Crowds almost claustrophobically line the tees and fairways as Tiger Woods plays Oakmont on the final day (Mark Newcombe/Visions in Golf)
|
So you think you get sweaty with nervousness on the first tee of the monthly medal. How about the US Open, 85 degrees, final round, spectators 15-deep, not only around the tee but all the way to the green?
Heart attack, anyone?
And how many of the last seven players to tee off at Oakmont with a chance of victory do you think found the fairway? Just one...Tiger Woods, superman in red wearing a turtle neck vest.
The first-hole pile up involved Steve Stricker (bogey), Bubba Watson (double bogey), Justin Rose (bogey) and Aaron Baddeley (triple bogey). Were they nervous you betcha.
Paul Casey and Woods got out of there with pars and Stephen Ames was the only player all day long to claim a birdie at this 482-yard par-4 monster.
Asked earlier about being surrounded on the leaderboard by many of the young guns, Woods, said: “They're going to deal with emotions that they've probably never dealt with before. It helps to have experience. I've been there before and I know what it takes.”
The average score for the first hole in the final round was 4.41 - and there were 18 bogies, four double bogies or worse, 40 pars and that solitary birdie by 44-year-old Stephen Ames, once of Trinidad and London, now re-setttled in Calgary, Canada.
Only 47% of the field found that opening fairway and just 41% made the green in regulation.
Incidentally among those whose accuracy never quite matched their distance off the tee, but who managed to hit the vital shots when it mattered, was one Angel Cabrera.
How many of you picked the 38-year-old Argentian in your golf club sweep?
