I’m marshalling this week. If anyone wants to say hello, please do so. The schedule has us going around with Tiger’s group:) I’ll be the tallest and youngest (well, least aged) of those moving around with this group.
It was glorious watching the golf today: a joy. I sat at the green of #4 (6 West) as the groups came through, and that was the most fun I’ve ever had watching pro golf. It was literally breath-taking: as they came to understand what was going on, the entire (large) gallery became visibly excited.
To explain, this green is famous, with a steep slope from back to front. The pin was placed kindly today, to encourage players to go for birdies. When the green is slick, the ONLY way to play this green is to leave yourself uphill putts. An uphill chip is preferable to a downhill putt. Apparently Norman had given strict instructions for all of his pairings to leave their approach shots below the hole – he certainly used to do that himself in his heyday. Much of the gallery’s anticipation lay in watching who would settle for an uphill putt, and who just went for the pin. Most players just went for the pin: these shots looked perfect and checked a little, but not enough to stop them pin-high.
The third group through was Baddeley/Day vs Johnston/Kuchar. Day’s approach finished 10 feet past, Johnston’s 20 feet past. On TV they would have looked a terrific pair, but both were downhill puts. Everybody held their breath. Kuchar hit a very gentle putt, which slowly trickled 15 feet past the hole. Baddeley, a sublime putter, knew a 2-putt would probably win the hole; his putt almost dropped, but then trickled 8 feet past. The pairings halved the hole with 3-putt bogies, having both had straight-forward approach shots from somewhere around 140-150 yards out. The next match saw Goosen hit his approach to almost exactly the same spot Johnston had, and the gallery gasped at the thought of what would likely follow. Mickelson then hit an extraordinary approach, landing on a bank with both down-slope and side-slope, and saw his ball roll down the bank to finish just 3 feet from the pin. I’ve no idea whether this was intended, or a fluke. It appeared to most a spectacular shot, an effort of utter perfection. However, Furyk was left with a tricky downhill 3-footer. He missed, and both Americans must have groaned as the ball kept rolling. Instead of winning the hole, Phil started thinking about having to make the return 4-footer to save the hole. Both pairings scrambled tense two-putts, and halved the hole. A few players left their approaches below the hole, and then the excitement became a matter of whether an uphill 12 footer would be holed, or else finish as a tap-in two putt.
This probably doesn’t start to convey the excitement of those matches. The green conditioning presented a test of skill and brains. It wasn’t unfair or unplayable. This is how the hole is supposed to play: it was a challenge, and made for fantastic matchplay. Expect more excitement there tomorrow, as a more challenging pin placement is highly likely for the fourball matches.