Here's a photo gallery of some of the practice rounds at the U.S. Open.
Casey Martin, Tiger Woods, and Vijay Singh are just some of the players displayed during the practice rounds at the Olympic Club today in San Francisco.
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From the abundance of cypress trees, to the sweeping views of The City in the background, to the fog rolling in off the Pacific, the Olympic Club’s Lake Course is truly a gem. But upon closer investigation, this gem has an unpolished dark side.
The sloping fairways, the tabletop-size greens, the unforgiving rough and overall firmness of the course can wreak havoc on a player’s round.
So when the opportunity arose for media members to get a firsthand look at the rugged U.S. Open course, The San Francisco Examiner jumped at the chance.
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Sophomore Cameron Wilson has spent most of the season as the Stanford men’s golf team’s third-best player behind All-American Patrick Rogers and Andrew Yun, but this week he will be doing what the others only hope for in their careers: playing in the U.S. Open.
Wilson picked a good time to qualify, as starting Thursday, the major championship will be played at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, a spot Wilson has plenty of experience on.
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As it was brought to the forefront in the Kevin Costner movie “Tin Cup,” the U.S. Open is truly an “open” event.
Anyone who has a USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 1.4 can try and qualify.
More than 9,000 players began the quest to compete for the national championship, having to survive 18 holes of local qualifying and then 36 holes of sectional qualifying.
There were 109 sites for local qualifying, where just 550 players moved on to one of the 13 sectional qualifying sites.
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The nickname says it all: “Graveyard of Champions.”
Historically, when the U.S. Open comes to the Olympic Club, it’s bad news for the legends of the game; all four previous tournaments have seen an unlikely victor emerge and a golf icon fall.
There was the monumental upset by Jack Fleck against Ben Hogan in 1955, Billy Casper’s epic comeback against Arnold Palmer in 1966, Scott Simpson’s late charge in 1987 to best Tom Watson and Lee Janzen’s near-flawless finish to overtake Payne Stewart in 1998.
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As a member of the Olympic Club since 1967 and with two years on the PGA Tour (in 1975 and 1977), John Abendroth has played the Lake Course thousands of times and may know the course as well as anyone else. He also holds the course record, a 9-under-par 62, which he recorded in 1985, and is the host of “Hooked on Golf,” which airs on KNBR (680 AM) every Saturday at 7 a.m.
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He was the kid from The City, 19 years old and confident in his golf. But when the 1966 U.S. Open was set for his home course, the Olympic Club, he was so pessimistic about his chances of qualifying he didn’t even sign up a caddy.
In the end, the only bag Johnny Miller carried was his own, from the car to the rack outside the pro shop. A BYU student at the time, Miller managed to grab the last qualifying spot for the Open during an event in Utah. The legend had started.
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Bubba Watson. Keegan Bradley. Darren Clarke. Rory McIlroy. Charl Schwartzel. Martin Kaymer. Louis Oosthuizen. Graeme McDowell.
In golf’s past eight major championships, eight first-time major winners have emerged victorious.Take it back a step further and there have been 14 different winners in the past 14 majors. Of that group of 14, only Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera and Padraig Harrington have multiple major championships on their résumés.
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If there’s going to be a signature hole at the 2012 U.S. Open, it very well could be No. 16.
When played to its full distance, as it’s expected to be at least two of the four days, it will measure a whopping 670 yards. That’ll make it the longest hole in U.S. Open history and remove virtually any chance of players reaching the green in two shots.
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