Bogies and Brewskis

If you told me that in a day at the US Open where I saw Tiger on 3 separate holes, watched Bubba Watson hit a drive estimated by a friend of mine at "about 900 yards," and didn't have to wait 3 hours to deal with parking that the best part of my day would be watching Drew Weaver and Jon Mallinger par back to back holes, I would have told you you were crazy.

The course was saturated and so were the galleries, in more ways than one. After a day of on-and-off rain the second round was finally complete, the field was cut and the third round could begin.

So what happens when you combine a New York Public Golf Course, copious amounts of rain and a delay of about an hour between golf shots for some fans? That is right, thousands of drunk asshole New Yorkers with serious deindividuation (think mob mentality) issues. They are cheering/jeering for men who would possibly stop mid back swing for a loudly chirping cricket. Needless to say, the the two groups eHarmony scores do not equal a match.

That being said, while the crowds drew the ire of critics everywhere, even prompting some to say that the rowdy crowds could prevent Bethpage from hosting another Open in the future (if I could find the link I would post it, but I forgot where I read it). I say the hell with it, this isn't exactly polo that we're watching.

While the crowds were pretty good during the 2nd round continuation on Saturday morning -- 17 seemed particularly raucous from my perch on the 15th green -- but they paled in comparison to the 3rd round crowds that evening. The rain weeded out the fair weather (literally) fans. The delay took with it most of the families out together. That left the perfect golf crowd in my opinion: middle-aged golf fans with just enough money in the bank to buy their fair share of $6 beers.

By the time of the restart for the third, my three friends and I headed out to the third green, a 200+ yard par 3. From their we could hear the grandstands for the tee and the second green -- the two nearly facing each other -- engaging in chanting matches, getting ready for the golf to start. When the first group teed off on two, every mediocre golf shot was greeted with a cheer worthy of a goal line stand in the Gainseville or Ann Arbor.

The aforementioned Drew Weaver, in that first group with Mallinger, hit a ball that looked decent from our location about 240 yards away and was somewhere on the putting surface. The crowd reacted like USA Hockey had just beat the Russians. Weaver, unable to see the ball on the raised surface began jumping up and down, assuming he holed out for an eagle, though after seeing his antics earlier in the week, you never know. Weaver ended up two putting from a reasonable distance for par, but the tone was set...it was going to be fun.

After the groups began playing onto the third green where we stood the crew around us became more and more motley. One particularly lonely and inebriated looking fellow was leaning over my friend Paul's shoulder, breathing basically on his neck, in an attempt to read his text messages. Everywhere we looked both the mud and the Bud had people falling all over themselves.

As we moved to the tenth tee to see Tiger tee off the drunk fans go drunker. As we fought our way to about 15-20 feet from the tees and two back from the ropes the guy in front of my same unlucky friend Paul -- notably the one who got these tickets in the first place -- turned to congratulate him on something followed by multiple repetitions of the pound and explode. Exactly what deserved congratulations remains to be seen as the man appeared to speak some dialect of Old Gaelic mixed liberally with Pig Latin and skewed noticeably by alcohol. All-in-all, he was quite well spoken.

The heckling and cheering on the 10th was twice that of 2 and 3, as was the BAC of the gallery. When Tiger came in and the rain began to fall, even he could not resist a smile and chuckle at the insanity of the crowd at a golf tournament. As the rain began to fall again, not even Tiger was immune, hearing taunts for breaking out the umbrella ("This ain't Arizona, this is Long Island baby!" was met by a grand ovation from the rest of the gallery around the tee box. Even so as golfers in an earlier pair prepared to drive off of the 12th hole, Tiger put his finger to his mouth and their was instant silence. His power over the people and apparently nature was later reinforced when one man who had been at the forefront of the jeering yelled, "Will the rain to stop Tiger, you can do it!" (Note: The picture of Tiger is from the '02 Open at Bethpage, though the fans behind him would appear to be looking for the 1972 version. Needless to say those were NOT the fans present on Saturday)

As one man directly in front of us said, "Long Island. Where the men are men and the sheep are scared."

Here are some more notes from the day at Bethpage

Heavy Stuffs Not Coming Down For a While
Within minutes of Tiger teeing off at 10 the rain started coming down and Tiger was, contrary to what some believed, unable to stop it. The rain was bad but after seeing what the played through on Thursday, it was still playable. The course was just so waterlogged from the last week that within 30 seconds of real steady rain puddles were already starting to form on the greens and they simply could not be squeegeed fast enough.

Which Way to the Senior Open?
When both Fred Funk and Tom Lehman rolled onto the 10th tee box it brought about many questions. Is Fred Funk someones caddy? Wait, Tom Lehman still plays golf? Not one of my friends or I could believe both of them had made the cut at the longest course in US Open history. It really proves that this course does have places to be had without bombing it every time. You just know Funk isn't putting it on many par 5's in 2. He didn't even do that 10 years ago.

Ricky Barnes?
That's right, Ricky Barnes is your leader, and he did it with a 36-hole record breaking score of 8-under par! Before this all I knew about Ricky Barnes is his character in Tiger Woods 06 was really good at spinning the ball, that's really it. Before today he wasn't even the most famous Rick Barnes as someone else in the gallery pointed out today. Even if he wins he'll only be the most famous in 49 states, Texas will stick with this Rick Barnes.

When Did I Start Playing in the US Open?
Three putts and bad two putts ruled the world today. No matter where we went, nobody could make a putt. 15 was especially bad as after sitting through group after group of players like the immortal Simon Dyson, we saw but one birdie. One! And that was by George McNeill. He didn't exactly stick around to play the weekend, well more of the weekend anyway.