I attended practice rounds 2 and 3 as well as the Saturday part of the championship. I took some great photos from the U.S. Open practice rounds that can be seen in the 2009 Photo Gallery. I can say the if anyone out there is thinking of going to any PGA events, the practice rounds are they way to go. They are really cheap, I got two tickets for $40 on StubHub.com, and you are not able to take photos on any of the other days. I had a blast watching the practice range and greens and loved how the players interact with the gallery while they are practicing. Another piece of advice, don’t worry about where Tiger is! They will never tell you what his scheduled practice time is and when possible they almost always send him out on the tenth tee to keep the crowds to a minimum. He always has a crowd that is 10 deep following him making it impossible to get a glimpse. If you must see him pick a hole way in front of where he is and just plant yourself there until he comes through and make the most of the one or maybe two shots you get to see. I chose to follow some other really good groups and was able to see all of their shots very comfortably. My favorite was Ogilvy, Furyk and Casey on Saturday. I watched them from the first tee to the eighteenth green and loved every minute of it. Wish I could have taken photos then.

As for my upcoming trip that I wrote about in my first travel post I have finalized the two places that I will be playing while in Vegas, Silverstone Golf Club and Black Mountain Country Club. Silverstone has an amazing deal where they will repay you up to $30 towards your travel expenses to the course. That means your cab or even your daily rental car fee! This brings the green fee, which includes unlimited range balls and cart with GPS, down from $85 to $55. The course looks great and should be a challenge. Black Mountain will be played in the afternoon so it is very cheap at $35. I don’t think that includes the cart but it doesn’t matter since it will be over 100 degrees outside when I tee off. The cart could cost another $150 and I think that I would go for it.

I’ll keep you posted and try my best to take pictures. Check back during the week and I’ll be posting some updates!

Rain overnight and during the morning softened up the fairways and greens allowing the players to be much more aggressive and it certainly showed. The day started with just 5 players under par and ended with almost triple that amount. While Sean O’Hair was losing strokes many players that started the final round as far back as 7 strokes came within 2 of the lead, a testament to how much easier the course was playing.

While everyone around him found the course easier the final round leader just couldn’t seem to get out of his own way. losing 4 of his 5 stroke lead on the front nine including trading a bogey with a Tiger birdie twice. His strokes, unlike in earlier rounds, seemed very tentative and the more he tried to stay out of trouble the more he got into. His nerves were obvious when he yanked a 3 footer for par just past the inside of the cup and when he came up way short on a two tiered green after Tiger ender up past the hole in the rough.

It wasn’t until the 15 hole that Tiger was able to capitalize and gain a share of the lead with a long birdie putt. Then on the 16th O’Hair have Woods the biggest gift so far. He his approach shot onto the edge of the green and watched it roll back into the water. Just when we all thought he was going to start to pull away with his first lead of the tournament he hit his tee shot on the Par 3 17th right into the lip of the bunker. His only shot was to blast it out and onto the green having very little control of the roll. After O’Hair 2 putt for par Woods was unable to sink the long par putt and gave the stoke right back.They went to the 18th tied at 5 strokes under and both hit their approach shots onto the green leaving pretty lengthy birdie putts Woods was the only one able to convert winning his first tournament after coming back from his knee injury.

This should set up Tiger mentally and physically for a run at the Masters in the beginning of April. I’m not sure we could have asked for a better prelude to Augusta or a better ending to a tournament named for player who has had his fair share of exciting endings.

Tiger Woods, as usual, hit some great shots but wasn’t able to put together a decent round on either Thursday or Friday just making the cut to play the weekend rounds. He stepped up his game considerably on Satuday and Sunday but was way too far off the pace to make an impact on the standings. It appeared that his putter let him down on a number of occasions while his driver and short game were really starting to come alive. It looks like he will really start to be a factor after only 1 full event under his belt.

The final round between Watney and Mickelson was a real barn burner with each player trading amazing shots. Each one had some serious errors on to come back with an amazing shot to stay in the game.  It wasn’t until the 10th the things appeared to go sour for Watney who was calming himself down after each shot trying not to get to far ahead of himself. Mickelson and yanked his drive way right into some dense shrubery and Watney was left with a 4 iron to the green. After Mickelson hit a right handed 7 iron into a tree Watney mishit his 4 iron and ended up in a greenside bunker. On the subsequent shot Watney’s club landed about 6 inches behind the ball in the sand and it couldn’t propel out of the bunker. Meanwhile Mickelson failed to draw the ball onto the green but hit a 70 yard shot from the left side rough within 6 feet of the hole and was able to save par while Watney gave up a stroke 2 putting for Bogey.

Mickelson is now within spitting distance of Tiger and the #1 ranking so depending on how Woods fares at Bay Hill, Mickelson could have a chance to replace him when he next plays at the Shell Houston Open. I’ll keep you updated.