Open Saturday Reads

Thrilling day Friday. Loved it when NBC came on and a guy was syringing the 18th green behind Johnny and Dan Hicks. Personally, I got two naps in but woke up in time for Jason Gore's 362-yarder on #8, which rolled maybe 20, most of it veering left! Oh, and did you notice Goosen in the left rough on 14, with the perfect angle into that right corner hole location? You know, where there was once fairway? Lovely stuff.

I think the kid in those cheesey USGA hole-in-one promos has his college degree by now. What do you say USGA? Time to put that one out of its misery along with the "I swing like a girl" ads?

Brad Klein writes something worth your while on the USGA and their setup issues. This is not the typical "they've learned their lesson" story regurgitated by most of the scribblers relying on David Fay's media day quotes. Klein reports they are only single cutting the greens, with no post-round cutting, no rolling! One middle of the night rolling like last year, and these things would be goners! Klein also has an interesting anecdote about Mike Davis and a last minute hole location change, something that Tom Meeks could learn from since he's still learning after all these years!

The Orlando Sentinel's Steve Elling has the best overview of where things stand and why Retief Goosen is underappreciated. Former USGA Executive Director Harry Easterly passed away Thursday . USOpen.com's notes section leads with the inappropriately titled "Poulter Pouts After Round," and goes into Ian Poulter's issue with the cup liner causing a putt of his not to drop. Turns out he had asked for not one, but two rules officials to determine if the liner was too high. Apparently it was a problem elsewhere on the course, and one reader with expertise in setup believes it may be the result of the syringing causing different ground temperatures. This AP story has some more details, without the propaganda tone found on USOpen.com. Poulter doesn't sound like he's making the problem up.

Tiger drew the USGA's ire for damaging a g reen and uttering an obsenity. It wasn't pretty. However he didn't earn a disqualification under the "serious breach" of etiquette rule because NBC really wants a decent rating this weekend. Jason Gore's came off beautifully in his press conference. Must be that fine Pepperdine education. And finally, Tiger talked about #15, which appeared unhittable on TV:

Q. How tough is 16 playing right now?

TIGER WOODS: 16 I got lucky. It was playing downwind today. That's one of the reasons I drove it so far. 17 is not that hard a hole, but 15 is a joke, trying to hit the ball on that green. I mean, Luke hit such a beautiful golf shot right at it. It never even thought about stopping. That's one of the hardest greens to hit on this whole golf course. I think I saw the percentage yesterday, probably like 27 percent, probably worse by now. It's just unbelievable trying to hit the green. I luckily stayed on and two-putted for par.