2015 US Open Predictions

Here are my US Open predictions for Chambers Bay.  They are in early this year, which should make them even more impressive.  As a disclaimer, I would also like to remind everyone just how hard it is to correctly predict golf tournaments.  

Top: 5

1. Jordan Spieth - about 3 years ago, I predicted Jordan would win his 1st major at Chamber's Bay in 2015.  This long range pick is looking even more likely now that Jordan his risen to #2 in the world and claimed victory at the Masters.  Spieth wins by 1 draining a 12 footer for birdie on 18 that sends the crowd into a frenzy of total madness!!!
2. Rory McIlory - Rory goes down swinging after suffering a tough double bogie on the 16th hole to give up the lead and lose by 1. Rory manages to roll in a nice birdie on 18 forcing Spieth to make his 12 footer for the win.  Ratings glory for FOX!!
3. Jason Day - Another solid performance in a major by J-Day.  His all weather Adidas pants propel him up the leader board with the low round of the day on Sunday.
4. Dustin Johnson- I originally had Sergio here but decided to go with Dustin Johnson.  This was based on the fact that I think Dustin is a better golfer at the current time.      
5. Ryan Moore - Going with the hometown favorite to have a strong showing.  A tough Sunday round sees him fall out of a tie for the lead.

Notables:

• Tiger Woods:  Tiger plays 2 of the 4 rounds under 70 and the other 2 not so much.  He finishes a respectable T-26th place.
• Rickie Fowler:  Rick finishes in a tie for 6th ending that whole "top 5 in a major" thing he had going on last year.
• Jason Dufner:  Dufman finds his grove and leads after day 1, he then turns in 3 sub par (above par) rounds to finish in a T-27, 1 shot behind Tiger.
• Angel Cabrera:   My friend Joe will bet heavily for "El Pato" to pull this one off.  Joe will lose heavily.
• Greg Norman and Joe Buck:  Earn moderate to bad marks as Fox's 1st time US Open commentating team.
• Phil Mickelson:  Phil's driving holds him back this week.  Too much trouble off of the tee costs him a realistic shot at a Sunday run.  He finishes in a T-7 position.  He chips in a whole bunch though and people love it. 

Cinderella Story:

A 21 year old by the name of Ollie Schniederjans (a) from Georgia Tech plays like a man on a mission through 2 days coming into within 1 shot of the lead.  The papers erupt with Francis Ouimet stories of old.  People start chanting Ollie after every birdie, One particularly ambitious fan paints "Ollie Ollie Oxen Free" on her T-Shirt.  In short, people get real excited.....  Unfortunately, Ollie fades into a respectable finish over the weekend right along side Jason Dufner.  Not bad for a 1st timer. 

Winning Score in relation to par:  1 under par:  A near perfect score for the USGA.  The weather ends up being about 1 stroke nicer than expected.

2015 US Open Predictions (Pie Chart Section)

Complaints about Chambers Bay broken down by golfer

Probably a little ambitious, but I've heard these guys like to complain.

#18_365

Someone asked me the other day if I would play golf every day if I had the necessary time and resources.  I found this question to be ironic as I often use the hashtag #18_365 in my Instagram posts.  The hashtag stands for 18 holes a day, 365 days a year, a concept created by Adidas Golf  to be a rally cry for golfers who don’t let weather stand in their way of the game they love. 

My answer to this question was that I would absolutely play golf every day of the year.  Let's break this down real quick.  Starting with the holidays...  I can always get up early and play on Christmas, and the course is usually wide open on Thanksgiving.  However, I might have to play in the dark on my anniversary and the wife's birthday.  Then there is the issue of weather.  Even here in Seattle, I would get around 201 days with no measurable precipitation, so those are easy.  

But what about the days when mother nature gets nasty?  What would I do on those days?  The answer is simple... I would play in the rain, I would play in the snow, I would play in the wind, I would play in the heat, and then I would play in the rain some more.  Even if no one else will play, I will.

They make golf umbrellas, they make rain pants, and rain gloves, There is even Clima Heat and Clima Cool for taking on blizzards or the Arizona desert in July. 

In conclusion, sign me up for the unlimited time and resources to play unlimited golf!  In the meantime, I will just play when I get the chance, even if no one else will.

Check out other like minded golfers at Golf Digest's content hub for Adidas Golf #18_365.

