Oakmont, Pa. – In defending his organization against charges by players that the course setups for the U.S. Open are unfair, senior director of rules and competition Mike Davis said Wednesday that many of the issues they have and that players encounter are beyond their control – although they do the best they can to anticipate problems.
“There’s definitely pressure to get it right,” Davis said. “But we do one thing and then weather that we can’t predict occurs and that affects things like the rough or fairways or the greens.”
On Wednesday, Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ coach, offered an example of the unpredictability of Oakmont. During a pair of pretournament visits to the site, Haney said Woods comfortably hit his driver on numerous holes – but after his practice round Tuesday, chances are he’ll use it no more than a couple of times.
“When we came here before it was after rain,” Haney said. “Now balls that were landing 30 yards short (of the drainage ditches scattered about the course) before were going into them.”
That may not be such a bad thing for the world’s No. 1 player, though. The last time course and weather conditions necessitated such a drastic change in strategy was last year’s British Open. Woods only hit his driver once in four days at that event at Royal Liverpool, and won by two shots over Chris DiMarco.
Old friends
If this year’s Open plays out similarly to last year for Colin Montgomerie, Billy Goddard might find himself logging quite a bit of airtime during Sunday’s final round. A long-time caddie at Oakmont, Goddard was hired to tote the veteran’s bag this week. He and Montgomerie, who contended at Winged Foot until the 72nd hole, only met Tuesday morning at the driving range.
“He called the club last week and asked for a local caddie who knew the course and could keep his mouth shut,” Goddard said Wednesday.
Goddard said such a newly-formed relationship could nonetheless work successfully in a major championship.
“He’s got the game to do it,” Goddard said of Montgomerie. “He knows the course very well – all he needs from me are the yardages. And I told him to just ask if he needs a read or two on the greens.”
Middleman
On Wednesday, Montgomerie was late arriving at the putting green, apologizing to Goddard amid complaints about media obligations. At that very moment, a reporter and camera crew from the European channel Sky Sports arrived, asking for an interview.
That prompted a bit of fun from the Scotsman.
“Are you sure you want to talk with me? There’s Tiger Woods over there – would you like me to go over and ask if he’ll talk with you?” asked Montgomerie, motioning over toward a very focused Woods. “And would you then like for me to come back and give you his reply, live on the air?”
