Below is a look at Tiger Woods' tee shot at the second hole during the third round of the U.S. Open. This clip was captured using NBC's "Hyper-mo" which records at 62,000 frames per second.
The level of detail is incredible. You can see just how much the ball compacts when it is struck by the face of Tiger's driver. And it is amazing to see just how close Tiger's club comes to the grass and yet it does not appear to touch more than a few blades...
PGA Tour rookie Shawn Stefani became the first player to hit a hole-in-one at the Merion Golf Club during the U.S. Open. But beyond the historical significance, how Stefani hit the ace and his reaction were all-time classics.
Stefani completely missed the green to the left on his shot. However, the ball kicked back towards the green and then began a long, slow journey that would end up at the bottom of the cup. In fact, it took 15.2 seconds for the ball to travel from the hill to the hole.
After retrieving his ball, Stefani went over and kissed the hill where his ball landed (see end of video below) ...
Tiger Woods took himself out of contention at the U.S. Open with a six-over 76 on Saturday.
He's sleepwalking through his final round right now, hanging around +13 for the tournament.
Tiger has hit a handful of good shots this week. But his putting has been terrible, he has been a mess around the greens, and an elbow injury has given him obvious pain.
Here's Tiger's disastrous 2013 U.S. Open in four shots.
1. He chipped it backwards:
2. He missed a par putt on 18, and Lindsey Vonn was dumbfounded (via SB Nation):
3. You know he's struggling when he missed a TWO FOOT putt (via SB Nation):
4. And the hurt-arm grimace from Thursday, which has been hanging over him all tournament:
Entering this week's U.S. Open, PGA Tour rookie Billy Horschel has never even made the cut at a major. But with just 18 holes remaining, he finds himself tied for fifth and just two strokes behind Phil Mickelson.
But while few have ever heard of Horschel, he created a buzz today with his fashion choice. Horschel is wearing blue octopus pants made by Ralph Lauren's golf line, RLX ...
And here is a look at Horschel's shirt from the third round which also had spectators buzzing ...
And here is another view of today's pants ...
Well here they are! The highly anticipated highly controversial....Octopus pants! Great outfits all week by RLX! pic.twitter.com/UrQwSYWZkB
— Billy Horschel (@BillyHo_Golf) June 16, 2013
Rory McIlroy hit his tee shot on the 11th hole into the water. And then after taking a drop on the 12th fairway (yes, the 12th hole), McIlroy hit his next shot into the same creek.
McIlroy then took his frustrations out on his club, shoving it into the turf and bending it. He later tried to fix the club. He finished the hole with a quadruple-bogey eight, and is now 13-over, 14 strokes behind the leaders.
By rule, McIlroy will not be permitted to replace the club since it was not broken during the normal course of play ...
Here is what McIlroy's club looked like after he lost his cool ...
Maybe the biggest criticism of this year's U.S. Open is the length of the par-3s. And Hunter Mahan's frustration was caught by NBC cameras after he was forced to use a driver on the third hole.
After his tee shot on the 266-yard hole, Mahan can be heard saying "I just hit a f***ing driver on a par-3" (0:06 mark of the video below) ...
Phil Mickelson has missed a number of putts by millimeters today at the U.S. Open.
But on No. 10 he made up for all those near-misses with an eagle from 75 yards away.
Lefty!
The shot moved him into a tie for the lead with Justin Rose.
Mickelson has one of the best short games on the tour. He's also a well-known trick-shot artist.
But given the circumstances, this is one of the best chip shots he has ever hit.
Here's the video:
Justin Rose has won the US Open.
It was an absolute bloodbath at Merion Golf Club this week.
Rose's winning score was 1-over, and only three players shot lower than 5-over.
It's the fourth time in the last eight years that the winning score at the US Open has been over par.
While Rose didn't bury a bunch of birdies or eagles, he made pars when he needed to make pars — which is more than you can say for most of the field.
On the notoriously tough 18th hole, he hit two beautiful iron shots and took two putts to post a 1-over.
He's the first Englishman to win a major since Nick Faldo at the 1996 Masters.
Phil Mickelson came into the day with the lead, but he couldn't find a birdie down the stretch. He was one back of Rose when he had a great birdie opportunity on the 16th hole, but he blew it past the edge of the hole. He then got a par on the 17th, and was unable to give himself a birdie putt on the 18th.
