As far as quotes go, I like Dave Anderson's suggestion for an "automatic par" or better yet a "windmill" on hole #7.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
For Mickelson, Savoring Cheers Tips the Balance
By DAVE ANDERSON
Published: June 21, 2004
Southampton, N.Y.
IN tipping his visor to the cheers before three-putting the 17th green in the 104th United States Open, did Phil Mickelson make the same mental mistake that Arnold Palmer made before losing the 1961 Masters?
After a birdie at the 16th hole at Shinnecock Hills, Mickelson had a one-stroke lead yesterday as he approached the bunker where his 6-iron tee shot on the 17th had plopped into the sand. Suddenly the cheers burst from the gallery there: "Gimme a P, gimme an H, gimme an I, gimme an L. What does that spell? Phil, Phil, Phil."
With a smiling laugh, Mickelson turned and tipped his visor. But would he have been better off to have ignored the chant, to have kept his concentration?
"I misjudged the bunker shot," he acknowledged later. "I thought I had to fly the ball to the hole, but I flew it too far. I didn't judge accurately how the ball would go on that green. The first putt broke right to left, but the wind took it more to the right than I thought. If there was no wind, it would have broke left."
The ball rolled 4 feet past the cup. After the roar for Retief Goosen's birdie at the nearby 16th, Mickelson missed again, then tapped in, enabling Goosen to win by two strokes.
That double bogey will haunt him. Just as Palmer has been haunted by a double-bogey 6 at the 1961 Masters after he acknowledged congratulations.
"After I hit my tee shot," Palmer has often said, "a friend of mine in the gallery shouted his congratulations and I went over and thanked him. I never should have done that."
Palmer's second shot faded into a greenside bunker, his third sailed over the green, he chipped back, then two-putted for the double bogey that enabled Gary Player to win by one stroke.
The more Mickelson thinks about his double bogey at the 17th, the more he might wonder if he should have acknowledged those cheers by tipping his visor, or if he might not have misjudged that bunker shot or might not have missed those two putts if he had remained in a cocoon of concentration.
Even with that double bogey, Mickelson shot 71, as did Goosen, in an Open that was written on the wind that had the Shinnecock Hills flags snapping and its greens like linoleum. Particularly the seventh green.
After three of the first four golfers to play the 189-yard seventh each had a triple-bogey 6, Walter Driver, the chairman of the United States Golf Association's competition committee, ordered a delay there to "lightly syringe" the sharply sloping green to soften it, then to water it every so often for the rest of the round.
The idea was to make that concrete-like green more receptive, an ethical mistake. Only weather should change the conditions of an Open course.
Then the U.S.G.A. compounded its mistake. The more water on the green, the more receptive the green, the greater advantage the leaders in the last few pairings had, at least theoretically.
Of the 62 who played the hole after it had been watered, only 12 kept their tee shots on the green. If the U.S.G.A. had wanted to be completely fair to the entire field, it should have declared the hole unplayable and granted every golfer a free par there. Either that or put a windmill on the green. Hit the windmill for an automatic birdie. And even before the leaders teed off, the Tiger Woods-Butch Harmon soap opera continued. Call it "Swings of Our Lives."
When Harmon, who had been Woods's golf guru for nearly a decade before being exiled nearly two years ago, was asked by NBC for his reaction to Woods's being upset with Harmon's criticism of him on British television, Harmon mentioned that he hadn't said anything that many pros haven't been saying on the practice tee.
"You look at his swing now, and it's totally changed," Harmon said. "The plane is different, the club comes more from the inside. He has to use his hands a lot more to square the club at impact."
Harmon suggested that Woods should "go back and try to put his ball in play, do the things he did in the past."
"He doesn't need me to do those," Harmon said. "He knows how to do them."
According to Harmon, that would enable Woods to control his ball flight, which would enable him to shoot lower scores.
"To win this championship," Harmon said, meaning the Open, "you have to control your ball. You can't let your ball control you."
Retief Goosen controlled his ball. Phil Mickelson controlled his ball. Tiger Woods didn't. He shot 76 to finish at 10 over par, tied for 17th. He'll soon forget that tie for 17th, but Phil Mickelson won't soon forget his 17th hole and his double bogey after he tipped his visor.