THE BLOGTo play together or not to play together
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will play together the first two rounds of the U.S. Open, a decision by the USGA to create equal footing for the highest-ranked players.Woods and Mickelson, Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, will be joined by No. 3 Adam Scott.
Mike Davis, the senior director of rules and competition for the USGA, said the top 12 players will be grouped together and spread over the four various time slots — starting on the first tee or 10th tee in the morning, and first tee or 10th tee in the afternoon. The biggest stars usually are dispersed among the morning and afternoon times, largely at the behest of television. Davis said the USGA has been thinking about a major change over the past few months and decided to give it a try. ”Why not put them in the same wave?” Davis said in a telephone interview from San Diego. ”The heck with what TV wants. Let’s do what we want for the championship.” ”This year we got to thinking, ‘Isn’t it kind of crummy that we’ve never had the two guys ranked 1 and 2 in the world in the same wave?”’ Davis said. ”Weather can affect outcomes in the U.S. Open. It could be windy in the morning, or firm in the afternoon.” From there, they decided to involve the top 12. That means Ernie Els, Ogilvy and Justin Rose would be in the same group, while Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk and K.J. Choi would comprise another, and Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Stewart Cink would be the other. The U.S. Open traditionally groups the defending champion, the British Open champion and the U.S. Amateur champion. That would not be affected with Angel Cabrera at No. 22 in the ranking, Padraig Harrington at No. 14 and U.S. Amateur champion Colt Knost not in the field because he turned pro.
The U.S. Open will be held at Torrey Pines, where Mickelson and Woods have perhaps their strongest fan base. Woods is a six-time winner at the Buick Invitational and grew up 90 miles up the road in Orange County. Mickelson is the local favorite, a San Diego native who played high school matches at Torrey Pines and won the Buick Invitational three times. Woods and Mickelson played in the final group at Torrey Pines in the 2003 Buick Invitational, when Woods was coming off a two-month layoff from knee surgery. Brad Faxon also was in that group — he was known as ”Switzerland” that day — and Woods closed with a 68 for a three-shot victory.
The last time Woods and Mickelson played together in the early rounds of a major was the 2006 PGA Championship, which traditionally groups the three major champions of that year — Mickelson won the Masters, Geoff Ogilvy the U.S. Open and Woods the British Open.
So tell me, would you like to see Woods and Mickelson play together or not? I think it will be great,they will both play at the same time and under the same conditions–no excuses!
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