See, here's the thing about playing a U.S. Open with no rough: it opens the possibility can shoot a REALLY low score. We saw that at Congressional in 2011 where Rory McIlroy shot 131 for the first 36 holes and basically locked up that tournament. And we've seen it so far this year at Pinehurst, where Martin Kaymer broke McIlroy's 36 hole record by shooting a 130. He leads by six shots, and the British oddsmakers give him a 67 percent chance to win his second major.
1. M. Kaymer (GER): -10 (65+65=130)
2. B. Todd: -4 (69+67=136)
T3. K. Na: -3 (68+69=137)
T3. B. Snedeker: -3 (69+68=137)
T5. B. Koepka: -2 (70+68=138)
T5. D. Johnson: -2 (69+69=138)
T5. B. DeJonge (ZIM): -2 (68+70=138)
T5. K. Bradley: -2 (69+69=138)
T5. H. Stenson (SWE): -2 (69+69=138)
T10. M. Kuchar: -1 (69+70=139)
T10. R. McIlroy (NIR): -1 (71+68=139)
T10. C. Kirk: -1 (71+68=139)
T10. J. Spieth: -1 (69+70=139)
This tournament is making me feel sorry for the hardy people of North Carolina. Pinehurst looks like it's in some sort of weird desert with pine trees.
ReplyDeleteIf you come over about 100 miles from the east side of North Carolina and draw a jagged line that parallels the state's jagged Atlantic coast, North Carolina pretty much is some weird desert with pine trees. The Coastal Division of the late, great NCFA--Kinston, Wilson, Rocky Mount and Raleigh (which was always sort of an odd duck in that division and the whole league, really)--had such a distinct flavor to the Mountain and Piedmont divisions.
DeleteIt's 2 P.M. Central. Martin Kaymer tees off in 25 minutes. In Omaha, Texas and UC Irvine are about to start the College World Series. In Brazil, Costa Rica and Uruguay are kicking off their World Cup match.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was driving through Huntingburg/Holland/Tennyson, Ind., the old stomping grounds of Don Buse, who was one of the four basketball guards I remember my dad talking most about (along with Frank Ramsey, Jerry Sloan and JoJo White).
DeleteAfter 30 minutes, Uruguay leads Costa Rica 1-0. So far, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia have won matches at the World Cup.
ReplyDeleteHere's the leaderboard at Pinehurst:
ReplyDelete1. M. Kaymer (GER): -9 (38 holes)
T2. B. de Jonge (ZIM): -3 (40)
T2. B. Snedeker: -3 (39)
T2. B. Todd: -3 (38)
T5. H. Stenson (SWE): -2 (41)
T5. K. Na: -2 (38)
After 2 1/2 innings, Texas leads UC Irvine 1-0.
ReplyDeleteOh, my! With 60 minutes gone in Brazil, Costa Rica has scored two quick goals to take a 2-1 lead over Uruguay. That would be a huge upset. Given that the other two teams in this group are England and Italy, whichever team loses this game will find it difficult to advance to the knockout rounds.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Kaymer has bogeyed the second and fourth holes, and is now 8 under par. But he still has a five-shot lead.
ReplyDeleteScoreboard:
ReplyDelete1. M. Kaymer (GER): -8 (40 holes)
T2. B. de Jonge (ZIM): -3 (42)
T2. B. Snedeker: -3 (41)
T2. K. Na: -3 (41)
T5. R. Fowler: -2 (46)
T5. E. Compton: -2 (45)
T5. H. Stenson (SWE): -2 (43)
And in the 85th minute, Costa Rica has scored a THIRD goal to put this game away. Costa Rica leads Uruguay 3-1, and they are going to pick up their third win in World Cup history. A great victory for Costa Rica.
ReplyDeleteMenawhile, Martin Kaymer bounces back from his bogeys on 2 and 4 with an EAGLE on the par-5 fifth. So he's got a 7-shot lead, and it's pretty much all over but the shouting.
ReplyDeleteScoreboard:
ReplyDelete1. M. Kaymer (GER): -10 (41 holes)
T2. E. Compton: -3 (46)
T2. B. Snedeker: -3 (42)
T2. K. Na: -3 (42)
And that's a final:
ReplyDeleteUruguay 1 - 3 Costa Rica
That is a huge upset.
Scoreboard:
ReplyDelete1. M. Kaymer (GER): -9 (42 holes)
2. E. Compton: -4 (47)
T3. B. Snedeker: -3 (43)
T3. K. Na: -3 (43)
Meanwhile, after 6 innings Texas leads UC Irvine 1-0.
ReplyDeleteIn the top of the 8th, UC Irvine gets a leadoff single. With one out, leadoff hitter Taylor Sparks whacks a triple into the left field power alley. The game is tied at 1, and the Anteaters now have the lead run on third with one out. Texas is changing pitchers.
ReplyDeleteChris Rabago, the UC Irvine shortstop, greets the new pitcher by bouncing his first pitch up the middle for a base hit. Sparks scores from third, and the Anteaters lead 2-1.
ReplyDeleteMartin Kaymer has made the turn in 36 shots, after making three bogeys, an eagle, and five pars. He still has a five-shot lead.
