PROS LOOKING AT ROUGH WEEKEND.Byline: GREG WILCOX Golf We deify de·i·fy tr.v. dei·fied, dei·fy·ing, dei·fies 1. To make a god of; raise to the condition of a god. 2. To worship or revere as a god: deify a leader. 3. the Masters as a rite of spring. We revere the British Open for its history. And we get misty-eyed over the U.S. Open for the same reason fans flock to a hockey game: the promise of mayhem. It is always this way at an open because the United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. deems that the greens be faster than a lightening strike and the rough high enough to conceal wayward golfers. So expect logoed road kill to litter the Band-Aid-wide fairways of Southern Hills Country Club Southern Hills Country Club is a prestigious private golf and country club in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the United States. It was established in 1936 from land donated by multimillionaire oilman Waite Phillips. The construction costs were raised by the founding members. in Tulsa, Okla., a state where mamas want their babies to grow up to be Cowboys or Sooners. Tiger Woods' torching of last year's Open field actually took attention away from Pebble Beach Golf Links Pebble Beach Golf Links is one of several well known courses in Pebble Beach, California and probably the most famous golf course in the Western United States. Four of the courses in the coastal community of Pebble Beach, including Pebble Beach Golf Links,[1] , which had been toughened to such a degree that he was the only player to break par. Since he throttled the course, no one else could gripe about the tough conditions at Pebble. This is golf's version of ``Survivor'' and danger will lurk everywhere. Here are some Open observations. --This is must-see TV, and there will be a lot of it. NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. will broadcast play all four days, including marathon coverage Saturday and for Monday's playoff, if required. ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network broadcasts are in the morning and evening today and Friday. Not enough? The Golf Channel is devoting the entire week to tournament coverage and is taking viewers inside player news conferences. --The Internet also is following the action. Some of the best sites are usopen.com, usga.org and pgatour.com. Do a little surfing and you can find audio transcripts of player interviews and photo galleries. --Woods is the world's best player right now but it is impossible to predict how well he or anyone else in the field will play. That's because golf is a fickle game and the slightest bobble bob·ble v. bob·bled, bob·bling, bob·bles v.intr. To bob up and down. v.tr. To lose one's grip on (a ball, for example) momentarily. n. A mistake or blunder. can spell disaster. Not only has the USGA pro-proofed Southern Hills, the weather, predicted to be hot and humid, will further toughen conditions. Still, it would not be a big surprise if Woods wins his fifth major in a row (sixth if you count The Players Championship). He possesses every quality needed to win this kind of event. In fact, he has for years, the proof being six consecutive USGA titles during his amateur career. Robert D. Thomas, editor of ``Fore'' magazine, published by the Southern California Golf Association, chronicled Woods' amateur exploits. ``What we saw out of those tournaments were the qualities that led him to win the professional majors. One is the incredible mental concentration he is able to harness in a major championship,'' Thomas said. Last year's final round at Pebble Beach was a good example. Woods had the tournament locked up when play started Sunday, so he set a goal of playing a bogey-free round. But his tee shot on the tricky par-3 17th found a bunker. Woods almost holed his sand shot. That's the kind of mindset he brings to Oklahoma. Of course, he could end up being road kill come Sunday. --Notes: The final round of the Los Angeles City Men's Championship is this weekend at Rancho Park Golf Course in West Los Angeles
Northridge resident Tim Hogarth and Tommy Barber, grandson of the late pro Jerry Barber, finished atop the 36-hole qualifying round with scores of 135. ... Fifteen-year-old Kyle Dowden of Somis is the youngest competitor in the 90th California Amateur Championship next week at Pebble Beach. He plays out of Los Posas Country Club in Camarillo. ON THE GREEN U.S. GOLF ASSOCIATION U.S. Open at Tulsa, Okla. Course: Southern Hills Country Club (6,973 yards, par 70) Schedule: Today through Sunday Purse: $5 million, $900,000 to winner TV: Ch. 4 (today and Friday, noon-3 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.). ESPN (today and Friday, 9 a.m.-noon and 2-5 p.m.) LPGA LPGA abbr. Ladies Professional Golf Association TOUR Evian Masters at Evian, France Course: Evian Masters Golf Club (6,091 yards, par 72) Schedule: Wednesday through Saturday Purse: $2.1 million, $315,000 to winner TV: The Golf Channel (Wednesday-Saturday, 6-8 a.m.) PGA (1) (Professional Graphics Adapter) An early IBM PC display standard for 3D processing with 640x480x256 resolution. It was not widely used. (2) (Programmable Gate Array) See gate array and FPGA. SENIOR TOUR Instinet Classic at Princeton, N.J. Course: TPC (Transaction Processing Performance Council, San Francisco, CA, www.tpc.org) An organization devoted to benchmarking transaction processing systems. In order to derive the number of transactions that can be processed in a given time frame, TPC benchmarks measure the total performance of at Jasna Polana (6,911 yards, par 72) Schedule: Friday through Sunday Purse: $1.5 million, $225,000 to winner TV: PAX (Friday, 10 a.m.-noon) and CNBC CNBC Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (artificial intelligence) CNBC Consumer News and Business Channel CNBC Congress of National Black Churches, Inc. (Saturday-Sunday, 3-5 p.m.) SCORING AVERAGE PGA 1 Tiger Woods 68.57 2 Vijay Singh 69.03 3 Davis Love III Davis Milton Love III (born April 13, 1964) is an American professional golfer. Love was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina before turning professional in 1985. 69.29 4 Nick Price 69.56 5 Phil Mickelson 69.65 5 Sergio Garcia 69.65 LPGA 1 Annika Sorenstam 69.14 2 Dottie Pepper 69.73 3 Se Ri Pak Se Ri Pak (born September 28 1977 in Daejeon) is a South Korean professional golfer, playing on the LPGA Tour. She will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in November 2007. Career overview Pak turned professional in 1996. 69.97 4 Karrie Webb 70.71 5 Rosie Jones 70.59 PGA SENIOR 1 Gil Morgan 68.85 2 Hale Irwin 69.95 3 Allen Doyle 69.47 4 Bruce Fleisher 69.70 5 Tom Watson 69.93 SPOTLIGHT PHIL MICKELSON All of the attention is focused on Tiger Woods and his quest for a fifth consecutive major. But this U.S. Open probably is more important to Mickelson, among those wearing the crown of best player not to win a major. He lost to Woods at Augusta and is looking for some revenge this weekend. No doubt he has the game and heart. But can he stay as focused as Woods during what are expected to be brutal playing conditions? CAPTION(S): box Box: ON THE GREEN (see text) |
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