Golf Capsules: Picturesque Pebble can be a rocky road
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Henrik Stenson watched his ball bounce hard on the left side of the tightly mowed 18th fairway, skip over the rough, off the cliff, then onto the rocks down below.
A few moments later, he went to a place nobody wants to be when they start keeping score later this week.
He picked his way down the rocks and seaweed, found a good place to stand near the water 50 feet below, jumped and pirouetted a few times to miss the lapping waves, then clanked a wedge back up and onto the grass.
Welcome to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach — the toughest test in golf at one of the most scenic settings in the world.
"I had to move away a couple times. Once, there were little pebbles around the ball, another time, there was a pile of debris," Stenson said. "But I got a club on it. If I hit a ball down there when the tournament starts, I'd have to consider going down there."
Unlike most of the contenders in the 156-man field, Stenson will not have to deal with pre-wired notions of what Pebble "should" play like, or "normally" plays like. This is the Swede's first time at the course that hosts the PGA Tour's star-studded pro-am each February, but becomes a much different beast every 10 years or so when the national championship comes to town.
Balls that plugged into the fairway in February for Bing Crosby's old clambake hit hard and spin forward in June.
Shots that would have landed softly on the greens four months ago are now vulnerable to careening off.
Rough that used to give way like butter is now four, five inches tall at some points — something of a concession to the U.S. Open norm, actually, because the greens at Pebble Beach are so uncompromisingly small.
"On a lot of these holes, you can hit a shot and be in the rough 5 feet from the green and you'll be lucky to be putting after your next shot," Stenson said.
K.J. Choi, a fourth-place finisher at this year's Masters, spelled out a goal that only sounds plausible at the U.S. Open.
"I'm going to try to get through four rounds, and finish each day at par," Choi said. "If I do that, that should be a pretty good score."
The last time the U.S. Open was at Pebble, par didn't stand a chance and neither did anybody not named Tiger Woods. In 2000, he shot a record 12-under par and won the tournament by 15 — a performance that goes down as the most dominating in the history of golf.
So much has changed, not only in the heavily detailed disorder of Woods' personal life, but also in the finely planned details at Pebble Beach.
New bunkers have been added on Nos. 4 and 6 to tighten the landing areas. New tees have been added to lengthen four holes, including Nos. 9 and 10, which along with No. 8 run along the water and make up a stretch of possibly the three most picturesque holes in golf.
There's a chasm of ocean separating the fairway from the green on No. 8, and the time the ball hangs over that gap is one of the longest, most harrowing few seconds in golf.
"You stand there, you watch it, you wonder if it's ever going to come down," said England's James Morrison, who has the honor of playing his first career major this week at Pebble, a place where the wind can kick up and change the personality of almost any hole in an instant.
The most drastic change at the course that has charmed, befuddled and immortalized everyone from Jack Nicklaus to Jack Lemmon were the two trees planted in the middle-right of the fairway on the par-5 18th hole. They give players the possibility of being completely blocked if they try to play too far away from the left-hand side of the fairway. Hitting toward the left, of course, is the best way to reach the green in two. But play it too far left and you could wind up like Stenson — down among the fish.
It sets up the possibility of a big choice if someone comes to 18 on Sunday needing a birdie, something that has never happened at the U.S. Opens at Pebble.
Which isn't to say Clint Eastwood's course hasn't produced its moments.
In 1972, Nicklaus hit a 1-iron on the par-3 17th, hitting the pin on the way to a birdie that gave him the second leg of the Grand Slam.
Ten years later, Tom Watson chipped in from the rough on No. 17 — one of the most iconic shots in golf — to pull away from Nicklaus for his sixth of eight majors. (The spot from where Watson hit the ball no longer exists, washed away by a storm that hit shortly after that year's Open.)
In 1992, Tom Kite used his then-unique lob wedge to chip in on Pebble's most famous hole — the much-posterized, 100-yard par-3 seventh.
