SF Examiner: Miller regrets missing Olympic in his prime

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He was the kid from The City, 19 years old and confident in his golf. But when the 1966 U.S. Open was set for his home course, the Olympic Club, he was so pessimistic about his chances of qualifying he didn’t even sign up a caddy.

In the end, the only bag Johnny Miller carried was his own, from the car to the rack outside the pro shop. A BYU student at the time, Miller managed to grab the last qualifying spot for the Open during an event in Utah. The legend had started.

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Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Does McIlroy have what it takes to go Back-to-Back?

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

There’s always someone emphasizing the negative, someone reluctant to acknowledge success, someone who looks at what Rory McIlroy did in last year’s U.S. Open, lapping the field as it were, and suggests the course wasn’t that difficult or the other golfers went about things improperly.

Who cares? Maybe Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C., was too wet and too wide to provide a perfect Open test. Maybe the rest of the pros ...

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Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

PGATour.com: Fabled Olympic Club boasts mist, myths and memories

By Art Spander
Special to PGATour.com

It is a place of mist, myth and memories, some wonderful, some not. The Olympic Club was where Ben Hogan walked away in defeat, Ty Cobb stomped off in anger and numerous people less famous but no less fortunate spend hours stacking up dominoes, knocking in putts and tossing down drinks.

Olympic, where for a fifth time America’s golfing championship, the U.S. Open, will be played June 14-17, represents San Francisco in the extreme, with plenty of history and humor compressed into a magnificent Spanish-style clubhouse and onto two wonderful courses.

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©2003-2012 PGA/Turner Sports Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Golf's Big 3 and Memories of Ty Cobb

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The word was out, drifting across Olympic Club, like the fog that was coming in off the Pacific: Tiger, Bubba and Phil in the same grouping for the U.S. Open. The huge merchandise tent had been unlocked about 10 a.m. Thursday. And now so was the secret.

They've figured it out at the U.S. Golf Association. Blind draw? Tiger Woods here, Phil Mickelson there? That was the old days, when the USGA wanted some pretense of equality and fairness.

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© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Truly open tournament gives everyone a shot

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Fourteen years ago, Willie Brown, then the mayor, was saying, “The U.S. Open is wonderful. It’s a $150 million boon to San Francisco, and being the center of golf worldwide for a week — that can’t hurt.”

Fourteen years ago, Phil Mickelson was tying for 10th and Tiger Woods for 18th.

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Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company