Paul Lawrie: heresy!
Speaking to John Huggan in advance of this week’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, home favourite Paul Lawrie again explained his decision to skip last month’s US Open Championship at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Desperate for Ryder Cup points and a strong finish to the season, the 1999 Open champion was unwilling to risk his form in the pursuit of USGA-approved technical purity.
Driver love, baby!
Maybe a little time off was just the prescription Dustin Johnson needed to snag his sixth-career PGA Tour victory, the most of any player in his 20s, at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Due to a back injury in March, DJ was forced to take almost a three-month vacation from competitive golf. He also estimated that he went six weeks without hitting balls.
Despite the long layoff, Johnson dusted off most of the rust at The Memorial (T19) and then shined in his second start since returning from the DL in Memphis, firing a four-under 66 to hold off John Merrick by a shot.
That's what a double-bogey on the 72nd hole looks like
Coming off a birdie to jump into a four-way tie for the lead at 8-under, Rory McIlroy had an extra bounce to his step walking up to the 18th tee. Although he wasn’t feeling completely comfortable with his 3-wood (case of the lefts all day), he knew it was the play. He didn’t pull it off the way he planned, though. Instead, McIlroy dunked it in the water that runs along the left-side of the fairway.
The finishing hole at TPC Southwind is an easy hole to screw up, though — just ask Robert Garrigus.
Kisses!
Apologies for the lack of posts between the U.S. Open sectional qualifying and this weekend. In preparation to provide you with the best coverage possible from The Olympic Club, I had a sleep-a-thon to recover from traveling all year Memorial until the U.S. Open next week.
Pretty sure I came close to breaking my own record for consecutive-hours slept Wednesday and Thursday, but I woke up to go on a boat in the rivers surrounding St. Simons Island and Sea Island, and ventured out to the Atlantic Ocean. We caught the baby Black-tipped shark in the Hampton River and it posed with me for a few pictures before I threw it back in the water.
Some things to note or mark on your calendar:
Guts and grit
I didn’t think it was possible to top the Dennis Miller story, but Casey Martin did. Another example of why U.S. Open qualifying is awesome: The 40-year-old golf coach for the University of Oregon made a five-footer for par to earn medalist honors, taking him back to The Olympic Club. Had he missed, he would have been in a three-for-two playoff (three players for the two available spots).
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