He had this pitch to force a playoff on 18, but he missed it (via USA Today's Nick Schwartz):
This is Mickelson's sixth second-place finish at a major.
This tournament will be remembered for being way more difficult than anyone expected it to be. Rose, more than anyone else, was able to manage his mistakes, and now he's a major champion.
Rose giving his wife a smooch:
Looking to the sky after the win:
And with the trophy:
For better or worse, Phil Mickelson's career will always be measured against Tiger Woods. With yet another second-place finish at a major, it's clear that Mickelson's career will always be defined by what could have been.
Mickelson's second-place finish at the U.S. Open was the sixth of his career, and it was his 19th top-3 finish at a major. And yet, only four of those top-3 finishes (21.1%) were wins.
For comparison, Woods has won 58.3% (14 of 24) of his top-3 finishes at a major.
If Mickelson could close out a major as well as Tiger, and had converted the same rate of top-3 finishes into wins, Mickelson would have won 11 majors by now instead of four.
Even if Mickelson converted top-3s into wins at the same rate as Jack Nicklaus (39.1%) or Arnold Palmer (36.8%), he would have seven majors.
Instead, Mickelson has four wins in a major, the same number as Ernie Els and Raymond Floyd. That is still very good company. But it is not the elite, and that is exactly what Mickelson's career is.
Rory McIlroy is still stuck in an epic slump, and he'll take advice anywhere he can get it.
On Twitter today he reached out to President Barack Obama, noted golfer, for help.
The President is in Belfast, Northern Ireland (McIlroy's home country) for the G8 Summit this week.
In a speech before the summit, Obama name-dropped Rory in a speech. He said, "I did meet Rory McIlroy last year. Rory offered to get my swing sorted, which is a polite way of saying, 'Mr. President, you need help.'"
At least McIlroy has a sense of humor about his terrible, terrible year:
Nice of @BarackObama to mention me in his speech today in Belfast... But I think he should be helping me with my swing after last week! Haha
— Rory Mcilroy (@McIlroyRory) June 17, 2013
In his career, Phil Mickelson has finished in the top ten at the U.S. Open a whopping ten times without a single win. A look at the chart below shows just how much Mickelson struggles on Saturday and Sunday at the national championship.
In U.S. Open tournaments in which Mickelson has finished in the top ten, he has averaged a very good 0.6 strokes below par in the opening round. However, as the tournament progresses, Mickelson's average goes up, until he is averaging 2-over in the final round.
For comparison, Tiger Woods has been far more consistent during his eight top-ten finishes. Tiger's worst round is only 1.1 strokes worse than his best round, while Mickelson's final round averages 2.6 strokes worse than his opening round...
Phil Mickelson's sixth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open cast a very large shadow on what was otherwise a great four-round run by Justin Rose.
Rose shot 71-69-71-70 on a brutal golf course where all but two other golfers had at least one round of 4-over par or worse.
And after his win, Rose basked in the glory of his first major with this photo of him sitting with the trophy and newspapers scattered around him proclaiming his win...
And for good measure, Rose also posed with the trophy and one of Merion Golf Club's famous wicker baskets...
During the U.S. Open, Tiger Woods was seen grimacing several times after shots and speculation rose that he was injured. Woods has now confirmed those suspicions on his website (via CBSSports.com).
According to Woods he has a left elbow strain and doctors have advised him to rest and take a few weeks off. As a result, Woods has withdrawn from the upcoming AT&T National, an event he won last year.
Woods will not play again until the British Open at Muirfield in late July.
As noted by Kyle Porter of CBSSports.com, this is the sixth straight year in which Woods has suffered from an injury, including injuries to his knee, his neck, and his Achilles.
Bubba Watson had a two-stroke lead with three holes to play at the Travelers Championship when he hit his tee shot on the 16th hole into the water.
Cameras then caught Watson snapping at his caddie and blaming him for picking the wrong club when he said, "Water. It's in the water. That club. Yeah, the water." Then Watson hit his next shot well past green. Once again, he turned to his caddie and angrily asked "you're telling me that's the right yardage?"
Watson eventually triple-bogeyed the hole and finished two strokes back.
