Its that time of the year for yet another major tournament and time for the overrated US Open.

Yeah I said it and many times before. This tournament just keeps getting worse and worse and the PGA and USGA keep trying to trick up good traditional golf courses into a circus.

The rough, the greens and now the length of some of these holes. They leave most of these players no chance because they want to challenge Tiger. If they would just set the courses up like in the past then the entire field would have a chance to win instead of just a few guys. Was it just last year we had a 300 yard par 3? How dumb is that!

Atleast this year we will not see that but we will two par 5's over 600 yards and a par 4 over 500. I know these guys bomb it but the US Open has always been about precision and not brut strength. I am sorry I just like the day when a guy like Corey Pavin had a chance.

Saying all that since I love the game of golf I will still watch and TIVO every second biting my lip the entire time.

Both Phil and Tiger have had great success at the south course at Torrey Pines and we will hopefully see the epic battle we have all wanted to see. A Monday playoff with these two would be more than we could handle. But I am ready!

I am not sure Tiger is ready though. He has been out for too long and the last time this happened it was after the death of his father. I am not sure he will have the "A" game he needs to win. I think Phil is ready. I also would like to put the Masters champ in the mix Trevor Immelman and dont count out a few foreign players to make this an exciting week.

This is going to be the toughest pick for a major champion yet.

There hasn't been much grumbling this week ... so maybe it will be a playable course after all?  And rumor is that they will play one of the par 4's (#14?) from the front tees Sunday, something like 277 yds if I recall correctly ... I've played TP but don't remember the details of it so I can't recall that hole, but hopefully it will be one of those risk-reward holes that the guys can try to bomb and pick up two strokes to par!

I just visited the official leaderboard web site and I am under-whelmed ... can't highlight players or watch scorecards without leaving the screen ... I guess pgatour.com has spoiled me, but I'm going to look around for a better leaderboard to use at work today and tomorrow ...

I'm not making picks because I suck at it ... I'll be rooting for my same favorites:  Phil, Fred, Zach, etc. ... I don't really care who wins, only that it's fun to watch!

[Update:  the sportsline.com leaderboard is pretty good]

I am Loving all of the great coverage of the Open - watching on-line, having it on TV, great articles and blogs...my golf fever is peaked!  And because of all of the rain we've gotten, I haven't been out on the course since Monday...so this was a great week for a major. 

It was totally fun to watch Kevin Streelman yesterday...and even more fun for me because he is on my roster!!  So today was a little bit of a bummer to find out he shot +6...but cool for him that he's enjoying it all.

I thought this article was terrific - http://www.usopen.com/en_US/news/articles/2008-06-06/200806061212732356968.html   I don't know if anyone else voted and read about this US Open Golf Challenge, but I thought it was a terrific idea, and I voted for John Atkinson - a few times...    They will be doing a highlight show on Sat. from 2-3 ET on NBC...  How awesome that Greg Norman caddied for Matt Lauer!!  Can't wait to watch it.

Totally Bummed about Vijay today - he was my ticket to some cash this weekend...oh well.  So now I'm rooting for Davis Love!

Hope you are all enjoying Open week.

The image quality on ESPNHD is great ... but unfortunately I will be traveling this weekend and DirecTV doesn't provide my local channel in HD yet (and I don't have a way to record from my antenna), so I won't get to watch the weekend coverage in HD ... bummer ...

As I write this, Rocco (obviously inspired by making Chipshot's Top 10 list) is ticking off all of the guys at +7 and +8 and +9 by holding a 3 stroke lead at -4 ... he's got 5 of the 6 easiest holes left, but also 3 of the 5 toughest, so we'll see how he finishes and where the eventual cut line ends up ... Davis and DJ have finished at -1, so +9 is as high as it will go ...

Have a great US Open weekend!

Happy Monday morning - wow, what a great weekend of golf!  The awesome, the good, the bad, the Phil quad - there was something for everyone!  I'll leave the Tiger commentary for Golf Addict, since he has such a way with words, but I will say that I talked back to the TV screen more than once after watching some of his amazing shots.  I never realized how many TV cameras were actually out there until watching replays of Tiger's chip-in on 17 and eagle putt on 18 on Saturday from every conceivable angle. 

It's hard for me not to go into "root for the underdog" mode - so I'm going to cheer for Rocco today - I totally dig him (and he's a Callaway boy)...what a challenge!... but I think he's got the right attitude.  And thank heavens we're able to watch it on the internet!!  It's always good to get a little golf on Monday.   GO ROCCO!!! 

I will let you all know how Tiger walks in two weeks in Bethesda.  I volunteer for the AT&T national as a transportation volunteer.  I just drive the pros around.  No way that any of us will drive Tiger.  He has his own Buick.  Last year I was lucky enough to go to the Airport to pick up KJ Choi.  He doesn't speak much English, so the conversation was difficult.  I told him that Jack's course in Ohio was less than 400 miles west and that he already proved he could beat everyone.  I told him to just smile and have fun.  Then he went on to win the tourney.  I followed him several times to cheer him on.  I hoped that I helped him keep his confidence.  It will be interesting to see if Tiger can play well at Congressional.  Last year was his first time hosting the tournament and he didn't really appear on the leaderboard.  I really doubt he will this year either.  Especially with the lame knee.  I really did want to see Rocco win this week at the Open.  Oh well, it was really exciting.  Keep it in the short grass, folks! 

What a great playoff - and another amazing win by Tiger.  It was so terrific that it was on the internet - and after the first half hour I got pretty good at zipping up a spreadsheet when someone walked by.  Of course my boss walked by about 2 hours into it and asked me who was leading, so I guess I wasn't really fooling anybody.  Rocco has definitely moved up my fan favorite list - love his attitude about golf and life.  I hope he takes this experience and keeps showing up on leaderboards. 

I finished dead last in my fantasy pool - just horrible. 

Scoops...thanks for giving us the scoop on the AT&T national - definitely plan on giving us updates!

Tiger out for the Rest of the Season!!  I just read this from PGAtour.com.  :http://www.pgatour.com/2008/r/06/18/tigerwoods.surgery/index.html

 I will see if he is in a wheelchair for the AT&T National.  Keep em straight!