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US Open Note #1

Glad to have one suspicion confirmed. Those club and yardage numbers announcers are always giving out on TV. They're making them up.
The 9th hole at Winged Foot West this week is a mellow little 514-yard par 4. An ESPN announcer, Chris Berman I believe (pause here for millions of simultaneous heavy sighs), dispensed the following infomation about a player's efforts there this morning.
"Vijay (Singh) just played this with a driver and a 9-iron," Berman announced.
Yeah right. Look, I know Vijay hits the ball a looong way. I've stood five feet behind him and watched Singh hit it loooong and loooooonger. But give us some credit for math, fellas.
Let's give the affable Fijian credit for a humongous 330-yard drive. That leaves Singh with a 185 yard 9 iron into the green. No. Into a US Open green, where a miss is certain bogey? Double no. Not a standard issue 9 iron, anyhow.
Announcers should tell the truth. Not only are the pros different from other golfers, so are their clubs. What Singh calls a 9-iron bears the same resemblance to the ones in amateur golfers' bags as Tony Stewart's #20 Home Depot Chevrolet Monte Carlo does to the Chevy of the same make the amateur drove to the course.
Tour Pros should go back to calling clubs by names. Calling Singh's short iron a niblick would be more accurate than giving it a number.

posted by Michael Gee @ 10:04 AM