For the next 35 days, a time of the year usually spent anticipating the upcoming football season and lamenting the lost baseball season will be turned over to a game whose roots date back to 12th century Scottish shepherds hitting stones into rabbit holes.
They called this maddening, molar-grinding exercise “golf,” I presume, because when the world is spelled backward, it is “flog.”
In any case, we’re about to get golf, and more golf after that. We’re about to get enough golf to determine whether golf lovers have a saturation point.
Hey, if anybody deserves the challenge of following three tournaments – including two played simultaneously – it is the golf lover around here.
This region hasn’t been affiliated with a regular PGA Tour event since the 1966 Greater Seattle-Everett Classic, an obscure relic recalled only because, as the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair Open Invitational, it represented Jack Nicklaus’ second victory as a pro. Despite Washington’s gorgeous summer climate and its stunning vistas, an annual PGA Tour stop in the Pacific Northwest remains a pipe dream.
But that’s another story, for another day. The story this week is the U.S. Senior Open, scheduled to begin Thursday morning at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish. Note to Tacoma-area fans planning to watch icons Fred Couples and Tom Watson: they’re teeing off, along with Eduardo Romero, at 7:45 a.m. Which is to say, you might want to make plans to drive north sometime after dinner Wednesday.
On the other hand, you can sleep in until, say, 8 in the morning, and still have plenty of time to follow a group of former Masters winners – Mark O’Meara, Larry Mize and Fuzzy Zoeller – teeing off at 1:10 p.m.
What’s notable about Sahalee is that the long drive is in the car.
Because its fairways are akin to paths carved into a forest, the big hitters are required to sacrifice distance for accuracy.
“I can’t think of another course that has the enormity of the trees,” defending U.S. Senior Open champion Fred Funk said recently on a video conference call. “When you first see it, you almost feel like you’re claustrophobic on some of the holes. It’s visually intimidating and you have to get over that.”
Sahalee is the first of two Seattle-area destinations for the seniors this summer, and a bit different, in terms of rules, from the Boeing Classic at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge (Aug. 27-29). While the Boeing Classic is three days with no cuts, the U.S. Senior Open is four days with a two-day cut.
Not since 2002 has a Senior Open been held in the same metropolitan area as a regular Champions Tour event. And not since 1997, when Chicago was home to four tournaments (the U.S. Senior Open, the PGA Tour’s Western Open, the U.S. Amateur, and the Ameritech Senior Open) has a metropolitan area been so inundated with gifted players.
But the Puget Sound’s distinction as a haven for 2010 golf tournaments poses a conundrum: The Boeing Classic conflicts with the U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay, also scheduled during the last week of August. It’s one thing to be hungry, it’s quite another to solve your pangs during a hot-dog eating contest.
On the other hand, the Boeing Classic and the U.S. Amateur have little in common. The Champions Tour event at Snoqualmie is a conventional tournament, where the crowd tends to collect at bleachers set up behind the first tee, the 18th green and the par-4, No. 14 signature hole, the course’s illustrious “Bear’s Canyon.”
The U.S. Amateur figures to be more intimate experience. At amateur events, fans are immediate witnesses to the drama. They’re able to walk from hole to hole, overhearing conversations between player and caddie. It’s not unlike watching a football game from the sideline.
And there’s this to consider: The U.S. Amateur is a week-long marathon, two days of stroke play, one at Chambers Bay and the other at The Home Course in DuPont, followed by five days of match play at the converted gravel pit, concluding with a two-man, 36-hole final.
Because only a participant’s loved ones can devote seven days to watching a tournament from start to finish, I suggest a golf fan’s best bet that week is to compromise. Take in a round or two at Snoqualmie, cheering on Fred Couples, along with a round or two at Chambers Bay, cheering on the next Fred Couples. As for any ideas on what to do on Sunday, Aug. 29, that’s up to you.
By then, even the most intense golf fan might be golfed out after four rounds at Sahalee, three rounds at Snoqualmie and seven rounds between DuPont and Chambers Bay: 14 rounds, in all.
Personally? I’m psyched. Golf is a sportswriter’s ideal gig – day games in the sunshine, never having to attend a losing coach’s press conference – and the only requirement is to become familiar with a brave new word, seldom heard in my house.
Shhh!
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
