Olympic Club's First Six Holes Garnering Scary Reputation at 2012 U.S. Open

The first six holes at The Olympic Club, the site of the 2012 U.S. Open, have been the overwhelming topic of the days leading up to the season’s most mentally and physically challenging tournament.

            It seemed like whenever the topic was brought up to the world’s best this week, it was followed by the words “difficult,” “test” or “challenge.”

            And it will be all that and more this week.

              “I think that the first six, if you play them for four straight days even par, you're going to be picking up just a boat load of shots.  They're just difficult,” Tiger Woods said at a press conference on Tuesday.

              That seems to be the overwhelming consensus from the players this week.  The first six holes are going to be the biggest challenge of the day’s round, and finishing the stretch around par will give that player a terrific boost towards winning this championship.

               “I think even is a good score -- 1‑over is acceptable,” Phil Mickelson said.  “It's certainly challenging.  But the way it's set up gives you an opportunity to play them.  They're not unplayable, by any means.”

               Both Woods and Mickelson, along with 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson, will be starting their first round of the week on Thursday starting on the 9^th hole -- far away from the opening six holes.

               “This is a long grind.  We're teeing off of No. 9, so we don't get to play obviously the first six holes until it's basically our back nine,” Woods said.

               The first hole at The Olympic Club, which will be played by Woods, Mickelson and Watson on Thursday as the 11^thhole of their opening round, is a 520-yard par-4 dogleg right with a bit of a downhill slope on the approach shot.  The hole usually plays as a par-5, but was converted into a par-4 for the challenge of the U.S. Open.

“The first hole, it's wide open in front.  If you can just find the fairway, you really don't have to hit it far.  It will chase on to the green,” Mickelson said.  “You should be able to make 4 there.”

The second hole, an uphill par-4 stretching 428 yards, is arguably the players’ best chance at scoring on the first six holes.  If the pin location is accessible and away from the overhanging sand trap blocking the front portion of the green, the players should be able to put their approximate 150-yard approach shot into a blind green within birdie range.

However, the third hole has obviously been the players’ main concern this week.  The downhill 247-yard par-3 is sealed on the left and right portions of the green with bunkers and appears as a very intimidating approach shot to one of the smaller greens on the course.

“Certainly, 3 is the difficult hole.  The critical thing about 3 is picking the right club,” Mickelson said.  “If you can pick the right club on 3, you're going to use the same club on 8 and the same club on 13.  So it's really a big first pull of the club.”

The fourth and fifth holes are fairly related in that the fourth hole is a dogleg left up a hill, and the fifth hole is a dogleg right back down the hill.  The key to scoring on these holes is accuracy and positioning off the tee, after which the players will be faced with an uphill approach shot to a blind green on the fourth hole, and a downhill, downwind approach shot to a green with two well-positioned bunkers on the left and right sides.

“The first few holes are the toughest,” Watson said.  “There's more blind shots off the tees, you can't see the fairways, you can't see where you're hitting.”

The sixth hole is the last of the long stretch of challenging holes to start half of the field’s rounds on Thursday.  The hole has a slight dogleg left and a well-positioned bunker at around 290 yards stretching into the middle of the fairway. Most players will be taking a 3-wood off the tee and opting for a mid to long iron approach shot into the green.

The hole was extended since the 1998 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club, where the players would hit their drive over the fairway bunker and be left with a wedge into the green.

“I played it yesterday, trying to putt out and doing some things,” Watson said on Tuesday.  “I was 2‑over through I think the first six.  And I made some good par putts.”

“If you can get through there even, it's like you're shooting well under par, almost like you birdied all the holes,” Watson said.

Woods said it will come down to where USGA executive director Mike Davis puts the tee boxes during the rounds that will reveal how aggressive the players will be allowed to play this week.

              “They can put 1 back, they can put 3 back,” he said.  “They've shown us two different tee locations on 5.  So they can mix/match a little bit and give us a break or just hammer us.  So we'll see what happens.”

              However, with the first six holes appearing as such a test for the best in the world, The Olympic Club is offering a chance to gain some strokes back with the 16^th, 17^thand 18^th holes of the tournament, which is set to make for an exciting finish to the championship.

               Woods knows that is where the championship will be won or lost.

               “So you have three holes back‑to‑back, either you're chipping, you're wedging, so you're going to have to make some birdies there, absolutely,” he said.

               “It gives you a chance to finish off a round.  Generally we're just trying to hang on coming in and make a bunch of pars.  But you're trying to make a bunch of pars throughout most of the day, and then all of a sudden you've got to change gears.”

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Casey Martin Surprised to be at U.S. Open, Calls The Olympic Club a “Huge Challenge”

Casey Martin said he had not played a single 18-hole round in the nine days leading up to sectional qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Open.  After back-to-back rounds of 69, he is heading back to The Olympic Club – arguably the toughest U.S. Open test in recent memory.

            “It kind of feels like 1998 all over again with a lot of the attention, and it's great,” Martin said.  “I'm totally flattered, but last week it was a very challenging week for me.  Just a lot of demands on my time -- I'm just not built for this.”

            Martin, who is now the head golf coach at one of the top-ranked collegiate golf programs in the country in the University of Oregon, played in the 1998 U.S. Open when it was last held at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.

            He was well aware of the multitude of questions he would be fielding this week about the infamous lawsuit he filed against the PGA Tour in 2001.

            The case, which made it all the way to the Supreme Court, granted Martin the privilege of driving in a golf cart while playing in golf tournaments on the PGA Tour.

            Martin has a degenerative circulatory disorder in his leg that prevents him from walking golf courses without pain.

            “The way the golf course is, is quite a bit different.  It's more open areas,” Martin said.  “And so they will have a cart caddie for me out there, too, where I'll park kind of short of green and he'll take it to the next tee.  And they have been overly accommodating, the USGA, which it's been great, and I think it will work really smoothly this week.”