Woods? Maybe the most memorable shot was one of the very few he missed in 2000, a snap hook into the ocean on No. 18, when he had come out early Saturday morning to finish his second round. A string of expletives followed, and then a weekend in which he redefined what golfing excellence means.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see him play well, and I wouldn't be surprised if he won," said Rory McIlroy, who got his first PGA Tour win last month by firing a 62 in the final round at Quail Hollow.
Whether it's Woods, Phil Mickelson or someone winning their first major, the way Lucas Glover did last year, Pebble Beach always paints a pretty picture.
"I've got to say, it's one of the most scenic places in the world to play golf," Stenson said. "Just some fabulous holes. Great views. You can see all the wildlife in the sea."
And sometimes a few golf balls, too.
Heart transplant survivor gets shot at U.S. Open
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Erik Compton sees himself as more dreamer than role model, more of a grinder than an inspiration.
In reality, this 30-year-old golfer from Miami fits all those descriptions.
He's a 5-foot-9, 150-pound father who lives life like he's never heard the word "quit."
He's a survivor of two heart transplants who wants to make a living playing golf.
He's one of 156 players in possession of what he calls a Golden Ticket — a tee time this week at Pebble Beach to play in the U.S. Open.
Some of those tickets, of course, are more golden than others.
"I'm a dreamer," Compton said Monday after playing a practice round with Nick Watney and Ben Crane. "So I have dreamed that I could get another heart and I could come back out and play."
He is a little more than two years removed from his second heart transplant, both operations necessitated by a disease called viral cardiomyopathy, which inflames the heart and leaves it unable to pump as hard as it needs to.
When Compton was first diagnosed with the disease at age 9, he was the fastest kid at school, the best athlete, the one who played pitcher and shortstop and got picked first in the neighborhood football games.
His first transplant came when he was 12, but instead of settling for a sedentary lifestyle for their son, Peter and Eli Compton encouraged him to get back out there and try something.
Golf was the answer.
"To our surprise, he kept getting better and better," Peter Compton said.
The tenor of the conversations with other parents started to change. From, "Oh, isn't it great that Erik's out there doing things," to "When's your kid gonna stop beating our kid?"
Compton kept winning — won his way to a spot on the team at University of Georgia and a place on the Nationwide Tour and Canadian Tours in the early 2000s. Won the heart of his wife, Barbara, who knew nothing about golf when they met.
Three years ago, as Compton was wrapping up a day of fishing, he started feeling pain in his chest. His left main coronary artery — the so-called "Widow Maker" — was failing. He was having a heart attack. He drove himself through the detour-riddled streets of Miami and made it to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where doctors saved his life.
About seven months later, he had his second heart transplant. Shortly after, the Comptons had a daughter.
"When I was laying there in the ICU and after the transplant, I pretty much had come to grips that I wasn't ever going to play golf again," Compton said. "I sold all my golf equipment. I didn't have any status anywhere. I did not know that things were going to turn out, that I would be getting a heart as strong as I did as quick as I did."
Within weeks of the second heart transplant, Compton was training for Q-School, trying to find his way back to the PGA Tour. He fought for the right to play using a golf cart. But at U.S. Open qualifying earlier this month, he walked, which made the success that much sweeter.
The final day of sectional qualifying is 36 holes, which for Compton equaled a 10-hour trek across the Springfield Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. It marked the first time he'd done such a thing since his second heart transplant. He won one of three spots there in a playoff, and all that came one day after finishing four rounds at the Memorial, where he'd made the cut.
He called it one of his top three golf moments.
"Just to make it walking when I was in a fight to get a golf cart a few years ago was pretty special," he said. "To do it walking and competing against other guys that don't have the same issue."
According to the American Heart Association, Compton had one of 2,163 heart transplants in the United States in 2008, and the five-year survival rate for men is 73.1 percent. As of June 2009, there were 2,791 patients on the transplant list.
So, while he doesn't want to necessarily be viewed as a role model, Compton knows his presence at the U.S. Open is a great advertisement for what is possible. His message is that becoming an organ donor is a more than worthy cause.
