Johnny Gets USGA Green Light To Mention The Grain This Week

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Mike Davis on the Merion greens and Johnny Miller, who talks about grain on greens reduced to dirt. But the USGA Executive Director says NBC's lead analyst has room to speak about grain this week. And knowing Johnny, he will!

And I think one of the things that's neat, Johnny Miller is going to have fun this week, because there's grain in these greens.  If you get downgrain on these things, they really go.  And if you're putting up to it, it's really slow.  I think when he does mention that on television, he's going to be right this week, that there's grain.  And I think that's neat.

This was also interesting consider that Merion's greens are not of the USGA spec variety, but instead, native soil greens with amendments.

And the putting greens, these are like modern putting greens in the sense that the drainage work they've done is just marvelous.  They drain as well as any putting greens I've seen.  The course itself drains beautifully.  There's a lot of surface drainage to this golf that Hugh Wilson just laid this course out on the land, like I mentioned, and there's been a lot of drainage put in over the years by Matt and his staff.  They're as equipped as possibly they could get for that rain event.

Report: USGA Expecting To Lose $10 Million At Merion This Week

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Bloomberg's Michael Buteau reports.

Ticket sales were limited to 25,000 a day, down about 45 percent from the typical 40,000-45,000. Fewer fans means less revenue from concessions and merchandise. The USGA, which governs the sport in the U.S. and Mexico, is expecting to lose $10 million on the event, according to a person with knowledge of the organization’s finances. The person was granted anonymity because the information isn’t public.

“I don’t think we’ll make up for the loss,” Sarah Hirshland, senior managing director of Business Affairs for the USGA, said in a telephone interview. “Clearly these line items will look different this year.”

Hirshland declined to say how much money the event would lose.

All Good: Phil Heads Back To California...Not To Practice

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Jim McCabe with the news of Phil Mickelson heading back to Rancho Santa Fe Tuesday to be at his daughter's 8th grade graduation on Wednesday.

He'll be back at Merion for Thursday's first round.

Having long ago decided to be home in Rancho Santa Fe the Wednesday before the first round of the U.S. Open to attend his daughter Amanda’s graduation from eighth grade, Mickelson got home even earlier thanks to the weather in Greater Philadelphia. The lefthander, having tied for second Sunday at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, was on site Monday at Merion, but never did more than hit a few balls. When the heavy rain came and he saw that more precipitation was in the forecast for Tuesday, Mickelson decided to get back to some California sun and family duties.

Programming Note: ESPN To Start 30 Minutes Early On Friday

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Just what you needed, right? Another thirty minutes of Berman talking about Adam "Great" Scott, etc...

But hey, there's always the mute button.

ESPN’s U.S. Open Coverage Begins Earlier on Friday -- ESPN’s live telecast of the second round of play in the U.S. Open championship on Friday, June 14, will begin at 8:30 a.m., a half-hour earlier than originally scheduled. In addition, the 7 a.m. edition of SportsCenter will include numerous live look-ins to the in-progress play at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia. ESPN made the schedule adjustments to give viewers the opportunity to see more of the round of the group including World No. 1 Tiger Woods, Masters champion Adam Scott and 2011 U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, which tees off at 7:44 a.m. Friday.

"Hogan and Woods a lot alike"

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Gene Wojciechowski took his life into his own hands and posed the above thought to Hogan fan supreme Dan Jenkins over Carshon's Deli chocolate pie.

Jenkins' eyes narrowed and for a moment I thought he was going to stab me with my car sun visor. Remember, this week's U.S. Open is the 60th of Jenkins' brilliant sportswriting career and his 218th major. And it is being played on sacred ground: Merion Golf Club, where Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open, just 16 months after nearly losing his life in a car crash.

There was a painful pause, nearly as long as it takes Kevin Na to line up a putt, before Jenkins finally said, "How so?"

Wojciechowski's comparison is pretty good, even Dan might...might have to admit.

They each completely retooled their golf swings and then totally committed themselves to those changes.

They understood that the secret, as Hogan once said, "was in the dirt." Translation: Practice until your callouses had callouses.

They had little or no respect for players who didn't work hard.

They were aware of their critics, detractors and doubters, remembered every word, and used the criticism as motivation.

They were essentially loners: loyal to a select few; careful, guarded to most everyone else.

Tiger sat down with Wojciechowski for ESPN's Sunday Night Conversation:

Davis: “I would contend that if you saw Merion firm for four straight days versus soft for four straight days, you may see an 18-to 20-shot difference in the winning score.”

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Bill Pennington considers Merion's place in the technology debate this week for an NY Times story and it includes this eye-opening quote from the USGA's Mike Davis.

Particularly because it was probably said before the recent downpours that have hit Merion on the U.S. Open eve.

“I would contend that if you saw Merion firm for four straight days versus soft for four straight days, you may see an 18- to 20-shot difference in the winning score,” Davis said. “But we can’t control the weather.”

Radar as of 9:15 ET Monday night.It's dreary to read about it, but the Monday coverage obviously focused on weather issues. Dave Shedloski with this GolfDigest.com roundup also included the USGA's plan to not use lift, clean and place at this time.

But there was also a huge cell hitting Merion Monday night (pictured right).

Timothy Carroll also included this quote from Davis in his roundup:

Mike Davis, executive director of the USGA, expressed confidence despite the near-biblical rains and the dire forecast for Thursday. “The course drains beautifully,” he said at a previously unscheduled news conference. He noted that the course is played over rolling hills with few, if any, flat parts where standing water would be an issue.

Scott: "I try and entertain people on the golf course, not on talk shows.”

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Jason Sobel writes about Adam Scott's visit to the media center Monday at Merion where he didn't get any questions about anchoring, but did talk about post-Masters win fame.

This was a good line:

“I kind of had a plan in place. I like to have a plan for most things so I don't get blindsided by stuff,” you explain. “I really enjoy playing in front of everyone. But I felt that's all I needed to do. I try and entertain people on the golf course, not on talk shows.”

Some video from his press conference:

Restored Merion To Be Restored After '13 U.S. Open!

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The USGA Member Clubhouse hosted an engaging, standing-room only roundtable Monday afternoon as persistent spring rains pelted the tent just off of the USGA's main "Spectator Square." Hosted by Jimmy Roberts, the hour-long discussion featured guests Curtis Strange, Merion historian/member John Capers, USGA Executive Director Mike Davis, architect Tom Fazio and '13 U.S. Open General Chairman Rick Ill.

The program kicked off a series of daily events in the clubhouse that include a Rich Lerner interview of Ray Floyd (Tuesday), a 2009 Walker Cup reunion Wednesday with Rickie Fowler (among others), Billy Casper Thursday and tantalizingly, a Thursday chat called the "USGA's Position On Technology And Golf Equipment" featuring Championship Chair Tom O'Toole and Managing Director of Equipment Standards John Spitzer.

But the real bombshell in the Merion conversation was dropped by Ill, who revealed after a discussion of Merion's decade long restoration (tree removal, bunker work, etc...) that following the 2013 U.S. Open, several of the "restored" bunkers--which were actually shifted to pinch landing areas on holes like 2, 15, 16--will be restored to their previous positions.

Also of note was Fazio's prediction that after this week, the world of golf will be having a "very different" debate about the ball because of his belief that Merion will show that a course under 7,000 yards is plenty relevant in today's game. Relevant, that is, until the restored landing area bunkers are unrestored.