Conference 7.286::golf

    
    Gotta go with a past winner with experience. What a putt!!! It should
    be a good one. Good luck to both.

      Should be no contest.  Donald looked very nervous coming down
    the stretch.  Irwin looked happy, confident and thrilled.  Guess
    who slept better last night.

      Let's hear it for the old geezers.  First Jack, then Ray and now
    Hale.

-rick

    I'm with Mikey on this one!
    He always looks nervous, i think. Still his swing held up marvellously
    over the final day. If he had been putting anyway decently, we'd
    have seen a record score.
    I don't think experience will count for much. The best putter will
    win. It always comes down to the putting, doesn't it.
    
    martin o'g

    Is today's play off on TV ??
    
    If so, what time ?? I don't feel so good.....
    
    
    Jim
    

    abc said yesterday they'd be on at 4:00 p.m. to conclusion...
    
    

    
    
    ESPN is covering the WHOLE thing from what I heard last night...
    
    Jim

    
    What time does the playoff start?
    
    --Bob
    

    
    
    anybody gonna post some scores ??  what happened ???
    
    all I saw of the open was about a half hour Saturday while I was
    in the Emergency Room waiting room while my son was getting 4 stiches.
    
    what a weekend !!  
    

    
    
        Well I think Mike Donald was a real champ this weekend.
    He hung in there every single day. And as the commentators said
    38 times the in-expierenced players would crumble, but he didn't
    he has rarely in any defensive position on Sunday and he started
    out birding the 1,2 holes and barely missing to go to -10 .....
    I think Mike has been and will be more consistent today. Hale had
    a super round yesterday and really had a 'go for broke' atitude.
    Which got him to -8 but today when both are going all out it'll
    be Mike Donald -2 Hale +1
    
    
    BS
    
    (Please post TV info      I heard yesterday ABC would be there allday)??

	I agree with whoever it was who said, the player who putts better will 
win it.  I think Mike Donald putted extremely well yesterday, and will go with 
him to win his 1st major!!!  Good luck to both players though.  I really hope 
it doesn't come down to one of them dumping one in the lake on 17.  

Beak

    Will somebody over there across the pond PLEASE put in a summary of
    what happened, and maybe the final scored for the top 20 finishers.
    I understand that there is a playoff, but.....

    Sorry, guys, but ESPN will NOT be covering the playoff (not according
    to the guy I spoke with there in "Audience Information"); and on the
    local Boston station, the coverage will be from 4:00 to conclusion.
    

    
    
    What happens if they are still tied after today?
    
    
    Jim

    They won't/shouldn't be. After 18 holes it turns into sudden death!

    
    IRWIN	+4     	12
    
    DONALD	+2	12
    
    
    Roland

    
    WHAT A PLAYOFF!!
    
    Reader's Digest version of the final two holes...
    
    Mike bogeys 18 and Hale pars it.  On to the first hole of sudden death.
    Both players are straight down the middle.  Mike puts his second shot
    about 25' from the pin, while Hale puts his about 8' from it.  Mike
    misses his birdie attempt and Hale sinks his.
    
    Both player were VERY emotional at the end of the playoff.
    
    I'll let others elaborate, gotta run.
    
    Donna

    What a great final to a great tournament!!!! It's one of those moments
    that you hate to see anyone lose. I was real glad for Hale. It seems
    to be the year for the 40+ year olds. I was in Oakland last week
    for a training class and saw Nolan Ryan throw his no hitter. It
    makes me feel good to see the oldies doing so good. I think Mike
    Donald will have another chance at a major.....Tomorrow, he will
    feel better about the tournament .....
    
    Tony

    Boy, it's easy to tell the average age of golf noters and sports
    writers! If 45 is "old" what does that make me? (Never mind, I'll just
    shuffle off to the funeral parlor...no need to call a taxi!)
    
    Seriously, I was happy for Hale, but felt sorry for Mike, who would
    seem to have proven that his 64 at the Masters might have been less of
    a fluke than the 80 he shot in the second round of that tournament. I
    think he'll be a factor in a lot more tournaments before he's done.
    Two nice guys, neither of whom deserved to lose.
    
    		Frank (past 50, but still not too feeble)
    

    I had Digital League last night, so I taped it.
    
    Unfortunatley, I had the speed on SP. The taping ended just as
    they were heading to the sudden death hole, so I missed Hale's
    victory.
    
    I'm glad Hale won. Also, very sorry to see Mike lose. Too bad only
    one person can win...
    
    GREAT tournament. That course is not for me...Too narrow. I like old
    cow pastures with no trees..
    
    Now, off to #10 at Nashawtuc.
    
    Jim
    

    One more observation..
    