"It gives people faith to know that if something like this could happen to him, and he could be here, then anything is possible," Peter Compton said. "It's a legacy. He's an inspiration for people."
At 2:31 p.m. Thursday, Compton will put the tee in the ground on the 10th hole and start what he hopes will be a four-day journey that might lead to bigger things. Golf, he freely admits, is his life. Life, as he has long known, is a gift.
"I'm 30 years old and the rest of the year is wide open," said Compton, who is depending on sponsor's exemptions to get into tournaments. "Obviously this is a great week, so I'm going to focus on this week. And I don't know where I'll be the week after next week. Hopefully, I play well here and I have a 10-year exemption."
He has overcome the odds before.
-- Eddie Pells
Teenager gets 1-day caddie gig at U.S. Open
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Teenager Jeffrey Aronson lucked into a thrilling opportunity at the U.S. Open: caddie for a practice round.
Aronson, a 13-year-old junior golfer who just finished seventh grade back home in Los Angeles, was with his mother, Shelly, watching players on the putting green Sunday when amateur Russell Henley approached him to see if he would carry his bag for Monday's round at Pebble Beach.
"It's a great way to kick off the summer," Aronson said. "I'll do whatever he needs, get range balls and carry his bags. It's perfect."
That was a no-brainer for a kid who picked up his first clubs at age 2. Now, he's a first-time caddie.
About a half-hour before Henley was set to tee off Monday, Aronson stood at the driving range soaking it all in when Davis Love III struck up a conversation.
"I did not imagine it at all," said Aronson, who is at the Open only Monday and Tuesday. "I'm so happy right now, living in the moment."
Henley made a quick call to the USGA to make sure it was OK to use Aronson, then it was a go. Henley's few requests for Aronson included enjoying the scenery and experience just as he will while playing Pebble Beach for the first time. The University of Georgia star was named Southeastern Conference Golfer of the Year in his junior season this year.
The 21-year-old Henley was a Ben Hogan Award finalist and won his Open sectional qualifying site in Roswell, Ga.
Henley's older brother, Adam, was set to arrive from their home in Macon, Ga., on Monday night to caddie the rest of the week on the spectacular oceanside course.
"I just figured I would grab somebody to carry my bag like my brother does," Henley said. "Why not? I saw him at the putting green. If I was 13 again and at the U.S. Open, it would be a good opportunity to get on the course. I'll just tell him to carry my bag, keep up, hang out and enjoy the scenery."
Henley's father, Chapin, had fun observing Aronson's joy at the unique chance — and appreciated his son's gesture to the young golfer.
"He told his mama last night, 'I'm going to find me a young guy to caddie,'" Chapin Henley said. "He said, 'If I'd gotten asked to caddie for somebody I would have died and gone to heaven.'"
Aronson slung Henley's Georgia golf bag, nearly as big as Aronson himself, over his shoulders and was ready to catch the shuttle to the 10th tee where they would start.
Aronson figures he's the youngest caddie out here. Cory Guzzo, the caddie this week for Henley's Georgia teammate Hudson Swafford, was excited for the teen.
"Too bad it won't be the whole week," Guzzo said. "When you're that age, you'll get an experience you'll never forget. It's great of Russ to do it for him. If I was his age, I would have loved to do that."
Janie McCauley
Notebook: Barnes hopes to atone for last-round falter in '09
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Ricky Barnes knows Pebble Beach Golf Links better than most, having played it more than 20 times between his amateur and professional career.
It's an easy course to remember for the 29-year-old California native.
He certainly remembers his last round at a U.S. Open.
A year ago, Barnes was one of the feel-good stories at Bethpage Black, a young star that never quite reached expectations suddenly flourishing on one of golf's biggest stages.
He led the U.S. Open after three rounds, sitting at 8-under with 18 holes to go. It all unraveled in a final round 76 that left Barnes tied for second and two shots behind champ Lucas Glover.
Despite faltering, Barnes only looks back at the positives from last year.
"Nothing but good thoughts," Barnes said after finishing up on the range Monday afternoon. "I was close and everything, but I've got another chance this year and I've just got to keep on building up my game."
