By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
The guy with him, the Masters champ, the one who shot a — heh, heh — cool 8-over 78, said after getting up close, if not personal, “That was the old Tiger. That was beautiful to watch.”
Still an endorsement from Bubba Watson, while not unappreciated, didn’t have Tiger Woods enthralled.
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
By Art Spander
Special to The Oregonian
SAN FRANCISCO -- The description from Casey Martin was "pretty loud." The reference was to the electric green golf shirt he wore Thursday in the first round of the U.S. Open. It could have applied to the gallery response at every hole.
"I thought the galleries were great in '98," he said of the previous Open at Olympic Club, when he made history by riding his golf cart through four rounds. "And they were really wonderful today. Really supportive. So it was a special day. I'm thankful I played decently, but man it's a stress out there."
© 2012 Oregon Live LLC. All rights reserved
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
The U.S. Open is a movable feast, shifting from the old golf world to the new and then back again. It is a carnival of emotion and tradition that is both a national championship and regional reflection.
The Super Bowl and World Series are big-city spectaculars. The Masters never wanders from the red-clay country of southeast Georgia. But the Open has been played in the middle of Ohio and along the Gulf Coast of Texas, on the eastern edge of Long Island and now once more on the headlands above the Pacific, in the golden city by the Golden Gate.
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
By Art Spander
Special to The Oregonian
SAN FRANCISCO -- It's different now, but it's very much the same. Casey Martin is back at the Olympic Club, back in the Open, back playing practice rounds with Tiger Woods. Fourteen years have passed, and yet it seems time has stood still.
Another U.S. Open at Olympic, the place known as the graveyard of legends, because it is where Ben Hogan lost to Jack Fleck and Arnold Palmer lost to Billy Casper.
© 2012 Oregon Live LLC. All rights reserved
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
SAN FRANCISCO – We’ve been waiting for this, waiting for the matchup of Tiger, Phil and Bubba, waiting for golf’s great examination coming once more to America’s favorite city, waiting for birdies and bogeys by the Golden Gate.
The U.S. Open, a magical tournament, to be played starting Thursday at a course, fascinating, Olympic Club, where magic is always in the air, wafting like the afternoon breeze, engulfing like the fog off the Pacific.
© RealClearSports 2012
Olympic Club, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, U.S. Open Email Article 