ReplyDeleteUC Irvine tacks on another run with two more singles and the Anteaters lead 3-1 as we head into the bottom of the 8th.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, up in the Amazonian rain forest, England and Italy have kicked off their match in the World Cup.
ReplyDeleteUC Irvine has beaten Texas 3-1 in the first game of the College World Series. The Anteaters will take on the winner of Vandy/Louisville in their next game, while the loser of that game will meet Texas in an elimination match.
ReplyDeleteScoreboard:
ReplyDelete1. M. Kaymer (GER): -9 (48 holes)
2. K. Na: -4 (49)
T3. R. Fowler: -3 (54)
T3. E. Compton: -3 (53)
T3. H. Stenson (SWE): -3 (51)
T3. D. Johnson: -3 (50)
Somewhere between here and the end of the round, there were about five minutes (maybe not even that) where Kaymer's lead was down to three strokes. Kaymer bogeyed himself back to 7-under, and Na was alone in second at 4-under with a birdie-putt attempt coming. Na's putt lipped off. And then he barely overshot an approach on his next hole, ran way past the green and took double. And then he parred a hole, and then he doubled again. There must be a couple such sequences in majors every year--where some really good golfer gets to the precipice of a whole other level in his career and the way we think of him--and it just skitters away from him.
DeleteEngland's soccer team is just amazingly similar to the basketball teams that Kentucky fielded under Tubby Smith (excepting 1998). You know they'll play hard; you know that they'll do their best; but you can always tell that they're headed for heartbreaking defeat. They just don't have enough talent to win big at this level.
ReplyDeleteThis game with Italy is 0-0 after 33 minutes; England has already blown several chances to take the lead.
Almost immediately after that last comment, Italy banged in a goal from 30 yards out to take the lead, and I started to write a comment about how England is overmatched at this level. But while I was typing, England responded with a beautiful long pass that set up a very easy goal.
ReplyDeleteSo after 38 minutes:
England 1 - 1 Italy
To be fair to me, Barry Glendenning of the Guardian did post something about how terrible England looked -- only to have to correct himself after England's goal.
ReplyDeleteThis used to happen with Tubby's teams as well. I remember how in 2005, I thought UK was just rubbish -- I really worried about whether they could beat Eastern Kentucky in the first round of the tournament. But then they fought all the way to the Elite Eight -- only to lose in double overtime to Michigan State.
It's so weird how all of life folds together. You see similarity between England and Kentucky (and then there's "UK" and "UK"). So then I've got Don Buse, whose old Holland High got swallowed up in consolidation into Huntingburg Southridge, and then Brendon Todd went to Green Hope High in Cary, N.C., which I think was a consolidation deal. And I've got some Glendenning friends, who are heavily into the Cary High White Imps, which were named after the Duke University Blue Devils, which brings us back (sort of) to the UKs.
DeleteSomehow, in the goal celebration for England, the English team doctor has been injured. Over at the Guardian, Barry Glendenning writes, "Physician, heal thyself!"
ReplyDeleteEarly in the second half, England and Italy both made my comment about England's lack of quality look good. The English missed several good chances to score, and then Italy came back and banged in a spectacular header to take a 2-1 lead. Since then Italy have been running out the clock, and England have been failing to put much pressure on them.
ReplyDeleteAfter 81 minutes:
ReplyDeleteEngland 1 - 2 Italy
I think it's much more likely that Italy will get a third goal than that England will get an equalizer.
Brendon Todd, who was in second place at the U.S. Open a few hours ago, finishes with a nine-over par 79.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Kaymer birdies the 18th hole to finish with a 72 that leaves him at 8 under par. Today Pinehurst played about as hard as it could play -- only two people broke par all day. So Kaymer's 72 leaves him five strokes clear of the field, and barring a very unlikely result tomorrow, he will be your 2014 U.S. Open champion.
The British betting houses are now offering odds of 1 to 3 on Kaymer, which means that they give him a 75 percent chance of victory.
ReplyDeleteI also think Kaymer is going to win. But if the same thing happens today that happened yesterday--Kaymer shoots 72, and Rickie Fowler and Erik Compton go 67--we're headed to a playoff. I don't know that much about him, but Fowler apparently has taken the advice of some swing coach who has reconstructed his drive to some more conventional style that leads to fewer high numbers (but, presumably, too, fewer low ones).
DeleteI used to get very angry at England for losing games like this. But one of the things I have learned from the last 20 years of watching Kentucky is that talent makes a huge, huge difference in this type of competition. You can grind out lots and lots of wins over mediocre teams -- or even decent teams -- with effort and teamwork. But to win big games on the brightest stages against the best teams, you better have guys who are really great.
ReplyDeleteKentucky, of course, can go out and recruit the best players in the country. But England are stuck with the guys from their country, and for some reason those guys are rarely in the highest class. Since 1966, an Englishman has won the Footballer of the Year award in Europe only three times.
Someday England will find the Nick Faldo of soccer -- an Englishman who is one of the very best players in the world. And that England team will do real damage in the World Cup. But until then, there will always be a ceiling on their efforts.
And there's the whistle: Italy comes out of the rain forest with a relatively easy 2-1 victory over England, and the English will now struggle to advance to the knockout rounds.
ReplyDelete