Still without a PGA victory in his career, Barnes' game has finally stabilized in the months since his U.S. Open run. He's made the cut in 13 of 16 events this season, including five top-10 finishes. He finished in a tie for third two weeks ago at The Memorial and tied for 10th at the Masters in April.
The performances in the last year helped legitimize Barnes' effort at last year's Open when he became just the fourth golfer in Open history to reach double-digits under par.
"The game is coming around. I feel a little more confident when I'm out there and my game is proving it," he said.
When he finished his college career at Arizona in 2003 as the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, Barnes was lumped among a wave of young talent about to enter the professional game. But the Stockton, Calif. native floundered.
Until 2009.
His finish at the Open earned Barnes $559,830 and spots in the British Open and 2010 Masters and U.S. Open — huge perks for a player who spent the previous four full seasons on the Nationwide Tour. Before surging into contention at Bethpage Black, Barnes had made only six cuts and $68,667 in 12 regular PGA Tour events.
Now he gets an opportunity to erase last year at a course he knows quite well. Barnes played in the Open at Pebble Beach 10 years ago as a 19-year-old amateur qualifier. Barnes missed the cut that year, finishing at 13-over in two rounds.
"I think I'm meeting what I expected and playing where I expected to be playing the last couple of years," Barnes said. "No one had higher expectations than I did of myself. I've just proven (it) to myself, but other people as well."
PRO TOO SOON: Scott Langley nearly turned pro without anyone knowing.
Two weeks ago, Langley won the NCAA individual championship. The Illinois star finished at 10-under to win by two shots, and a few days later earned a qualifying spot for this week's Open at Pebble Beach.
During his interview Monday morning, Langley, about to enter his senior season at Illinois, slipped up talking about his status.
"I couldn't have probably drawn it up any better than to pick my, not only my first major, but my first professional event to be out here. So yeah, it's pretty special," Langley said.
To which the moderator asked if Langley had turned pro.
"No, no, I'm an amateur," he quickly answered. "But my first event on this stage. So I'm an amateur."
Langley is one of the lucky youngsters to already have the "wow" factor of Pebble Beach out of the way, having played the course as part of the Champions Tour's First Tee Open in 2006. While the course is setup completely different than four years ago, the focus for Langley can now be on his play and not the surroundings — for the most part.
"Yes, I'll be distracted by the scenery just a little bit, but it's nice to be able to just focus on what I need to do," Langley said.
CHIP SHOTS: Glover, the defending champion, spent part of Monday participating in a youth clinic to help kick off the week of activities. More than 800 local kids turned out for the event at nearby Bayonet and Black Horse in Seaside, Calif. ... "June Gloom" was in full effect Monday: fog and low clouds most of the day. Temperatures all week are expected to hover in the upper 50s and low 60s with only brief breakouts of sun.
-- Tim Booth
LPGA
Kerr wins rain-delayed State Farm Classic
SPRINGFIELD, Ill (AP) — The flu didn't get to Cristie Kerr during the week. The weather didn't get to her over the weekend. And none of her competitors could stop her from collecting a second LPGA State Farm Classic championship Monday.
"It's pretty amazing," Kerr said. "An amazing, long week."
Kerr held off late challenges by Anna Nordqvist and Na Yeon Choi at the rain-delayed tournament, shooting a 3-under 69 in the final round at Panther Creek Country Club to secure the first LPGA Tour victory by an American since Michelle Wie won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in November.
Kerr, who also won the title in 2004, finished at 22-under 266, a shot ahead of Nordqvist and Choi. She was pumped up to get the win.
"That definitely motivates me to be the top American and top player on tour," said Kerr, who won $255,000 to move into the second on the money list $60,000 behind Ai Miyazato. "I'm just happy not to have to answer, 'Why are there no American winners anymore?' "
Juli Inkster, second after a first-round 65 had her tied for second, shot 68-71 on the weekend to end in 35th.
