By D.A. Weibring
The U.S. Open and Oakmont have certainly been in the news for their design changes. It seems a little radical to me to take down 5000 trees, but it's hard to find fault in the Championship and the exciting finish. The golf course looked good on TV, and after playing there in 1983, I can promise you that it is every bit as difficult as it looks. Interestingly, that seems to be the one thing that the members of Oakmont are most proud of - how difficult the golf course is.
When you add that kind of length with that kind of movement in the greens, which is very, very severe, and then you mix in 215 bunkers it's going to be difficult. From my golf course architect point of view, one of the easiest things to do in golf is to design a difficult golf course. Make it long and narrow, with deep bunkers, high rough and severe movement in the greens and there you have it.
To their credit, I think some of the more interesting golf coming in, were the shorter holes where the players had to make choices. I think that type of decision-making is good design and that's what we've tried to do with our design business.
So, Oakmont was hard and the members were happy. They did get a very unique, personable champion. I guess the bottom line is that they shot over par and that makes everybody happy with the U.S. Open.
It was great to see another younger player win on the regular tour this past week. Hunter Mahan, who is from the Dallas area, has been an outstanding player through the junior ranks, into college and his early years on Tour.
A few weeks ago a story came out of the U.S. Open sectional qualifier that Hunter's attitude was a little challenged you might say, like we all get from time to time. But, Hunter kept working and arrived at the U.S. Open with a different mind set and finishes well then followed up with his first win. It just shows that all the time spent on the practice tee and watching videos of your swing, are only part of the ingredients needed to win. The most important thing is your mind set, which will establish your patience in a very challenging game. So, Hunter also follows Nick Watney, another first time winner who won earlier this year in New Orleans. It's great to see some of the younger players in their middle 20s doing well.
I also wanted to mention Jay Williamson. Jay's a good golfer who's earned his card on the Tour but didn't begin to play golf until he was nearly 20 years old. Over the years he has gone back and forth between the regular Tour and the Nationwide Tour . I was glad to see that he seems to have re- committed himself and now at the age of 40 he's having a terrific year on the Nationwide Tour. I think he's ranked seventh. He received an exemption from the local committee in Hartford where he went to college, and he came in just trying to enjoy himself. He had confidence, knew he was playing well, and actually got tied on the 72nd hole.
It was great to see his tough mind set - he was confident and he was patient. It's a good reminder for all of us with our golf, or anything throughout our lives. When we get frustrated and force things, they sometimes come right back at us. And here's an example of two guys, a younger player and an older player, with the right mind set who played championship golf.
I also wanted to give everyone an update on the TPC in Las Colinas. If you haven't heard, the weather in the Dallas/Fort Worth area has been a challenge. We are well into the project, on the north side of the creek, and we have six, seven, eight, nine, twelve and part of thirteen, fourteen and the eleventh holes working toward completion.
We're a little behind because of mother nature, but we feel good about what we're seeing and feedback from some of the players who've seen the work in construction very positive. We're still focused on the work at hand to produce a very playable, enjoyable golf course for the members of the sports club, as well as the guests of the Four Seasons, and also give them a very competitive and challenging golf course with plenty of options for the players for next year's 2008 EDS Bryon Nelson Championship.
Some random thoughts on the Champions Tour
Jay Haas won again; his fourth of the year at the Bank of America Championship in the Boston area. Jay is a consistent, solid player. He and I grew up playing some golf together in the Illinois area. I'm a year older than Jay, but we competed together in a number of tournaments.
The nephew of Bob Goldby, Jay's been a steady player from a young age. He has had a very successful career, Ryder Cup player and now since joining the Champions Tour really seems to be right in place and follows the model of Hale Irwin. I think Jay has 10 wins in his first three years on the Champions Tour. But, as I was talking before about having the right positive attitude, Jay has a very solid game, drives the ball straight, and is able to produce ball right to left, left to right. He's a very strategic player, a good iron player, has always been a great wedge player, and a good putter even though Jay might talk about being a little streaky at times.
However, if you look at his stats the last couple of weeks, it's obvious that he's playing with confidence. He won early in the year, he's steady, he's there every week, and he's number one or number two in putting the last couple of weeks.
With all of the new players on the Tour like Mark O'Meara, Nick Price, Seve Ballesteros, and the likes of Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Jeff Sluman and John Cook to come, we've only had one player win multiple times. And Jay Haas has got four. He's certainly studying the Hale Irwin message. Hale has dominated the Champions Tour with 45 victories in 11 years. Jay's off to a great start with ten.
Finally, I made a come back with my own game this week shooting a 66 in the final round to tie for 8th. My putting consistency has not been where I'd like, but maybe I made a few strides on Sunday as we move towards the Senior U.S. Open at Whistling Straits July 5 through 8th and then the British Senior Open at Murifield July 26 through 29th.
