Reehoorn: U.S. Open Blog, Day 4
June 14, 2007
Jon Reehoorn, assistant coach for the Husky men's golf team, is caddying for Alex Prugh at the 2007 U.S. Open at the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. Reehoorn will be writing daily reports from the experience back east, exclusively for GoHuskies.com. Here is Reehoorn's fourth entry from Thursday.
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U.S. Open Blog, Day 4
If you have seen Alex's score from today, you know it was not his day. Heading into today we were both very confident that he would play well. While watching Alex in our three practice rounds, I felt like he was hitting the ball, especially the driver, as good, if not better than he had done at any point during the season. Perhaps it was nerves, or just the fact that he was really excited, but at the end of the day we just couldn't seem to find a way to get anything going. The U.S. Open is not the tournament that you want to be trying to dig yourself out of a bad start, pushing it to try and make birdies only causes you to make more bogeys.
After a very slow start the first three holes, Alex seemed to settle down and made a solid par on the par 5 4th and then a great birdie putt on the par 4 5th. He made solid pars on a very tough holes No. 6 and 7. After being 4-over after three he was now only 3-over thru seven. On the next hole, a 253-yard par 3, he hammered a 3 iron right to the front of the green, that yesterday would have bounced to the back of the green, but because of yesterday's rain it landed softly and stayed on the front. A great lag putt to four feet below the hole left him with a great chance to escape with a par. We read the put to be pretty straight and maybe move just a bit to the left, but the ball bobbled off the putter face and moved pretty good to the left. After missing the putt for par on the 8th, nothing ever seemed to go Alex's way again.
On the 14th hole with only 115 yards to the pin and the wind helping a bit, he hit a gap wedge out of the first cut of rough that hit 15 feet short of the hole and then spun back off the green! It was the first time we had seen a shot spin backward all week...today was just not meant to be.
While Alex was pretty disappointed earlier, he seems to be feeling okay now. We had a good practice session on the range and we are just going to go back to focusing on having some fun and take it one shot at a time tomorrow. We will see what happens. If nothing else, we will soak it all in and enjoy every minute of the day.
Everyone has asked me what it is like to be inside the ropes. It is hard to describe, but honestly when I'm on the course I don't even really notice all of the people around. It is when you hear a loud roar from across the course or the moans and groans from the fans when someone misses a putt that you actually notice how many people are there. It is amazing how loud a few hundred people gasping for air at one time can be as someone just barely misses a putt. As if missing a putt wasn't bad enough for the player the rest of the world has to let them know it as well...
It is the time spent on the putting green, in the clubhouse, and the driving range that is the most fun to see how the players interact. Today wasn't great for entertaining blog writing because the range, putting green, and clubhouse was much more business like. From the instant Alex and I sat down for breakfast I got the feeling that it was the first round of a major championships. No one had much to say, most players were just sitting around eating their breakfast/lunch while they watched the golf coverage on TV.
The biggest difference was felt on the driving range. I would describe the driving range the first three days as a circus. The range is so busy that it is hard to even get around. On the range you will find every club manufacturer, player agents, family members, and other random company reps trying to get the players to use their products. A sales rep approached Alex on Tuesday about whether or not he would be interested in using some pill that would supposedly produce electrolytes in his body that would help him stay fresher throughout the week. I took one yesterday and it made me feel worse, so I'm not so sure it works.
Our second round begins tomorrow at 7:11 A.M. You can follow us again at www.usopen.com.