Karrie Webb made her way into a tie for 11th with a final-round 65. Natalie Gulbis went 4 under in her closing round to finish tied for 36th and Michelle Wie finished at 6 under, tied for 52nd.
Kerr led after third-round play was completed Sunday morning and would have been the champ if the fourth round had been washed out. But with more than half the round completed when heavy rains and lightning rolled in Sunday, tour officials decided to try to finish the tournament Monday.
Kerr never wavered. After Saturday's delay, she made six more birdies to finish with a 63. Monday, she birdied three holes before an inconsequential bogey on 18.
Kerr said the stormy conditions Sunday helped her.
"It was actually to my advantage that they called play last evening, because I was just exhausted," she said. "I didn't sleep well at all on Saturday night, just up coughing the whole night."
Kerr came down with flu-like symptoms early in the week and then weathered two storm postponements that left birdie putts on the course to post rounds of 67-67-63-69. She missed the green and bogied 18 on Monday, but with a two-shot lead over Nordqvist and Choi, her two-putt was good for the victory.
"You know, you always want to try and complete the tournament to be able to feel like you earned it," Kerr said. "I would have taken it, don't get me wrong, but this feels better."
Choi birdied three of her last four holes to get to 21 under, but Nordqvist, who birdied four straight before the rain stopped play on Sunday, was up and down after the break. She bogeyed the par-4 12th and before birdies on Nos. 13-14. She had another birdie chance on the par-5 16th, but missed a short put. She had to get up and down from the sand on 18 to save par, but the bad read on 16 is what really cost her.
"I knew I had to make a couple of birdies those last couple of holes to give it a shot, but I gave this my best," she said. "I thought I hit a pretty good putt, it just broke a little too much. I mean, that's life."
First-round leader Shanshan Feng and Hee Young Park, who just missed a birdie putt on 18 that would have given her a final-round 62, ended tied for fourth at 20 under. Feng, the only Chinese golfer on the tour, loves to play Panther Creek.
"I think this course fits me. It's not an easy course, but I feel like it's good for me as a long hitter," she said. "My putting was really good. My putting is not usually that good, but it's good here."
Park's 63 was a personal best and included nine birdies. She was playing on an injured knee and the delay may have helped.
"It's getting worse, so I rested it," she said. "That was a good choice."
A day into the new week on tour, Kerr was already thinking of what lay ahead.
"Winning is a great feeling, but you can't stop there," she said. "You've got to be able to set new goals. I've got another tournament (this) week and then I've got another major. So giddy up."
Elsewhere
LSU transfer Ken Looper wins La Amateur title
KINDER, La. (AP) — LSU senior transfer Ken Looper has won the state's top amateur golf title, firing a final round 4-under 67 at Koasati Pines at Coushatta Golf Club.
On Sunday, Looper earned a three-stroke victory at the 2010 Louisiana Golf Association Amateur Championship over Louisiana-Lafayette sophomore Andrew Noto with a 14-under-par 270 in four rounds.
Looper's final round was highlighted by six birdies, including three in a span of four holes, to wrap up the front nine. He also had three straight birdies in the stretch on the par-four 15th, par-three 16th and par-four 17th holes.
He clinched the title by making par on the par-five 18th hole.
Looper will join the LSU program in the fall after three seasons at the University of New Orleans, where he was an NCAA Regional qualifier in 2008 and 2009.
Matthews, Schleicher lead by 1 at Michigan Open
ORCHARD LAKE, Mich. (AP) — Andy Matthews of Ada and Erik Schleicher of Grosse Pointe Shores are tied at 7-under-par to take a one-shot lead after the opening round of the Michigan Open golf tournament in Orchard Lake.
Their rounds of 64 Monday put them one stroke up on Ryan Brehm of Mount Pleasant and Matt Pesta of Commerce Township.
Brian Ottenweller of Grand Rapids, Randy Hutchison of Traverse City, Brad Ward of East Lansing and Joe Juszczyk of Dearborn Heights are tied two shots off the pace at 66.
The tournament is at the Orchard Lake Country Club and has $70,000 in prizes.
