The US Open

I would have thought the US Open at Congressional this week would have been another test of sorts of my resolve to avoid the ESPN media product, but after tracking yet another bogey from Phil Mickelson on the back nine (through usopen.com), it is clear I won't miss it.

I do not say that lightly, since the first golf tournament I ever attended was the 1997 US Open at Congressional. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) got us tickets for the first round, and we got there bright and early to get a prime spot on the par 3 7th hole. I don't remember why we chose that hole, but we were right on the green, with no one in front of us, allowing us a prime view of the best players in the world. Almost all of them had trouble negotiating the green, interestingly. The usopen.com description mentions wanting to stay below the hole, and even 14 years ago, that was true. The one person that stayed below the hole was a young Tiger Woods, as it turned out; his was the only birdie I recall seeing on that hole that morning.

We then walked the course to see some of the holes in person; I remember the 18th when it was a par 3 (that appears to be #10 now), and the very tough 17th, which appears to be the new 18th hole. One of the holes that looked visually striking at the time was the 6th. The approach with water on the right looks intimidating to high handicap players like me, but it is playing as the easiest hole on the course. I'm not sure such statistics would have been as easily accessible on espn.com, but it was just two reasonably obvious mouse clicks away on usopen.com, which I might not have thought to access otherwise.

Now I am missing the tournament. I had better move on to other thoughts...

Since the rights to the US Open internationally are held by ESPN, I do not have access to the event on TV, anyway. It's strange that the third most important golf tournament in the world is not available to subscribers of the largest cable system in a golf playing country, if I think about it. And... that's enough thinking about it...