Hottest Golfer NOT Going to Royal Birkdale

Kenny Perry's goal is clearly evident...he wants to play on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in his own backyard at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville (pronounced Lew-uh-vull), Kentucky. He won the Buick last week and the Memorial a few weeks ago. He skipped the U.S. Open and now he's skipping The Open at Royal Birkdale, so that he can play in The BC Open, on a course that suits his game better - presumably to guarantee his spot on the Ryder Cup team. By most everyone's calculations, he's already sealed a spot.

So, The Open at Royal Birkdale has a great chance for someone to get his first win of 2008. Who is going to win? Who knows. But, you'll be able to choose eight golfers from the field...and if you're right, you just might win the 3rd Tigerless Major Pool of 2008.

Please help in spreading the word, and let's get a good pot for this pool (The Open starts on July 17, so the field will be set a few days before then, after the completion of the qualifying rounds). Tell all of your friends, enemies, co-workers and family about it. As soon as the field is set, I'll post the entry form. But before that even happens, tell everyone you know how much more fun it is to watch a Major when you have some players hitting shots that mean something for you, as it does for them and their caddies ;-)

If you were sent here by a friend and want to be included in the update emails, please send me an email and I'll add you to the list.

~ Max

Fannon Takes 1st Place

So it's David vs. Goliath. After today, that saying could be replaced with Rocco vs. Tiger. Yesterday's action was one for the books - highly entertaining!

It looked as if it might be a three-way playoff today, but unfortunately for Andy Cohen, Westwood couldn't seem to get his last few putts all the way to the hole. As it turns out, Jeff Fannon held onto his lead because Heath Slocumb fired a Championship low round of 65, that meant that our picks needed to shoot 69 or better to score points - only three of our players managed to do that.

So, Fannon takes first, I got lucky and took 2nd and Cohen finished 3rd. Winnings will go out today.

Next month we'll be doing this again for the British Open, or as it's officially named The Open, at Royal Birkdale. This is by far my favorite major championship event - not that I'm especially fond of links golf, but the fact that it's on in the morning here, weather conditions play such a huge role and the history is so interesting.

Till next month.

~Max

Snedeker Fires LRD of 68, Fannon Extends Lead

Brandt Snedeker got off to a quick start, shooting a 68 early in the day. That score held up as the LRD - the closest any of our picks got was 70, which was accomplished by 5 players.

But the story of the day was Tiger and his knee. I know this is the "Tigerless Pool", but you have to be in total awe of what he did today. Eagle putt on 13 from at least 40 feet, chip in for birdie on 17 that took one bounce then hit the pin and dropped, then he dropped a bomb on 18 from 25 feet, a putt that had at least 3 feet of break. Every time he took a full swing, the NBC cameras took a close up of his face, grimacing in pain.

Appleby, the leader heading into the third round, shot an 8-over par 79 and has taken himself out of the tournament and the always smiling Rocco Mediate is still hanging in there at the ripe old age of 45.

Jeff Fannon extended his lead by two points and is sitting in the driver's seat to win the pool, it should be a great day of golf tomorrow at Torrey Pines.

To all dads, have a happy Father's Day tomorrow. Hopefully we all get to play some golf (I'll be teeing it up with Ridge tomorrow at Big Run).

Good night.

~Max

Appleby Birdies 18 and Cuts 11 Sitting at 8-Under

Stuart Appleby birdied #18 to finish with a round of 70, and 3-under par for the tournament. That meant that 11 players sitting at 8-under par won't make the cut and won't be playing on the weekend. Appleby leads Rocco Mediate, Robert Karlsson and Tiger Woods by one stroke heading into the third round of the US Open.

Miguel Angel Jiminez shot a 66, the low round of the day (LRD). That means that any golfer who shot a 70 or better would earn points for the round. Overall, we did pretty well as a group, of the 31 golfers chosen in our pool, all but 10 failed to make the cut - and that includes two who withdrew.

Jeff Fannon has jumped into the lead and has all 8 picks playing this weekend. It's going to take some good luck and good shooting to catch him.

Have a good Saturday.

~Max

Timberrrrrr

I couldn't post a scoring update last night because a tree behind my neighbor's house fell down and took out the power line. The entire block was without power. Once the ComEd crews got everything back to work, I was already asleep.

The LRD for Round 1 was 68, so any golfer who shot a 72 or better earns points for this round. We've had a couple of WD's from the tournament, Ian Poulter and Sean O'Hair, so they can no longer earn points.

Andy Cohen leads the pool after the first round with a score of 13. I'll post a Leader Board for Round 2 later this evening.

Have a great night.

~ Max

Everyone's Picks

Here are everybody's chosen ones (click the image to make it larger). We have only 8 players in our pool, but I'll make the most of it by providing timely scoring updates as the tournament progresses.

Please double check your picks and let me know if there are any errors. Thanks.

~ Max

Entries Are In

The entries are in and I'll need a few hours before I can get the picks posted. I have some meetings this afternoon, but will post picks as soon as I can, check back sometime after 4:00.

~ Max

Get a Player's View of Torrey Pines

The USGA has put up some nice features on their website for this weekend, including a Virtual Tour that shows you how the course looks to the players. Each hole has a Walk Through, with commentary from USGA officials and course designer, Rees Jones, providing explanations for each shot on the Par 71 layout. You'll also find aerial flyover views and a Panoramic 360 Viewer. Take a look.

Get your entries in. Email me if you are having problems at max_rose@sbcglobal.net.

~ Max

Golfers Missing

Someone mentioned to me that there are some golfers missing from the group.

There are a total of 156 golfers in the US Open field - I took the liberty of eliminating all but the Top 85 and threw in some of the bigger names that aren't currently ranked in the top 85 (Janzen, Campbell, Parnevik). Sure, it's possible that someone who isn't on our list might win, but it's unlikely - regardless, we're all working from the same list and that makes it fair for scoring purposes.

Good luck,
~Max

How Scoring Works

Because the US Open is set up by the USGA as a supreme test of skill, birdies are often hard to come by. I've seen quite a few US Open tournaments where the winning score is actually over par - so rewarding points only for shooting under par (as we did in the Masters Pool) would be pretty boring.

The scoring for our pool will work like this:

Low Round of the Day (LRD) - 5 points.
1 stroke over LRD - 4 points.
2 strokes over LRD - 3 points.
3 strokes over LRD - 2 points.
4 strokes over LRD - 1 point.
5 or more strokes over LRD - Zero points.

So, even if the lowest round of any day is 2-over par, points will be scored by every golfer who shoots 6-over par, or better. Tiger's score DOES count - so if he shoots the LRD - all scores will be in relation to his score.

Bonus Points - 3 points for every player making the cut to play the weekend. 8 points for the winner (unless Tiger wins, then these points will not be awarded).

There is a minor mistake on the entry form - Andres Romero is listed twice (this was a major pain getting the information about this field into a spreadsheet - had to type in all manually, geez) - he should only be used in the "B Group".

Good luck and get your entries in.

~Max

U.S. Open Entry Sheets Ready To Download

You can now download the Entry Form for the 2008 Tigerless U.S. Open Pool. Use the link on the right or click here. When you go to the download page, check the box for the spreadsheet and then click on the .xls file - you should be able to download the whole Excel file to you computer and complete the form.

There is one major scoring rule change this year. I'll explain further in the next post, but the details are one the Entry Form.

Good Luck!

Max