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I know this much about Oakland Hills. It's brutal, and it's pretty high up there in the course rankings [18th by Golf Magazine], but I don't know any players who say, "God, I love Oakland Hills." It's a ballbuster.
The greens are over the top. They're straight from Putt-Putt, minus the swinging logs and clowns' mouths. Plus, you're hitting three-irons into most of them. I have no idea why Oakland Hills is rated so high. What's the mystique? Because Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open there a million years ago and bragged that he finally tamed the Monster? That's prehistoric. The last Open there, in 1996, was uneventful. On the 72nd hole Davis Love III three-putted and Tom Lehman hooked his drive into a fairway bunker to allow Steve Jones, a qualifier who scrambled his tail off, to win. I don't know why we keep going back there.
Forgive Me, Kenny
I know I ripped Kenny Perry for skipping the British and playing in Milwaukee [Golf Plus, July 14], but in hindsight I see that it was a genius move. He not only stuck to his guns and honored his commitment to the U.S. Bank Championship, but he also got another top 10 finish. Not that he needs it — he was already a lock for the Ryder Cup team. The point is, I should've known better than to second-guess a guy for a decision like that. If your heart isn't in it, you shouldn't go. The facts are that Kenny is 47 and hits a high ball with an almost exclusive right-to-left ball flight. How do you think that would've played in 40-mph wind and rain? I'll tell you — not very well.
Boring British
I don't want to diminish next week's PGA Championship, but I have to say that with Tiger Woods not playing for the rest of the year, pro golf seems a lot less interesting. That sounds bad, I know, but not even Greg Norman could save the British Open for me. It was great to have the old Shark in contention, but I can't imagine that anyone — other than Chris Evert — thought for a minute that he'd pull it off, even with a two-shot lead going into the final round.
David Duval and Rocco Mediate provided some interesting early story lines, but in the end the Open was a boring event with a boring winner. Nothing against Padraig Harrington who's a wonderful guy and played a gutsy back nine on Sunday, but as the low TV ratings proved, people don't enjoy watching players constantly hacking out of the hay and making doubles and triples and having their putts blown off-line. The conditions were a joke and turned the Open into nothing more than a survival contest. Usually you might get one or two bad days, but this was four straight days of it. Those were the worst conditions I can remember, and crazy weather usually leads to a wild-card kind of winner.
Marked Men
Even the TV guys, normally big cheerleaders, talked about how the winner of the British should get an asterisk because Tiger was missing, and you can bet the topic will come up again next week. (Funny, though. I didn't hear anybody say that Sergio Garcia should've gotten an asterisk for winning the Players Championship.) Regardless, it's a legitimate point.
