On Our Mind Golf Blog

Play begins today in the 64^th Women's U.S. Open Championship at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa. The field includes an astonishing 26 teens; imagine the shock if you read that 26 teens were competing in the Men's U.S. Open or any men's major championship.

The youngest is Cindy Feng of Orlando, Fla., who is only 13. 

It appears as though LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens could be the next leader awakended in the middle of the night, forced out of her home at gunpoint while still wearing pajamas and exiled against her will to Costa Rica.

Figuratively of course. 

Turns out Vijay Singh can afford to pay embattled financial tycoon R. Allen Stanford's bail 50 times over. Singh is one of five golfers listed on Sport Illustrated's Fortunate 50 list, a rundown of the top 50 earners based on both on-court winnings and endorsements in the sports world.

Even after losing his lucrative deal to pedal Buicks, Tiger Woods made a mind-boggling $92 million in endorsements. Combined the other non-golf members of the top 10, which means everyone aside from Phil Mickelson, earned $97.5 in endorsements. Mickelson made a cool $46 million in endorsements. 

A number of talented players are at this moment off and running in Pinehurst, N.C., vying to become the champion of one of golf's most prized amateur tournaments played on one of the game's most storied venues.

Initially created to generate publicity for the five-year-old Pinehurst Resort and massage relations between two geographic regions that had been battling each other to the death just a generation earlier, the North & South Amateur Championship has blossomed into one of the most celebrated tournaments on the summer amateur circut.

The governing bodies of golf and PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem have proved to be more resolute in their decision making than whichever agency within our often inept federal government was in charge of the transition from analog to digital television.

Tuesday morning Finchem announced that there would be no delay in the implementation of a rule change outlined by The U.S. Golf Association and Royal & Ancient, the organizations who are to golf what the Guardian Council is to Iran, that would alter allowable dimensions in grooves on most irons and all wedges (24˚ of loft or more), thus creating less spin on shots out of the rough and therefore placing more of a premium on driving accuracy.

Over the weekend Japanese teen sensation Ryo Ishikawa, who created a media frenzy during his appearances in the U.S. earlier this year at The Masters, Northern Trust Open, etc...won the Mizuno Open, his third career title on the Japan Golf Tour. The victory puts the 17-year-old into the field for next month's Open Championship at Turnberry.

Fellow teen stars Rory McIlroy and Danny Lee also earned their first professional victories overseas, winning the Dubai Desert Classic and Johnnie Walker Classic respectively. Even 22-year-old amateur Shane Lowry catapulted onto the world golf scene with a win at the 3 Irish Open this year.

At this point in her career, finally winning a professional golf tournament would be more of a relief for Michelle Wie than it would be a celebration. It would be cause to jump up and down, kick and scream and set off fireworks prior to the 4th of July for the LPGA Tour and the USGA.

Last month Wie failed to qualify for the upcoming U.S. Women's Open at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa., but the USGA does reserve a spot in the field for anyone who wins an LPGA co-sponsored event for the 52 week period prior to the U.S. Women's Open. 

Soon enough, Joe Everybody will be cramming into the back seat of his Chevy Cavalier and spending the night in the parking lot at Bethpage, hoping to be one of the select few heading to No. 1 tee at the Black Course come Monday morning. Consider the U.S. Open torch passed to Pebble Beach.

I’ve had a few days now to rest and recover from my trip to Long Island on Monday, and reflect on the happenings of U.S. Open week. 

President Obama passed on throwing out the first pitch on opening night at the new Nationals Park. The POTUS probably didn't want to be associated with a perennial loser (The Nationals) in the middle of a financial meltdown. The man was in search of good vibrations, and the D.C. baseball club has enough trouble with grade school level spelling.

But Obama has decided to finally take the mound. He'll do so at the MLB All-Star game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 14. He will be the fourth President to throw out the first pitch at the All-Star game, joining John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Ceremonial first pitches are as customary as trips to Camp David for U.S. Presidents. In fact, the first pitch tradition outdates the Presidential retreat by two decades. Every President since William Howard Taft in 1910 has thrown an first pitch at either Opening Day, the All-Star game or during a World Series. 

The towering grandstands surrounding Bethpage Black’s signature stretch of holes from No. 15 to 18 will be merely a memory by the time the first public golfers tee off Monday morning. That’s when the Black Course is schedule to re-open for daily-fee play despite the beating it took during U.S. Open week.

"Honestly, it’ll be all right," Superintendent of the Bethpage State Park golf course Craig Currier told New Jersey’s Star-Ledger. “We’re going to mow, we’ll put some holes in the green to get some air in them. Just give them a break for the week and keep the rollers off of them. Just let them dry out.”