One of my favorite days of golfing in the rain.  Thanksgiving 2014 at Pacific Dunes.  I was the only golfer on the course.

Golf Digest Invitational - Think Young Play Hard

I was lucky enough to be a part of the inaugural Golf Digest Invitational this past weekend.  Below is a snapshot of things that happened.  This list is non-inclusive, partially representative, and potentially offensive.  Sensitive golfers, you have been warned.

16 Things that happened at the Golf Digest Invitational

• I realized that the race carts at Pole Position go 45 mph and that I am moderate to bad at go kart racing.
• We hung out with the Bryan Bros and realized that hitting a golf ball out of mid air is a damn hard thing to do.
• We also realized that hitting a wedge closer than the Bryan Bros is not easy.  Joe managed 3 feet to the Bryan Bros' 3.5 feet!  That .5 feet earned us some new wedges!

• I shook hands with Boyz to Men and came to the conclusion that they are some chill ass dudes.
• This awesome photo was taken of our power foursome by AJ Voelpel.

• To start things off, a cannon exploded, blasting my hair back and preventing me from hearing properly for 2-3 days.

• I received $50 in poker chips as swag for the tournament, I waited the entire weekend to play them, doubling up twice on the roulette wheel right before I checked out of the Mirage.  Whoop.
• Captain Joe Garvey's shorts amazed 80% of the participants and blinded the other 20%

• Fences were jumped mid-round to obtain Jack in the Box.

• In an attempt to best World Long Drive Champion, Jeff Flagg, I implemented a rare somersault drive.  There is a slow motion video that exists and I will find it.  Update: it has been found.  View it here.
• I rolled a 35 foot putt through the gaming floor of the Mirage.  It missed wide left.
• Joey the Cat and Ryan Pearce won the entire freaking tournament!!! Congratulations boys!  Outstanding Victory.

• We took some party selfies with the champs.
• I took a picture of Joe Garvey's butt as he mooned our foursome from atop his golf cart on an adjacent hole.  Picture not pictured here.
• The ever popular Ashmaeb of Instagram tried to go out the wrong way from this bunker. 

• Golf Digest's Ashley Mayo flew into the golf course on a helicopter. We made her do push-ups.

• This post was originally titled 23 things that happened in Vegas at the Golf Digest Invitational. It has been truncated for male nudity and extreme profanity.  Until next year Golf Digest Invitational !!!!  Think Young and Play Hard until then.

Golf Bros get after Scottsdale

The group of buddies referred to in some circles as the Golf Bros recently headed to Scottsdale to pack in 72 holes over the course of one weekend.  Here is the quick overview of the courses, the players and the statistics from the weekend.

The Players:

Joey the Cat: Joey is a 4 time national skee-ball champion and local celebrity in the San Francisco area.  He packs a solid 12 handicap and has been known to putt out of his mind.

Joe Garvey:  Joe is the wildly successful owner and founder of Clash Scavenger Hunts in San Francisco.  He also runs the Romper Room and owns a blindingly colorful selection of pants and short man shorts.

Ryan Pearce:  The lone lefty of the group.  Even though Ryan stands on the wrong song of the ball, he strikes the it with precision and has been know to sleep with his 8 iron.

John Kennelly: A seasoned Golf Bro veteran, John Kennelly owns 2 aces and Is on record for exceeding the distance of Rory McIlroy's club throw at Doral by 2.2x in distance on multiple occasions.

Kris Buerkle:  The lead logistics coordinator and winner of neatest packing job.  Kris has the fastest pair of hands in the west and can hit a golf ball 300 yards without even making a full shoulder turn.

Patrick Koenig:  Owner of www.pjkoenig.com and golf photo enthusiast.  Took double the amount golf photos when compared to actual golf shots.  

The Courses:

The Boulders:  12 million year old boulder formations outline the crisp green fairways on this golf course.  We took on the South Course for our day 1, round 1, welcome to the desert.

The 1st hole on The Boulders South Course.

Southern Dunes:  About an hour south of Scottsdale, you will find the sweet rolling dunes of Southern Dunes.  Plenty of sand and no cactuses mixed up the usual formula for great desert golf.  This was my favorite course of the trip.

The 14th hole at Southern Dunes

We-Ko-Pa:  One of the most highly regarded options for excellent desert golf in the area.  We-Ko-Pa offers 2 outstanding options.  We played them both and we played em hard.

