Third Round Tales

I was juggling a few things today so I'm not really following all of the reporting. My Torrey Story blog at GolfDigest.com features an exclusive breakdown on the Saturday setup, which includes news about Mike Davis and also a couple of very interesting setup touches that are sure to have the boys crying foul (yep, they'll have to think!).

I'll be out on the course again most of the day, but I'd love to hear what you are seeing on television. 

Update on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 11:45 AM by Geoff

Phil's warming up with a driver! Amen. Great story by Tod Leonard in today's San Diego Union Tribune about the driver blunder, but so far I haven't been able to find it online.

Meanwhile I've added several posts at the GolfDigest.com blog. 

Comments

[Al]

Geoff
why is your exclusive blog a 6 yr old story about Tommy Bolt?

Get some rest dude, we need you for the weekend.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

http://www.golfdigest.com/golfworld/blogs/dateline

[Geoff]

Al,
It was a long day, to say the least! That final hour in the Apple store turned me into a zombie!

[NRH]

What would you estimate the combined net worth of Stevie, Bones and Navarro?
Ian Poulter: enjoy your flight
Secretly pulling for the Mechanic
Berman was relatively low-key - he must have been reading the press clippings.
Rymer>Clampett/Hulbert

[Brad]

Mike Davis is doing an excellent job of the course set-up. Love how he is using the whole course, not just putting the blocks at the tips, finding the toughest pins, and saying 'have at her boys'. As for the bumpy greens, they know coming in that poa greens are going to be bumpy later in the day. Within a stand of poa there is always a few sub-species that have different growth rates, blade width and texture.There is usually some bentgrass in there as well just to make it more interesting.

[Mike B]

I like the little gamesmenship by Tiger (Scott also) against Phil ...

On the 13th hole on Friday, where Tiger and Scott had reached the green, while Phil "no driver" Mickelson had layed up, both Tiger and Scott were waiting for Phil to his approach standing about 10 yards short of the green, in the neck between the sets of bunkers.

Even though he is a lefty, Phil had to know they were standing there ... yes, Phil did put it close but I could see Tiger and Adam telling Phil "I you had a driver in the bag, you to could have gone for the green".

[dbh]

'Secretly pulling for the Mechanic'
Me as well, NRH. He's always on my short list of faves.
He's fearless and always a good bet in a major.

[dbh]

What's with the player order listing on the usopen.com leaderboard?
Mediate's in the final pairing and he's listed 4th.
Woods is out in the previous pair and he's second on the list.
It's like network TV graphics where the scoreboard order tends to be governed by a popularity quotient.
USGA, your mandate is to protect traditions of the game. First in, last out (at a given total) is one of them. Your leaderboard should reflect this.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Here's standard scoreboard operating procedure:

Primary sort key: score relative to par (ascending).

Secondary sort key: holes completed in current round (descending).

Tertiary sort key: tee time for current round (ascending).

So Tiger is listed higher than Rocco because he is teeing off before Rocco. During the round, whenever Tiger and Rocco are tied, Tiger will be listed first, since he will have completed more holes than Rocco.

Whenever DL3 and Tiger are tied, DL3 will be listed first, since he teed off before Tiger, and will have completed more holes than Tiger.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

I haven't heard any complaints about the pace of play, and both rounds completed before dark.

Any word on the times?

[dbh]

Thanks for the explanation, Martin. Certainly once everyone's teed off, the criteria seem familiar and make sense to me. I'd swear other scoreboards just list players by their upcoming tee times given an equal score, but I could easily be wrong!

[newbie]

I have had it with that stupid USGA commercial that intimates a guy is going to cheat by moving his ball from behind a tree. A...why glorify someone for not cheating? B...You denegrate all golfers who don't cheat or even think about cheating. This is a waste of TV time and an embarrasment to golf.

[Tighthead]

I heard Appleby had knee surgery recently as well. I guess his knee and Chris DiMarco's mother's death get the media downplay while in the words of Dan Jenkins, "you'd think he was the only guy who ever had a knee, a baby, or a dead father".

[Chema]

Newbie is spot on. The old guy in the RBS "tree" commercial looks like the Mechanic's father. I have a bottle of rioja I am saving until a Spaniard wins another major.

[Brian]

It is funny to see Raymond Floyd run in those Lexus commercial. That makes me laugh every time.

[newbie]

Calloway is cutting a new version of the Mickelson commercial. "High! I'm Phil and this is my man Bones. we can help your game...just keep the driver at home and put in 5 wedges!"

[Brian]

I think the pins in Rocco's hat helps him keep his head down.

[Bill]

Mike Davis is the happiest man in Torrey Pines right now.

[Jason]

Willis Reed?

[Chema]

Tiger is the greatest putter of all time. No on else is even close.

Steve Williams is the most annoying person of all time. No one else os even close.

[Aunt Blabbie]

Berman doing Mickelson's 13th hole.

"Back, back, back!"

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Holy crap! I just finished watching the 3rd round on TiVo.

Holy crap!

[Taylor]

Martin, just imagine how great it was live. Now that's entertainment!

[Mike B]

DBH / Martin -

Yes, the networks tweak the scoreboard, they repeatly showed Tiger at the top of the three players with the same score even though he had played fewer holes.

The USGA did the same thing on their website yesterday morning, although it is there website, doesn't mean they have editorial control of the content.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Mike B, I was describing "official" leaderboard procedures, followed by pgatour.com and usopen.com.

The networks modify these procedures when Tiger is involved. They always list him first among players with a given score. And when he is not in the lead (which has happened), he is often the only player listed at a given score.

They might even do the same for Mickelson, but I have never noticed.

[JohnR]

They will also stretch the first page to include him if necessary,

[OWGR Fan]

Here is the link Geoff was looking for on Phil and his driver.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/news/2008/jun/13/mickelsons-no-driver-experiment-flop-usog/