Quick 18: Johnson's penalty, young guns at Whistling Straits
Editor's note: PGATOUR.COM's Melanie Hauser shakes out the mental lint and pulling together the "Quick 18" on Mondays.
1. Don't know about you, but Quick 18 is still worn out over that wild and weird finish at Whistling Straits. No one wants to win it, then everyone tries, then a bunch of errant shots, an unintentional grounding, then ... No need to belabor it. More going on in the final hour than an episode of "24."
2. What we came away with Sunday was this: we're heading into an era of young, fearless, strong, talented players with a respect for the game. It's all good. Martin Kaymer won with that major game we've been watching for a while. Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Rory McIlroy gave us a glimpse of the future.
3. And, well, the second thing: bunker/waste bunker/walking officials issue needs to be straightened out before 2015. Wonder how many other players might have mistaken a bunker for trampled sandy soil with fans standing in it. Wouldn't see that anywhere else, would you?
4. Rory McIlroy finishes tied for third for second straight major. This time it was his putter. A roll here, a roll there . . . Don't what-if it. He's going to win one -- and soon.
5. The footnote to the week: Tiger Woods is still hanging onto No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Phil Mickelson missed his ninth chance to grab it, Steve Stricker missed his first. And, oh, Kaymer is now No. 5 in the world; McIlroy seventh. Will someone grab it away from Tiger this year? Not if he can figure this out in the next two weeks.
6. As for Woods not being on the Ryder Cup team? Please. He'll be on it. And he'll have his game together by then, too. No, Quick 18 did not talk to Ryder Cup skipper Corey Pavin or his assistants. Not relying anything other than, well, common sense. And, for the record, not taking Jim Gray's word either. What a mess that he said/he said thing was.
7. As for Whistling Straits, it's 3-D/HD/video-game visually stunning, but penal, daunting, dangerous, quirky and has way too much going on -- on every hole. The question on so many tables is . . .is it a major course? Yes, in the sense that it's hosting the PGA again in 2015 and the Ryder Cup in 2020. But on the list with St. Andrews and Pebble and the other great ones? Quick 18 will get back to you in a decade or maybe two. Any course where one step back and a player -- think Keith Ohr at the 11th hole -- is dropping 10 feet and sticking landing in a sandy waste bunker . . . or spectators are walking and standing in "bunkers" . . . .Seriously?
8. If you're on Twitter and you're not following @rickiefowlerpga and @bubbawatson, you're missing the adventures of Rickie and Bubba. Throw-down challenges. Ice cream cravings. Generally goofing on each other. Guarantee you'll laugh, so here's one throw-down to another: Here and here. To borrow a tagline from Bubba: You're welcome.
9. Quick 18 is still chuckling over David Feherty's line on Ian Poulter's flair for, um, trendy hairstyles: "He will, on occasions, look like he's having a bad hair day, but he has it on purpose."
10. Is there some connection between fatherhood and majors for Zach Johnson? He won the 2007 Masters a few months after son Will was born. He makes a run at his second major not long after second son Wyatt was born. Just saying ...
11. Golf is getting way too gossipy for Quick 18. Take the GOLF Channel camera shot of former Tiger instructor Butch Harmon standing with Sean Foley, who worked with TW last week. The clip was a source of speculation until Golf World TOUR Insider Tim Rosaforte got a text from Harmon, who said they were laughing about a competition between their respective player lineups: Nick Watney Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Stewart Cink for Harmon; Woods, Sean O'Hair, Hunter Mahan and Justin Rose for Foley. "I told him we can do a great made-for-TV show," Harmon wrote. "My four vs. his four, and we'd get to be the commentators."
On a side note: Harmon's boys dusted Foley's last week. And Quick 18 still likes a combo of Jackie Burke and Billy Harmon for Tiger.
12. On his way from Chicago to Whistling Straits, Bill Haas had to stop in Milwaukee to pick up his girlfriend. He had some time to kill, so he went to 9-hole Raymond Heights Golf Center to hit a large bucket of balls. Haas paid the $9 tab and was given a punch card for a free bucket after 10 purchases, he declined it, saying he wasn't from Milwaukee. Owner Tim Stare asked him if he was from South Carolina and Haas said, yes. He then asked if his dad was Jay Haas and Bill said yes.
"I caddied for your dad in the 1975 U.S. Open at Medinah,'' Stare said. He also watched Bill grow up on his 'fridge through Christmas cards over the years. And no, Jay didn't send Bill to Raymond Heights, he just found it. What are the odds?
13. Tweet of the week goes to Joe Ogilvie: I wish Tiger was publically traded, I would buy all I could get my hands on right now. It's what (Warren) Buffett would call a "fat pitch".
14. Seems the golfer-in-chief's favorite down-time sport is rubbing off on his youngest daughter. Playing an evening round of miniature golf, Sasha Obama proved the president is not the only golfer in the family. Sasha's first shot was good for a hole-in-one -- and a high-five from Dad. The family played at Pirate's Island Golf Club in Panama City, Fla., and the President got an ace of his own at the 11th hole. He claimed the match was a tie, but the First Lady indicated the President was winning.
15. They don't look anything alike, but that didn't stop a person at a gas station from a serious case of mistaken identity. After Bo Van Pelt signed an autograph for someone, the response was, "Thank you. I can't wait to tell my friends I met Boo Weekley!!"
16. Early commitments are one thing. Pre-junior high promises, quite another. Yet 12-year-old Brad Dahlke, the nation's top junior in what will be the class of 2016, has told Oklahoma he'll be a Sooner. Never thought about going elsewhere, he said. After all, his dad Bill was a starting linebacker for the Sooners 1975 national championship team, his mother played on the first Sooner women's golf team and his maternal grandfather hit the winning basket against Texas in the 1947 NCAA semifinals. "'Boomer Sooner' were some of his first words," said Bill. "He loves golf and loves the Sooners, so this is a dream come true for him."
17. John Daly's splashy Loudmouth pants aren't shocking us anymore -- not yet anyway. But his jackets cut from the same cloth? Not so much. He's worn Loudmouth sports jackets to past champions dinners at the British Open and PGA and, um, stood out. At St. Andrews, R&A chief Peter Dawson joked, "I was sitting opposite him at dinner, so I had it all night, and my eyesight survived.'' Yes, he was kidding, but . . . Quick 18 has to wonder if the line doesn't have a more subdued option for business-attire dinners.
18. Got a spare $4,600? If you do -- and Quick 18 doesn't -- a limited edition of Golf Links of Scotland may be just the book for you. Found on here, the pricey offering -- it starts Sept. 14, 2010 -- features a limited run of 150 leather-bound copies in-laid with 24K gold and presented in a clamshell case. Text is by George Peper, photography by Iain MacFarlane Lowe and Christopher J. Lowe. No, it doesn't come with any extras.
Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM and can be emailed at melaniehauser@gmail.com. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
FANTASY
PGATOUR.com is part of Turner Sports Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network 