"The Burger Dogs were so good (and the golf so irredeemable) that our group went back after the 14th hole as well for seconds."

Steve DiMeglio (here) and Scott Michaux (here) filed entertaining accounts of their Monday rounds at Olympic and I was pleased to see Michaux came away a tad critical of the fairway widths that I noted left something to be desired in my Golf World story.

But even better was Michaux's defense of the Bill Burger that validated which I love and which came under intense scrutiny and criticism in the media center when overcooked impostors were served up to the dastardly ditchdiggers each afternoon.

Olympic’s famous Bill’s Burger Dogs are the greatest thing ever served at a halfway house. GREATEST THING EVER!

I’m not talking about the version of the curious hamburger shaped to fit on a hot dog bun that was served to folks who attended the U.S. Open. That was like eating imitation crab meat. Not the real thing.

“Terrible ... inedible,” is how Patricia, the woman who was cooking them up fresh in the halfway house near the 10th green, described the mass-produced facsimiles during the Open. She explained how the California Board of Health came in and mandated that each burger be eviscerated to 160 degrees until they were leathery slabs of meat that would eventually reach the person eating it about two hours after coming off the grill.

The version Patricia cooked fresh to request for everyone (the preferred color was just a little pink unless you really wanted it cooked more) and put on a toasted bun was sublime. It is the perfect mid-round snack/lunch that is easy to grab and go without making the mess that a normal burger would.