            Martin said the reality of whether or not his leg will have to be amputated is still up in there.

            “I think I'm going to keep it as long as something drastic doesn't happen,” he said.  “And that's always been the fear.  It's still pretty fragile.  So my leg compared to '98, it's probably not quite as good just because it's older, but it hasn't deteriorated to the point that it was.  My leg, it goes in cycles.”

            There is no underestimating Martin, though.  The last time he played in the U.S. Open, it was in 1998 at the same Olympic Club golf course he will be playing this week.

            That week in 1998, Martin tied for 23^rd.

“I drove it well here,” he said.  “If you hit the fairways out here, the ball is going to go a long way.  If you hit it in the rough, it will just stop.  And I remember I was hitting it well here, hitting a lot of fairways and ‑‑ but, man, it's a different golf course too.  My goodness, it's going to be a big task this week.”

That seems to be the overwhelming consensus on the hurdles The Olympic Club is set to throw at the best in the world this week.

The Lake Course is not the longest course the U.S. Open has ever seen, nor does it boast the most challenging shots.

What the course does have is tight fairways, tiny greens running at 12+ on the stimpmeter and blind shots – lots and lots of blind shots.

“You have to hit it well.  Shape it perfectly.  Hit long irons that are going to hold the green,” Martin said.

 However, the biggest obstacle set before these players will be during the first six holes of the championship, which many experts are setting the pace at a one or two-over par score in order for the stretch to be considered a success for any one of these players.

“Well, I can attest, I played the holes today.  They're incredibly difficult.  Very intimidating,” Martin said.  “I want to make it clear I really am excited to be here.  But there's also this in the back of your mind the little fear factor of I have to play this golf course.  And I don't play or practice like a lot of these guys do and yet I still want to compete.”

Of the many keys to this week at The Olympic Club is driving distance and accuracy, which Martin was among the leaders in when he was a regular on the PGA Tour.

“I don't want to lie, the members at Eugene Country Club will know I'm on the side of the range hitting balls all the time and I love the golf swing, I love golf,” Martin said.  “But that's kind of what ‑‑ I hit balls for about an hour a few days a week.  That's kind of my exercise.  I don't go on the golf course that much and actually play for score.”

Those surprised at how the Oregon head golf coach managed to qualify for the U.S. Open at age 40 with a degenerate leg and little legitimate playing time are not alone.  Even his own players are surprised.

“They probably are a little surprised because I don't play that much with them,” he said.  “But when I do play with them, they're good matches and I've got a couple really, really good players on my team that are graduating and so when I go play with the team I'm competitive with them.  So they kind of know where my level is in relationship to those guys.”

Through the entirety of the national spotlight placed on him this past week and the bombardment of interview requests, Martin has still kept his focus on the golf test at hand – one that will test the players both physically and mentally.

 “I tell my guys that are qualifying for the U.S. Open, I'm like, do you know what you're getting into if you qualify?  Do you know what it's going to be like?  And I kind of do that tongue in cheek.”

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San Francisco Giants: Pablo Sandoval's Troubles More Serious Than They Appear

It has not been a good week for San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval.  Although he began his rehab stint with Single-A San Jose over the weekend, he was questioned by police on his involvement in a sexual harassment case in Aptos, was called out by his own manager and was deemed not ready to return to the team as scheduled.


Comcast SportsNet Bay Area's Andrew Baggarly reported on Monday that Bochy is dissatisfied with Sandoval's progress in his rehab and could miss his presumed return date to San Francisco of Friday.  Bochy said next Tuesday is most likely a better scenario at this point.

"Giants manager Bruce Bochy met briefly with Sandoval on Saturday, and while he didn’t mention specifics of the conversation, clearly it was not a pleasant exchange. 

Bochy acknowledged that he isn’t sure that Sandoval is in condition to return to third base, where Joaquin Arias has set a defensive standard that will be difficult to match."

So what is Sandoval's deal then?

We know the Giants are angered at the fact Sandoval is supposed to be rehabbing from injury so he can return to San Francisco and help the Giants with their struggling power situation right now.  Instead, Sandoval was in Santa Cruz County getting into trouble.

Bochy also hinted at the fact that Sandoval's ongoing weight issue may have come back into play.  Sandoval's weight has been well-documented, but the time away from the conditioning because of surgery may have caused him to put the pounds back on.  That scenario has not boded well for Sandoval or the Giants in the past.

Sandoval hit .268 with 63 RBI in 2010 when his weight issue was at its peak, and the Giants managed to win the World Series despite his sub-par season.  He was able to get back into shape in 2011, batting .315 with 70 RBI in 35 less at-bats.

The Giants currently can afford to lose Sandoval and have him take his time in returning to the team.  They are coming off a four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs and are winners in seven of their last eight games.  Also, three of their next four series are against teams with records well-under .500 in the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners.

The Texas Rangers will come to San Francisco this weekend for a three-game series.

It is hard to envision Bochy and the Giants holding Sandoval's return back farther than next Tuesday when they start a three-game series with the Houston Astros.  Sandoval had a homerun and a double in his second game with Single-A San Jose on Sunday and is clearly on the path to getting back into form -- weight issue or not.

However, we should expect the Giants to ease Sandoval back into the regular starting lineup.  His replacement at third base, Joaquin Arias, has played very well both defensively and offensively in Sandoval's absence and could see a decent amount of time in the first couple weeks of Sandoval's return.

There is still much concern, though.  Sandoval's weight will be a topic no matter how he produces when he returns, and then the whole sexual harassment claim will be ongoing throughout the next month.

Through all that, Sandoval will need to produce on the field while juggling the other problems he has made for himself, or he could have even more problems than he already does now.

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