When Rossie Routed Ty Cobb

/

Antonio Gonzalez with a splendid history of Olympic Club's membership through the years, especially the early years, including Mark Twain and later Ty Cobb.

Cobb, a hot-tempered and aggressive slugger who received the most votes on the original Hall of Fame ballot, played 12-year-old Bob Rosburg in the first club championship in 1939. Although Cobb had retired from baseball more than a decade earlier, his competitiveness never cooled.

Cobb lost 7 and 6. Rosburg later won the PGA Championship in 1959. And while popular lore is that Cobb resigned in furor, the club has no record that he gave up his membership. Rosburg told Golf Digest in 2010 that Cobb was gracious in defeat but "guys at the club rode him unmercifully for losing to a child. He disappeared and didn't come back to Olympic for years."

"He was just so embarrassed," Olympic general chairman Stephen Meeker said of Cobb, recalling the story.

GS.com U.S. Open Coverage This Week

/

Thanks as always to the Art Department for a banner and to reader Octo for some photographic contributions to the banner for what will be my third U.S. Open at the Olympic Club.

I hope to get out on the course Monday afternoon to Tweet (from the media regulation safety of the media center) some observations, images and videos, so make sure to follow me at GeoffShac on Twitter or keep an eye on the right hand column for the latest Tweets.

Also coming up is the annual Dan Jenkins Q&A, to offset the earlier Jack Fleck (evildoer!) coverage that came with the Q&A with Neil Sagebiel.

And of course, constant updates here as news unfolds from the 112th playing of Golf's Toughest Test, also known to some as the United States Open.

Fleck: "It's a shame that I used those very clubs to defeat him."

/

Just two great bits from Jack Fleck's My Shot with Guy Yocom:

Just before setting out on the drive to San Francisco for the U.S. Open, I packed my Motorola record player and Mario Lanza records. Nothing was more soothing to me than hearing him sing "I'll Walk With God." At the end of each day at Olympic, I would return to my hotel room alone, do my hatha yoga and listen to Mario Lanza. His singing put me in a wonderful frame of mind.

And this about his fellow Hogan staff member, Ben Hogan.

Hogan had arrived before me. When I got there he hand-delivered to me two wedges he had made up in addition to the irons and woods he'd already given me. It was just unbelievable, the kindness he continued to show me. In a sense it's a shame that I used those very clubs to defeat him.

Fleck will be at Olympic and is slated to come to the media center for a visit. I think I'll ask if Mario Lanza's on his ipod!

Revisiting Olympic Club Slow Play Controversies Through The Years

/

In this week's Golf World U.S. Open preview issue, I write about the slow play crackdown at the 1966 U.S. Open that led to some dramatic changes in times and also some unhappiness from several in the field, including Jack Nicklaus.

In a real career highlight, I obtained the quotes from Mr. Nicklaus during an interview in the Memorial press center men's room. No one said I was classy. But what are you going to do when the best ever says, "well, go ahead, ask your question!"

If only I had a camera to capture the look on his face when told Johnny Miller said that the USGA policy at Olympic made Nicklaus a faster player from that day forward. It looked something like this.

"The True Heart Of San Francisco Golf"

/

Bill Fields pens a wonderful story in this week's Golf World capturing the the public golf scene, its storied history and the battle to save San Francisco muni's.

GolfDigest.com also has posted a Fields image slideshow capturing the many characters and courses that make the Bay Area arguably the richest of all the American public golf scenes.

Qualifier Miller: “The man upstairs blew that one in for me."

/

Rob Oller with a nice follow-up story on Dennis Miller of the lip-hanger putt fame. Lost in the putt was Miller's status as an alternate who started his day at 6:15 and learned soon after that he was going to get in the field.

The video has gone viral. On it, Miller strokes his putt, which breaks left to right before stopping on the lip. One-eighth of an inch of grass separates him from his U.S. Open dream. He takes a step and turns away in disgust, not watching as the ball makes a handshake agreement with gravity and drops. Five seconds of hesitation that felt like an eternity. The small gallery goes crazy. Miller does a double take and raises both arms.

“The man upstairs blew that one in for me,” Miller said.

As of Thursday evening, someone's cell phone camera shot of their television screen had logged 313,583 views on YouTube (Tiger's Memorial chip-in actually has fewer: 222,908). So, so, SO glad the people in golf televisoin continue to really embrace the power of YouTube!

Miller has drawn a 12:45 Thursday time and 7 a.m. Friday tee time with Casey Martin and Cameron Wilson.