TERRY MOSHER
A couple things are on my mind. Well, actually a lot of things are on my mind. My mind works like a blender. There is always something new being thrown into it and mixed around. I can’t stop it. It’s just something that has always been with me.
But two things stand out today. I have tweeted this a couple times and I’ll repeat it there: The greens at Chambers Bay during the U.S. Open were horrendous. And I don’t care how much chat there is in opposition to it. They were extremely bad and course supporters point to the fact that there were some supports among the pro golfers this past weekend at the Open.
I don’t believe I have ever watched so many PGA pros miss short putts, including the dramatic one by Dustin Johnson on the 18th and final hole that sealed victory for Jordan Spieth. I fully expected Johnson to miss what was about a four-footer that would have tied him for the championship and forced an 18-hole playoff with Spieth for today (Monday, June 22).
Even Spieth was dumbfounded by the miss, although I don’t think he should have been because he missed several of the same putts, as did plenty of others throughout the four-days of the Open.
As untypical as Chambers Bay was from many other U.S. Opens, causing great consternation from some pros early on, it seemed to me that by day four golfers got used to its trickery and played it pretty well (not counting Johnson’s short putt miss). And it is a tricked-up course with swells, hills and dells on the fairways and uneven and rough greens that on a couple pros used a sort of backboard to hit against to get a ricochet that, hopefully, would roll the ball close to the cup, where, hopefully, they could sink a short putt that actually rolled on a straight line (but ask Johnson about this).
To counter my point about the course, good scores at U.S. Opens traditional have been difficult to obtain. Justin Rose won by one stroke in 2012 at the Lake Course at Olympic Club in San Francisco, shooting a one-over par 281. Angel Cabrera won at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania in 2007 with a five-over par 285.
So the USGA is not often nice when it sets up U.S. Open venues. Like Mark Wurtz told me recently for a column I did on him, the USGA is happiest when it can get a course that very reluctantly surrenders par.
If that is the case, then the USGA must be very happy today. I still say, though, that the greens were horrendous.
I could be wrong on my second thought. I was watching P.T.I (Pardon The Interruption) on ESPN with Michael Wilbon and Jason Whitlock and they agreed that golf tournaments, major or not, are more interesting when Tiger Woods is in contention. It is there feeling that Woods being black brings more interest to golf, which is considered a white sport, when he is going good, as opposed to this U.S..Open with two white guys – Spieth and Johnson ‑ fighting it out at the end.
Can you relate to what Wilbon and Whitlock are saying? I can, sort of. But then I look at my TV screen and both Wilbon and Whitlock are black. So is this some sort of reverse racism?
And why should I even talk that way. Maybe I’m racist for eve mentioning it. My point is that when are we going to get to the point in our society when color of skin has no deciding factor in us.
Why can’t we just be humans and base our observations on that and not color? I don’t watchTiger because he’s black. I watched him when he was going good because he was the best – by far – out there.
Him being in contention this past weekend at Chambers Bay would not have added any additional intensity to my viewing. As it was, Woods played terribly and failed to make the cut after two days, and I actually felt sorry for him because he has fallen so far and appears to have lost it mentally.
I wish Tiger well. But I do it as a golfer. Not because of his skin color.
What happened in Charleston this past week reminds us all how little we have come from the days when Slavery was allowed on our soil. A young guy of 21 goes to church and sits there for awhile and then gets up and starts shooting the black church goers simply because, as he has written, they are black and they should be gone.
Wow, what is wrong with us?
And then over the state capital building in South Carolina flies a Confederate flag. Double wow. What is wrong with us?
Now CNN is reporting Walmart will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from its stores. What the heck was Walmart doing sell them in the first place?
I don’t know. Sometimes we do stupid stuff. No wonder that the late comedian George Carlin had so much material. He couldn’t make this stuff up. It was all right there for him.
That’s enough for today. There is so much good material for me out there, but unlike Carlin I’m tired of repeating the same ol’ stuff.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
