $5, a fee that includes a replica of a 1913 golf ball. You play the course with putters from
yesteryear provided by the museum, including a replica of Calamity Jane, the
putter Bobby Jones used when winning the Grand Slam in 1930.
Alan Bastable, senior editor for GOLF Magazine, blogged the morning action at the U.S. Open starting at 7:30 a.m. EST.
Read Michael Walker Jr.'s live blog of the afternoon action
Continue reading "Live Blog: Friday at the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black" »
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- This week's slopfest points out a potential flaw in the USGA's plan to hold the men's and women's U.S. Opens on back-to-back weeks at Pinehurst in 2014.
Play was suspended Thursday, and the forecast calls for three more days of rain. (It was so bad Thursday, I saw players lining up two-by-two.) Call it overreacting, but with this grim forecast, it's not far-fetched to imagine the U.S. Open spilling into a Monday finish and, if we have another 18-hole playoff, maybe even Tuesday. That's a pain this year, but in 2014 it could be a disaster.
A Monday or Tuesday U.S. Open finish at Pinehurst in five years would wreak havoc because the LPGA players would be in town and ready to practice. If the men were still occupying Pinehurst No. 2, the women would have to wait to get on the tournament course. Sure, they could always go over to Pine Needles or Mid-Pines to practice, but it's not the same as practicing on the course you're going to compete on. A lot of noses would be out of joint if the men's Open interfered with the women's.
Of course, a badly delayed Open is a long shot. The only time I recall an Open going into Monday due to bad weather was the '83 Open at Oakmont, where Larry Nelson won. So it's not likely. But you have to consider the possibility.
Gary Van Sickle, senior writer for SI, is blogging during the rain delay and, hopefully, this afternoon's play. He'll keep you updated on the latest news from Bethpage Black. 
Connell Barrett, editor-at-large for GOLF Magazine, took the morning shift. Join the conversation below.
Continue reading "Live Blog: Round 1 at the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black" »
UPDATE: PLAY IS SUSPENDED FOR THE DAY 1:55 p.m. PLAY WILL RESUME AT 7:30 a.m. TOMORROW.
It's still pouring at Bethpage Black, but USGA officials said they're expecting to get a break in the weather this afternoon and they will try to get the first group of players around the course. Since this morning Bethpage Black has received .6 inches of rain and another quarter-inch is expected before the rain stops.
"We expect rain until 1:30 pm. and then we think it will lighten up considerably," the USGA's Jim Hyler said. "We should have a window of three to five hours this afternoon to play golf."
Hyler said that four hours should be long enough to get the morning group through their round--including Tiger Woods, who was on the seventh hole when play was suspended at 10:16 a.m. The afternoon group, which includes Phil Mickelson, would be unlikely to play today, Hyler said, and it could be Saturday before the field completes two full rounds.
"If we lose half the day, it will be impossible to catch up [Friday]," Hyler said.
While some of the greens looked like ponds when the USGA suspended play this morning, Hyler said the course drains surprisingly quickly and he'd expect the course to be playable about 30 minutes after the rain lets up. The key concern is the soggy 18th fairway, where casual-water rules could force players to take drops as far as 40 yards back or just decide to play out of the casual water, Hyler said.
Fans who have tickets to today's round will not receive a raincheck for tomorrow. The cheapest U.S. Open ticket is $100.
Connell Barrett, editor-at-large for GOLF Magazine, blogged Thursday's action and lack thereof at the U.S. Open. Join the conversation below.
Continue reading "Live Blog: Round 1 at the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black" »
Seven years ago, Bethpage State Park's Black Course played to 7,214 yards, the longest U.S. Open course ever. This year, it will be even longer.
At Monday's media day, Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director of rules and competitions, said the par-70 layout has been stretched to 7,426 yards. "This course is going to be long," Davis said.
In fact, for the first time at any U.S. open, three par 4s will be longer than 500 yards. Many of the greens are protected by bunkers and rough in the front, so players won't be able to bounce shots onto the greens or recover with bump-and-run approach shots. Nope, golfers will have to attack the Black Course through the air, flying shots all the way to their targets.
Besides the length, Davis noted several differences between Bethpage and other U.S. Open venues.
1. On eight or nine holes, players may not be able to see the putting surface or the entire flagstick from the landing area.
2. The bunkers are especially deep and big. "I think these are the most challenging sets of bunkers we have," Davis noted. Look for them to be filled with fluffy, light sand that makes spinning the ball difficult.
3. Bethpage's greens are fairly flat by championship standards, which will encourage the USGA to make them lightning fast. Davis said the goal is to have the greens rolling between 13 ½ and 14 ½ on the Stimpmeter on Monday of tournament week. However, unlike previous years, when the USGA acknowledges that it let the greens get harder and faster as the week went on, Davis said the speeds would be maintained. Using a new device called a True Firm, the USGA will systematically water the course so the fairways and greens remain consistent throughout the week.
"We want this to be the toughest test of golf the players face all year," he said to the assembled members of the media. "If you execute the proper shot, you should get the proper result. If you execute a mediocre shot, you should get a mediocre result. And if you execute a poor shot, well ... "
Set up for the championship, the USGA rated the Black Course 78.2 with a Slope Rating of 152.
This A.W. Tillinghast course will not offer up a drivable par 4 like players faced last year at Torrey Pines. (On Sunday at Torrey Pines, the par-4 14th was just 267 yards long.) This year, the USGA will force players to think by moving the tee boxes around.
For example, few players attempted to reach the par-5 fourth hole (photo) in two shots in 2002 because the back of the green was shaved and dropped off severely. From there, par was a great score, and bogey was likely, so it wasn't worth the risk to go for it. This year, the area behind the green will be softened, and the tees will likely be moved forward, so attacking the 517-yard hole will be very possible for more players.
The USGA can also set up the eighth hole to play as short as 135 yards or as long as 230 yards. The green complex has been extended forward, toward the pond, and when the tee is forward, Davis said players should expect the hole to be placed in the front. "If the players want to attack with a wedge or short iron, the water will definitely be in play. If they choose to hit a safe shot off the tee, they will have a very tough, fast downhill putt."
The graduated rough, first seen at Winged Foot in 2006, will once again line the fairways at the U.S. Open. The first 20 feet off the fairway will be about 2 ½ inches deep; areas beyond that will be 4-6 inches deep.
The sign that all golfers pass on the way to the first tee of the Black Course reads, "WARNING – The Black Course is An Extremely Difficult Golf Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers."
The USGA may be trying to create a more exciting U.S. Open, but this is still Bethpage Black. Gentlemen, you've been warned.
(Photo provided by USGA
