[John Blain]

Did anyone else out there get the feeling that Johnny Miller was pulling for Rocco Mediate in the playoff with TW?

Maybe it was my imagination but I just got the sense that he wanted Mediate to prevail. Perhaps he wanted a fellow Callaway guy to take home the trophy?

John

[rjsimper]

I think Miller just wants someone to stand up to Tiger - his ongoing theme in all his commentary is choking, pressure, nerves, etc and seems convinced that Tiger benefits from the choking of everyone else out there.  Not that he's anti-Tiger or pro-Rocco, but just wants someone to stand up to the machine.

Anyone catch the comment on Friday (I think) where someone said - "This may be the hardest US Open course there is" and Miller said "Wellllll.....I don't know about that....probably Oakmont, but still"

Did Miller play well at Oakmont or something?

[Tom Huckaby]

I think Miller just wants someone to stand up to Tiger - his ongoing theme in all his commentary is choking, pressure, nerves, etc and seems convinced that Tiger benefits from the choking of everyone else out there.  Not that he's anti-Tiger or pro-Rocco, but just wants someone to stand up to the machine.

Anyone catch the comment on Friday (I think) where someone said - "This may be the hardest US Open course there is" and Miller said "Wellllll.....I don't know about that....probably Oakmont, but still"

Did Miller play well at Oakmont or something?

Busting up!

I think during US Opens it would be a fun drinking game... drink every time Miller mentions anything related to his 63.

 

And I believe Ryan has this correct also.  Miller just wanted to see someone stand up to Tiger.  He damn well got his wish... almost....

TH

[PThomas]

i know i was rooting for Rocco...nothing against Tiger, but the win would have meant SO much for Rocco, esp at this stage in his career...and he seems like a very nice guy

[rjsimper]

I am a HUGE Tiger fan, but I was admittedly disappointed to see Rocco miss on the first playoff hole.  Tiger will win 10 more, Rocco will never be here again, and I love his attitude, how quickly he plays, and the fact that he's not a stiff (all things that have been said plenty of times)

[tlavin]

Everybody loves an underdog and I definitely have the feeling that a majority of viewers were pulling for Rocco.  I wasn't, because I wanted to see history.  Rocco winning would have been a speed bump on Tiger's career and he would have joined Steve Jones and the other unlikely winners of the Open.  Yawn.  Had Tiger lost, the commentary would have been all about the fact that he would have crushed the field if he had two good knees.  As it is, we were treated to a good journeyman playing the best golf of his life even if it wasn't enough to beat a guy with a torn knee ligament and two stress fractures in his left leg.  This becomes another chapter in the anthology of Tiger's amazing career and an inspiring one at that.

As for Miller, he's a cipher and a narcissistic pimp.  I could care less who he was rooting for.

[Tom Huckaby]

Again I find myself nodding in complete agreement with Terry Lavin.  Perhaps not the last part about Miller - I don't really care all that much one way or the other about him - but about rooting interest in this.  Put me down EXACTLY like Terry.  I'm just glad he's here to put "our" position so well.

Interesting though... during the event I told my brother I was rooting for Tiger and he told me I have no soul.

 

[Kalen Braley]

Again I find myself nodding in complete agreement with Terry Lavin.  Perhaps not the last part about Miller - I don't really care all that much one way or the other about him - but about rooting interest in this.  Put me down EXACTLY like Terry.  I'm just glad he's here to put "our" position so well.

Interesting though... during the event I told my brother I was rooting for Tiger and he told me I have no soul.

 

Damn I should have thought of that one!!!

I was rooting big time for Rocco as well because he's the underdog and seems like a great guy.  This would have been an epic upset

And not cause I'm a Tiger hater like you say I am Huck!! 

[Tom Huckaby]

No Kalen, it is because you are a Tiger-hater.  And there's nothing wrong with that... you're there with many luminaries from this site.

Acceptance is the first step to recovery, however.

 

[Tom Huckaby]

Interesting though... during the event I told my brother I was rooting for Tiger and he told me I have no soul.

 

Who knows you better than your bro?

Dammit!  No one.  That's why it hurt.  But he was wrong this time.  Either that or Terry Lavin has no soul either.  I'm going with me and Lavin over my idiot left-handed hack brother. 

But Kalen, note one of your brethren has arrived.  Perhaps he'll give you a rid to the 12-step program meetings.

 

TH

[Kalen Braley]

Tom,

I know who I am damn it! 

Think Neo from the Matrix "There is no spoon"!!!

But in the end, all I need to know is this...Tiger is the man, and I ain't him!!

[Rick Shefchik]

I have no soul, either. I was rooting for Tiger, for exactly the same reason I would have been rooting for Hogan over Jack Fleck in 1955.

Regarding Miller, who I find very entertaining, I'm guessing Stuart Appleby won't be having him over for a glass of wine any time soon. In the midst of Stuart's putting woes on Saturday, Miller said, "Maybe Stuart's insides and major championships aren't made for each other."