    Irwin hit a great shot at 16, a 426 yd slight dogleg left, the no. 1
    handicap hole on the course.  Both hit good drives, but Irwin's was just 
    short of a clear shot to the pin.  He hit a 200+ yd 2 iron draw uphill 
    into the wind to within 6 feet (the pin tucked to the left behind a 
    bunker).  Incredible. He made that birdie to pull within 1 shot.  
    
    Sorry to see Mike Donald lose though.  Gutsy performance from start
    to finish.
    
    Dave 

    Both men showed a lot of class.  My heart went out to Mike Donald, he
    ain't no choker.  To take it down to the 19th hole of the U.S. Open
    playoff is a *winner* no matter what.

    Hale's comments said it all...

    "God bless him, I almost wish he'd won.  He's a great guy!"

    I love a sport where you can get better with age.
    
        +- Mark

    
    	Its good to see so many American boys up there at the end whom 
    
    	haven't featured highly before. With all the talk about the
    
    	Europeans and Australians dominating golf great to see the
    
    	Good old boys kicking on. I realise the US open is always
    
    	dominated by US players but this just kicked it home for me.
    
    	Great match it went till about 8am each morning, I got to work a
    
    	little late.
    
    	Hale deserved his win, 20th in the third round then to win
    
    	shows what a true champion he is.
    
    	I thought the NBC coverage was poor, it only followed the leading
    
    	players, very little close up work with cameras except on the
    
    	greens.
    
    	Luke

    
    re 20th after the 3rd round. 
    
    Keep in mind that this on the surface seems slightly misleading. There
    were something like 25 people within 4 shots of the lead starting out
    Sunday.  So even though Hale Irwin was 20th he was only 3 shots back.
    I don't mean to take anything away from him though, a great tournament.
    He could have caved in and given up being 2 down with a few holes left
    and he was struggling for par while Mike Donald was just rolling along.
    
    --Bob
    

  re:  .22     Coverage was by ABC not NBC .  But I agree, it was pretty
             poor.  They blatantly blew it by not showing Irwin's dramatic
             long putt on 18 live.  The on-course reporters, (Pate and 
             Rossberg) were very good, but other than that, not much good
             to say about it.  

-rick

    re: .24
    
    	I don't know.  Maybe it was just that it was new, but I really
    loved the shots from the crane above 16 and 18.  It was great to be
    able to watch the flight of the ball that way.  I'm sure that if one of
    the other not-so-big names had come on to win it, ABC would have looked
    pretty bad since they only covered the last pairing, Nicklaus, Norman,
    and a couple of others.  If Hale hadn't been paired with Norman, they
    might not have even gotten him on tape.
    	I did seem to me that the commentators were definitely rooting for
    Norman without giving Irwin much of a chance.  I mean, there was Irwin
    making 5 birdies on the last 8 holes, and all they're talking about is
    how Norman has to beat Irwin to have any chance of winning the tourney.
    I was pulling for Greg too, but it really felt to me that they were
    slighting Hale, who later proved to be a great champion.
    	By the way, do you think the fact that Irwing was paired with Greg
    helped him to play as well as he did?
    
    -Tom
    

    I am glad to see Hale Irwin win too. I have seen this guy lead major
    tournaments before only to blow it on the last few holes. I remember
    one year Hale led the Open by 3 or 4 strokes with a few holes left
    only to choke on the way in and loose. Does anyone know the year
    that this happened to him?
    
    Mark
    
    

	There's no way to show every shot by every group "live".  I'm sure 
that someone made the decision of whether to watch Irwins 45 foot birdie 
attempt on 18, or someone elses more realistic birdie putt or someone elses 5 
to 15 foot put a par or something like that.  Decisions have to be made like 
that all the time.  I didn't think the coverage was that bad.

Beak

    i think the coverage was pretty poor. they never showed scott hoch who
    finished in the top 10. thats 4 1/2 hrs. of coverage too. they spend
    too much time trying to give historical crap and not as much golf as
    they should. 
    
    		dan
    

    Another reason why I thought the coverage was bad.  On Thursday, they
  went through the last 1 1/2 hours of coverage without mentioning Curtis
  Strange once.  Here was a man going after an incredible 3rd straight Open
  title, he didn't shoot to bad, yet not a peep about him.  That was the
  primary reason I tuned in on Thursday, is to see how he did.  I had to
  read the paper the next day to find out what he shot!  Grrrrrr...

-rick

	I believe ABC's coverage of the Open has slipped in recent years.
	Jim Mckay is getting old & it show.  Jack Whiticker's spots didn't
	contribute much.  Some of the historical setting is important, but
	they did go over board.

	One point to bring out in ABC's favor is that they are covering the
	tournament from hole 1-18.  That is an incredibly difficult task.
	They don't have enough camera to blanket the course so they are
	moving them around.