The 8th hole on the Cholla Course at We-Ko-Pa

The Statistics:

• Total Number of holes played: 432

• Number of photos taken inside the men's room that made it onto the internet: 2

• Number of birdies made: 37

• Number of eagles made: 1 (Ryan Pearce)

• Highest # of bunker shots played in 1 round: 12 (Patrick Koenig)

• Number of Olive Gardens visited: 1

• Total number of cigars smoked 9: (All Joe Garvey)

• Number of wild pigs seen crossing the fairway: 2

• Average score for all golfers for all 4 rounds: 83.3

• Total Number of on course push ups completed: 410

• Number of shots that bounced off of the O.B. net that went back into the target at Top Golf giving John Kennelly the victory by 1 point: 1

• Total number of photos taken: 432

• Highest single hole score: 9 (Joey the Cat)

• Lowest round: 72 (Patrick Koenig, shameless plug)

• Number of hole in ones predicted: 1

• Actual number of hole in ones made: 0

• Longest Drive: 332 yards (Kris Buerkle)

• Largest Divot: 12 inches long x 1.2 inches deep (John Kennelly)

• Total Number of damn 4 putts: 1 (Joey the Cat)

• Longest Putt: 60 feet: (Joe Garvey)

• Number of balls that should have went into the hole but did not: 52

• Total number of golfers that walked all 72 holes: 1 (PJKoenig)

• Number of Cactuses peed on: 8

• Total Number of golf blisters endured: 6

• Total number of separate gambling bets going on during the final round: 12

• Number of drivers thrown into the air in attempt to "practice the club throw" that landed on the cart path: 1 (Joey Mucha)

• Total number of satisfied Golf Bros: 6

Double Eagle Weekend

With a title like "Double Eagle Weekend" one would assume this is going to be a rather brief story about holing out a 3 wood for a 2 on a par 5.  Nope.  This is a 2 part story about 2 separate eagles in one weekend.  A Double Eagle weekend.  Not eagles on the scorecard, Bald Eagles, like the type you see on the Colbert Report.

As I sized up the difficult tee shot on the 18th hole at Whitehorse, my first bald eagle of the weekend buzzed right by my head and landed out in the rough.  He looked back at me and calmly waited for me to hit my tee shot.  In the name of America, I stepped up to the challenge and piped one right down the middle.

With a satisfied look on his face, he took off into the distance to tell his eagle buddies about the drive he just witnessed.  "How can you be so sure he was telling his eagle buddies?" you may ask, well oddly enough, he had some kind words for me as he flew away.  I snapped a quick shot for photographic proof of the story.

I was just making the turn on day 2 of the "Double Eagle Weekend" when I noticed another bald eagle hopping towards the pond off of the 10th hole.   Naturally, I hit another drive down the middle of #10 and planned a sneak attack photo opportunity.

I concealed myself behind the reeds along the edge of the pond as the bald eagle bathed happily.  As I rounded the corner, I jumped out to catch him drying off.  He looked pretty pissed off about the situation... He had no words, just his disapproving stare.

AMERICA!!!

Best Man and the Bunker

Back in 2012, I played Chambers Bay for the first time.  Even though a lot of memorable shots were struck over the course of the day, my favorite belongs to the man who would eventually become the best man at my wedding.  

There is an exceptionally deep bunker about 100 yards out on the 18th hole, that no one would ever want to visit.  You will undoubtedly see pros at the US Open doing everything possible to avoid it.  My man John had other ideas, he went right into the middle of that boss providing me this excellent photo opportunity.  You can sense his excitement in the photo.  He escaped and made bogie.

This past weekend, John was again in town and we decided to have another go at Chambers Bay. On the front nine, the birdies flew and both of us came to the 18th safely into the low 70's.  John was now acutely aware of the bunker from his last visit, but John is not the sort of man that will back down!  He went right after it sending his layup directly at the massive sand pit.  While it is poor form to wish another golfer such a miserable fate, I was obviously cheering that ball on.. "Oh, oh, get in there!!"  His ball rolled right into the heart of the beast again.

John is now 2 for 2 on trips to chambers bay and trips to that bus sized bunker.  To his credit, he made a great run at saving par, but carded another bogie.  As you can see in the photo, his excitement for this beach has only increased over time.  What a legend.

Same pants, same bunker, different hand gesture.