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Signs still point to Woods Course's length, wet conditions will be deciding factorsPosted: Thursday June 13, 2002 10:54 AM
WESTBOUND ABOARD THE LONG ISLAND RAILROAD -- In celebration of the People's Open, I decided to take public transportation to our national championship -- a cab to Penn Station, the train to the innards of Long Island, then a bus to Bethpage. (What's next, actually paying for admission? The horror!) It was a fun ride, chock full o' local color. The conductor had an outer-borough accent that made Fran Drescher sound like she speaks the King's English, and over the P.A. system she kept referring to the "U.S. Opening." But all in all it was a pleasant ride. On my lunch-hour train every seat was full, and easily half of the passengers were headed to the Open, talking excitedly about "that mook Mickelson" and "that bum Ti-gah." Anyway, I'm glad the tournament is finally upon us, bringing an end to months of excruciating hype. I revere New York City firemen as much as the next guy, but I'll be happy never to see another photo spread of our heroes swinging golf clubs. Also, every media outlet in the universe has done that trite sleeping-in-the-Bethpage-parking-lot story. Gimme a break. It's a piece of cake to get on the Black. I mean, just a couple weeks ago one of my colleagues was wandering around the office looking for a fourth for a tee time he had secured through some nebulous connection, and I nonchalantly volunteered. The next morning we strutted to the first tee, swinging by the parking lot to offer encouragement to the poor saps who had another 20 hours of twiddling their thumbs. Anyway, a couple observations about the Black, based on my round: Well, the despots here at the Web site want me to make a prediction on the outcome. Let's recap the various factors: The Black is the longest course in Open history, and now that the fairways are saturated it's going to play even longer, so clearly length is paramount. But the wet rough will be even more penal, so accuracy is the most important thing. However, the greens are going to be marshmallowy, meaning they will be more receptive to low-spin hacks out of the tall grass. So advantage swings back to wayward bashers. Then again, the USGA is loathe to play lift, clean and place under any circumstances, so mudballs are going to be a persistent problem. (If you believe Vijay Singh, little dollops of slop are the reason he kicked away the Masters.) Therefore, players are going to be missing a lot of greens, which sets up a battle of the short games. At this point I have thoroughly confused myself, so I'm just going with Tiger, the automatic default. As for the rest of a top 10, my feeling is that current form is far more important than a player's record in this particular tournament. Yeah, Lee Janzen has won two U.S. Opens, but he hasn't cracked an egg since this year's Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Retief Goosen has been sleepwalking since the Masters, and Ernie Els and David Duval have barely registered a pulse this year. So, in no particular order, I like Jim Furyk, Darren Clarke, Rocco Mediate, Price, Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Colin Montgomerie, Sergio García and Bob Estes. Oh, yeah, one more thing: In the Montgomerie vs. Guido from Queens undercard, don't take Monty. Sports Illustrated senior writer Alan Shipnuck edits The Week in the magazine's Golf Plus section.
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