	There are many ways to watch a golf tournament, you can sit at one
	hole & catch everyone, follow one group, etc.  ABC's approach is to
	follow the leaders around the course.  If you get hot & aren't in
	a group they are following then you can slip through the cracks.

	If Hale Irwin wasn't playing with Norman I bet we would have seen
	a lot less camera coverage.  Hale Irwin is one of my favorite
	golfers, maybe because I took up the game when he was winning his
	prior Opens.

	One thing that bugged me was how they kept making a point that Irwin
	would be the only man with 3 Open wins.  Geesh, how did all those
	other guys like Nicklaus get to 4 without stopping at 3.

	Overall I enjoyed the tournament.  The last round could have been
	more exciting, but a lot of the name players just didn't make their
	move.  The real Medinah also wasn't there.  The course wasn't playing
	like a US Open course, due to the weather.  I feel really bad for 
	Mike Donald he showed a lot of intestinal fortitude.  The guy just 
	wouldn't carsh & burn like most people expected.  He hung tough to 
	the end.

	Larry

PS:	My one gripe is why does the US Open always have to be on Father's
	day.  This year I got my family to give me the present of being able
	to watch the open from start to finish.  It was quite enjoyable.

    
    re. -1 
    
    Larry,
    
    The thing about the 3 Opens that they mentioned was there is no one
    that currently (except Irwin, now ) holds three Open titles only. There
    are players with 2 and 4, but now Irwin is the only player with 3
    total.
    
    Joe

>    The thing about the 3 Opens that they mentioned was there is no one
>    that currently (except Irwin, now ) holds three Open titles only. There
>    are players with 2 and 4, but now Irwin is the only player with 3
>    total.
    
     Joe,

	You are right.  It was an interesting fact, but they kept bringing
	it up.  It started to grate on my nerves.  If they didn't have anything
	important to say, just shut up & show us some golf.

	Also did anyone cat the numerical symbolism.  It was the 90th open,
	tied after 90 holes of play, won by a guy that is 45 (I know it's
	only 1/2 of 90, but I doubt that anyone at 90 can putt on Open greens.)

    
    When they were talking about Irwin being the only player to hold 3 
    Open titles they could not shut up and show golf, there were only
    2 golfers to show.  I for one think they did an excellent job showing
    the playoff.  There is really not that much golf to show, 2 guys each
    takes 1 shot then they walk for several minutes, pick a club etc.
    Besides that the players weren't giving a whole lot to talk about for
    the most part, they both were in the fairway/on the green, neither was
    on a string of bogeys/birdies.  At least it was close.
    
    --Bob
    

    I am also not a big fan of ABC's coverage, but I will give them
    some credit - they captured the emotion of the tournament! In the
    game of golf that is no small feat.
    
    ABC may have lucked out. I felt excited on Saturday when some of
    the name players (Curtis, Nick, ...) started creeping up the leader
    board. And the joy of Irwin compared to the determination of Donald
    was a wonderful contrast! Geez, for me even the usual corny shots
    of Mike Donald's mother contributed to the story (I hate to admit
    that one ;-). A mushy person could almost feel the tears from Mike
    and Hale.
    
    ABC does not show "golf" so much as it shows "golf tournaments".
    For me this only works for a major. While I thought far too much
    time was allocated to putts, I thoroughly enjoyed the telecast.
    What more can one ask?
    
    And now to my tee time ...
    
    Eric

    I missed the opening of ABC's coverage on Saturday and Sunday, but saw
    it when watching my VCR tape of the play-off.  What the hell was that 
    opening song about the U.S. Open, I couldn't believe my ears - it seemed 
    so Hollywood-ish.  That intoduction to the Open coverage doesn't fit in
    with the prestige of golf - you wouldn't hear that stuff at the Masters
    coverage.
    
      

    
        I also agree the commentary wasn't the greatest but they floated
    along nicely on the merit of the intense play.
                                
       I did love those crane shots of the drives it was pretty
    neat neat to see the whole ball clearly as it hummed downed the
    fairway.
    
       well atleast it's better TV coverage than the DEC Senior Open
    is getting......
    
    
    
    BS

	With all this discussion about the Open I'm surprised that no one
	started a discussion about the format of a playoff.  I personally
	like the 18 hole playoff for a major like the Open.  Often the
	television coverage isn't up to Sunday's standard.  I don't like
	the idea of a major being decided on just one bad/good shot which many
	sudden death playoffs boil down to.

	Hal Irwin's comments on Sunday about a sudden death playoff being
	unfair to someone who finished early were insightful.  If you can't
	have an 18 hole playoff I prefer the British Open 5 hole mini playoff,
	rather than sudden death like the Masters.