I would have hit anything, ANYTHING to put it in the short grass. I don't care if he has to hit 8-iron off the tee. He's got a 3-iron he can hit 230 - hit that off the tee, then, once you're in the fairway, if you think you can reach, go for it. If not, lay up short and try and get up and down for 4. If you two putt, you're in a playoff.
This is not rocket science.
What he should have done after playing hospitality tent pinball off the tee is pitch out into the fairway and play for bogey. How on earth he did what he did (and how on earth Bones let him) is beyond me.
I would have hit anything, ANYTHING to put it in the short grass. I don't care if he has to hit 8-iron off the tee. He's got a 3-iron he can hit 230 - hit that off the tee, then, once you're in the fairway, if you think you can reach, go for it. If not, lay up short and try and get up and down for 4. If you two putt, you're in a playoff.
This is not rocket science.
What he should have done after playing hospitality tent pinball off the tee is pitch out into the fairway and play for bogey. How on earth he did what he did (and how on earth Bones let him) is beyond me.
it was almost like watching tin cup all over again.
I think it was the 2nd shot that bothered me more than the 1st. The driver I don't have a huge problem with because he had a couple holes when he hit 5-wood off the tee he drove deep in the rough, too. It was no gaurantee that if he took out an iron, he would have hit the fairway. He couldn't drive it straight with anything.
The 2nd shot, however, was where he really ******* up. He knew what Ogilvy scored and should have taken the safe play and shoot back in the fairway, get a par at best, a bogey at worst and at least you're in a playoff. The risky shot he played was basically a do or die shot. And he crashed and burned. Once that ball came back to him, he was finished, b/c then he couldnt lay up and it just caved from there.
Last edited by stlcard_25 : June 19th, 2006 at 10:25 PM.
I think it was the 2nd shot that bothered me more than the 1st. The driver I don't have a huge problem with because he had a couple holes when he hit 5-wood off the tee he drove deep in the rough, too. It was no gaurantee that if he took out an iron, he would have hit the fairway. He couldn't drive it straight with anything.
The 2nd shot, however, was where he really ******* up. He knew what Ogilvy scored and should have taken the safe play and shoot back in the fairway, get a par at best, a bogey at worst and at least you're in a playoff. The risky shot he played was basically a do or die shot. And he crashed and burned. Once that ball came back to him, he was finished, b/c then he couldnt lay up and it just caved from there.
I can't remember Phil being in a playoff. He is the "go for it" guy on Tour!
Last edited by stlcard_25 : June 19th, 2006 at 10:25 PM.
I think it was the 2nd shot that bothered me more than the 1st.
Where was Bones in all this? He's got some culpability, too.
How about this scenario:
Phil: "Bones, give me the 3, I'm gonna slice this thing 40 yards and try and hit the green."
Bones: "Ok, Phil. Here."
Phil: "Bones, this is my pitching wedge, I said I wanted the 3-iron to hit a big ol' 40 yard slice around these trees and onto the green."
Bones: "I know what you said."
Phil: "So where's my 3 iron?"
Bones: "Right here in your bag, where it's staying. Pitch out and try to get up and down for the win. If it takes you 3 shots after the pitchout, we come back tomorrow and win this thing. All-or-nothing has it's time, Phil, but not now."
He should've played a couple of shots differently, but could you imagine the heat he'd have taken if he'd played 18 as a 3-shot hole from the start ?
Not if he had won. His thinking was (apparently) that he didn't want to lay back too far for his second shot, and as it turns out, his second shot was from behind a tree 40 yards left of the fairway. Like someone else has posted around here, I had a lot more of a problem with the second shot than the first, but if I had been Bones I would have snapped the driver in half on the way to the 18th tee.
IMHO, he should have carried a 7W like Vijay Singh does. That way he could have really shaped the ball and let it gently drop on or short of the green, then pitch up from there. But nooooooo, he had to shank one off into the tent with a 3 iron!!!
This US Open taught me a lot of what to do and WHAT NOT TO DO!!!!
Since when did a caddy have any culpability for a professional golfer's decisions? Especially with the US Open on the line? What if Phil had listened to Bones (as created in your scenario) and made double anyway? Phil would've second guessed a "caddy's decision" for the rest of his life. At least this way Phil spends the rest of his life living with his own decision.
Phil may have played #18 stupidly but he's not stupid. He knew the situation, the rewards, the risks, and the consequences of every shot. This is on Phil.....not his caddy.
On the other hand, we don't know whether it was "Bones" who suggested it and Phyl went with it.
Gosh, as a Phil-fan, it really hurt to watch that unfold....and you even knew it was going to turn out the way it did, as much as you hoped he'd pull it off.
Talking about caddies talking to their player...who was the caddy/player the announcers talked about the day before...there was some banter among the announcers about a discussion going on between player-caddy and someone said "...if you're going to give your caddy the right to talk to you during a round, you can't get mad..." or something to that affect which made me think the player got a little animated with what the caddy was saying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr3856a
Normally, never - but Bones and Phil don't have a normal caddy-player relationship.
Gosh, as a Phil-fan, it really hurt to watch that unfold....and you even knew it was going to turn out the way it did, as much as you hoped he'd pull it off.
Talking about caddies talking to their player...who was the caddy/player the announcers talked about the day before...there was some banter among the announcers about a discussion going on between player-caddy and someone said "...if you're going to give your caddy the right to talk to you during a round, you can't get mad..." or something to that affect which made me think the player got a little animated with what the caddy was saying.
Yes, Ogilvy pouted for a couple of holes after being talked out of going for it by his caddy on a short par 5. He layed up, hit a poor approach and wound up with a par, I believe.
June 19th, 2006, 11:29 AM
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