In other words...

And yet, brutal as it was, Miller's comment was probably correct. If he said that about me and my club championship, he'd be spot-on.

[Mike Benham]

Did anyone catch the Miller comment, as they were about to tee off on the first sudden death hole, that Tiger ate and drank too much after playing 18 ... "you should only take a bite or two during a round" ...

Yeah, he was rooting for Tiger to make a beeline to the port-o-let ...

[Tom Huckaby]

I am very much liking my company among the soul-less.  Shefchik, Lavin and me?  I can definitely go to war with these two.

 

Good thoughts re Miller also, Rick.  And he'd be right about me and damn near any tournament I play, also.

He does tell it like it is.  Some find it offensive.  I tend to find him entertaining... even if he does refer to Oakmont a bit too often.

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

I was rooting for Rocco just to slow Tiger down so he woudn't surpass Jack until sometime in late summer of 2012  .  Seems Tiger slowed himself down.  With any luck, he won't get his 19th Major until the 2012 PGA...

[tlavin]

I was rooting for Rocco just to slow Tiger down so he woudn't surpass Jack until sometime in late summer of 2012  .  Seems Tiger slowed himself down.  With any luck, he won't get his 19th Major at the 2012 PGA...

You do "stay on point".

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

In my world, it's all about Kiawah.

[Tom Huckaby]

Yes, Tom, I'm not an Eldrick fan.  And there are perfectly good reasons - the same reason you don't want people telling you the score of a game you TiVo'd or telling you the ending of a movie you want to see or how the last chapter of a great new book plays out.

I want drama and uncertainty in golf.  Currently, there is none.  Tiger sapped it all away, and now all I feel I'm watching on championship Sundays is some sort of cruel hoax.

Now, Dan Jenkins wrote about this years ago, with Bobby Joe Grooves etc., back in his parody of the Open, the big name made a charge from behind, creating excitement, uncertainty and drama.

We get none of that with Eldrick. 

Besides, to me, he is Public Enemy #1 as the poster child for Cheater Line usage.  If the man would line up his own damn putts the way every other great golfer in history did, then maybe I could root for him.  But every time I watch him play, I just start adding two strokes in my head to his score for every putt he hits and I have Tiger shooting 134, 132, 140, 138 or whatever for dead last in every tournament he plays in! 

shivas:

I'm sure you find these all very good reasons for your Tiger-hatred.  Heck, I can buy some of them myself, although I'm having a hard time seeing that drama is missing from the tournaments he wins.  Remember also he doesn't win EVERY event he plays.  In any case, it doesn't really matter to me why you feel as you do...  You have every right to every preference you wish.

I am just happy we have the battle lines clearly drawn.

If only Kalen could be so self-aware.

TH

[Tom Huckaby]

No shivas, when I was a kid, I rooted for Nicklaus.

If that doesn't explain things, nothing will.

I do tend to enjoy seeing history made in my time.  A Tiger win is historic; a Rocco or Bob May win is a footnote right there with Steve Jones.

It's funny, in every other sport I can and do root for the underdog.

So like I say, I get your take.  Truly I do.  It makes a lot of sense.

But I also feel very comfortable over here with sages like Lavin and Shefchik.

TH

ps - I was 14 years old when we first saw Darth Vader.   

[George Pazin]

It's funny, in every other sport I can and do root for the underdog.

Except for pro football, where you join all in worshiping the Stillers.

 

According to The Simpsons - which I always look to for guidance - Goliath wasn't such a bad guy.

[Rick Shefchik]

Besides, we knew Darth Vader was evil.

[Kalen Braley]

Hey Tom,

Your sort of contradiciting yourself...like everytime you accuse me of being a Tiger hater. 

The fact that you remember Steve Jones US Open win is proof that we all do remember.  And Francis Ouimet should have been long forgotten right?  Yet all these years later we still remember.  Hmmm, thats odd, how can this be seeing how he was the ultimate upset in winner in golf as far as I'm concerned.

[Sean Leary]

If we weren't witnessing a once ina lifetime player, it would be a lot easier to root for the underdog. But we are lucky enough to be witnessing history before our very eyes. I feel blessed, to be honest, to live in the time of Tiger.

[Dan Kelly]

A Tiger win is historic; a Rocco or Bob May win is a footnote right there with Steve Jones.

That Steve Jones "footnote" allowed Rick Shefchik and me to climb from about 25th to 2nd Overall in a national Fantasy Golf contest. (We were the only team in the top 25 who "owned" Jones.)

We (and two other partners) won $5,000 for finishing second Overall, and $1,000 for winning our 100-team league.

Rick and I took our winnings and spent a good share of them just outside Mullen, Nebraska.

It was hardly a footnote, as far as we're concerned!

[JohnV]

I thought Miller's line about Rocco's second putt on 17 being "Hoch length" was a little over the top.

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