Tuesday Open Clippings: Another Wrist Injury

David Howell, making his comeback at the U.S. Open after a back injury "hurt his wrist practising and confirmed today that he won't play."

Meanwhile the first high-profile Oakmont casualty is not hitting many balls, according to Gerry Dulac on the Post-Gazette blog: 

It's beginning to look as though Phil Mickelson's wrist injury might be more bothersome than indicated. At the very least, it appears it could jeopardize his chance to be a serious contender in the 107th U.S. Open.

The world's No. 2 player, who has withdrawn from the past two PGA Tour events, did not play a practice round yesterday on the first day for spectators at Oakmont Country Club -- the third day in a row he has failed to play because of an injury to his left wrist.

Mickelson hit approximately 30 balls on the practice range and spent nearly 45 minutes on the putting green. But he never hit a full shot on the range -- he hit his driver once -- and never went on the course.

Mike Dudurich talks to Tommy Roy and the NBC point man likes the look of Oakmont.

"The final four holes at Winged Foot were long, hard par-4s that nobody could distinguish one from another," Roy said after a production meeting before the start of The Players Championship in May. "At Oakmont, there are some drastically different holes. There are holes that are very recognizable, I think."

And for those of you betting that Johnny will sob when NBC does the inevitable 63 feature, think again.

Roy said NBC won't be doing any major coverage about Miller's history at Oakmont, including his record 63 in the final round in 1973.

"We've pretty much made the decision that I think Johnny is going to get so much attention by newspapers, TV stations and magazines, the Internet -- you name it -- we're not going to do a big blowout feature on him, because I don't think it's going to be necessary," Roy said.

According to Julian Taylor, Sandy Lyle thinks Monty's got a great chance. Hey, if he doesn't hurt his wrist, I might be inclined to agree.

Monty's future biographer, John Huggan, recalls his red and chubby cheeks in 1994 (Monty's, not Huggies!).

While Alistair Tait says Monty's pretty much lost his mind after firing his caddy following a poor showing at the Austrian Open. That's the Monty we know and love!

Jason Sobel at ESPN.com looks at the correlation between high scoring at majors and the governing bodies who run them while also having done a lousy job regulating distance. It's interesting to see this connection made more often than ever.

Everywhere, that is, except at golf's four majors, where demanding, devious, deceitful course setups have never been more en vogue.

"I think the people who set the courses up use that technology debate as their reasoning for making the courses harder," said 2004 British Open champion Todd Hamilton. "Their reasoning is, 'Well, you guys are hitting shorter clubs in, so we can make the greens harder and faster.'"

And this... 

Even Woods, whose four most recent major victories have all seen numbers under par into the double-digits -- 2006 PGA (18-under); 2006 British (18-under); 2005 British (14-under); and 2005 Masters (12-under) -- acknowledges that red numbers shouldn't be so tough to come by in the four biggies.

Finally, Ron Green Jr. confirms reports that Pinehurst is getting the 2014.