The entire scene was a bad look for the normally likeable Watson. And while caddies play a role in club selection and determining yardage, ultimately, it is Watson that has to hit the shot. After the tournament, Watson went on Twitter to accept blame for picking the wrong club on the 16th hole.
Here's the video (via Yahoo! Sports)...
Last week I was in Seattle to meet with some tech companies.
I carved out some time to play golf because, well, priorities.
One of the courses I made time for was Chambers Bay, which is going to be home to the U.S. Open in 2015.
Chambers Bay is a links-style public course that was built in 2007 by Robert Trent Jones Jr. It was built on a former gravel mine.
It's a seriously gorgeous golf course with jaw dropping views of the Puget Sound.
It calls itself a "pure links" course. The dunes and the shape of the course were all man made. I've yet to play any real links courses in Britain, but one of the people that was in my group said the course felt just like being in Ireland. Expect, on the day we were there, there was no wind and it was warm enough for shorts.
It will be interesting to see the course in 2015. It's going to be an unusual U.S. Open, since it will look like the Open Championship with its links layout.
The course is pretty expensive for an out of towner ($219), but it's worth the price to play it once. It's always fun to tee it up on courses that host professional events. It gives you a better idea of how good the pros are and what the course is really like when you're watching it on TV.
Aside from the views, the course's strength is its greens, which are undulating and tough to figure out. (I had 41 puts. Normally, I average 36 putts a round.)
If you're going to play once, and money isn't an issue, you might want a caddy. He'll help with green reading, and more importantly he'll tell you where to hit it into the green. If you're a yard right or left it's the difference between a two putt and a three putt or worse.
The other course that I played with in Seattle was Gold Mountain's Olympic course.
I played Gold Mountain after 3 PM and easily got in my round. It only cost $25. It's probably the best value I've ever seen in golf. It's a great layout, with just the right mix of easy and tough holes.
If I lived in the area, I would actually play Olympic course more often than Chambers Bay. I thought it was more fun, slightly more diverse, and a better value.
However, Chambers Bay is going to be home to U.S. Open. If you can only pick one of the two courses, I would opt for Chambers Bay. It has better views, and it feels like a special course.
The beneficiary of Bubba Watson's meltdown at the Travelers Championship was Ken Duke who won the tournament in a playoff. The win was 44-year-old Duke's career first, who is proving that patience can pay off on the PGA Tour, even for a mediocre golfer.
Duke took home $1.1 million for his win at the Travelers, pushing his career earnings to $8.4 million on the PGA Tour and $9.3 million if we also include his winnings on the Web.com Tour, the PGA's developmental tour.
In Duke's first nine years as a pro, he played in only eight PGA Tour events and earned just $168,000. But then things took off.
In nine of the next ten seasons Duke earned at least $250,000 each year, including two years spent almost exclusively on the Web.com Tour. And in 2007 and 2008 (age 38-39), he won $4.2 million combined despite no wins.
And thanks to his first win, Duke now has won $1.6 million this season even though he has missed the cut in ten of 19 events. Not a bad living if you have the patience...
Even really good golfers can have really bad days.
Club pro Michael Bembenick shot a 103 in the second round of the Web.com Tour's United Leasing Championship Presented by PTI.
The round prior he shot a 89, so he missed the cut with a two day total of 192, or 48 over par.
The Web.com Tour is the minor leagues of pro golf. The top 25 people on the Web.com Tour make it to the PGA Tour.
Your average weekend hacker is shooting right around 100, or below, so this score is pretty brutal.
Bembenick is an assistant pro at Meridian Hills Country Club in Indiana. He was in the Web.com event as a host selection.
The cool thing is that Bembenick signed his score card and finished his round.
"I think it's important to lead by example and show the youth that no matter how bad you play, it's important to finish,"he told Golf Channel after the round. "No one likes to see a quitter. I know none of the members at my club or any students that I teach would want to see me quit."
Compare that to Rory McIlroy who walked off the course earlier this year after a bad first nine holes.
SEE ALSO: What It's Like Playing Chambers Bay Golf Course, Home Of The 2015 U.S. Open
Your handicap is the number that defines how good of a golfer you are.
The lower the handicap, the better the player.
While golf pros are in a league of their own, golf-loving celebrities, athletes and politicians are just like the rest of us when it comes to skill.
Watch below how good (and bad) some of the most famous recreational golfers are.
SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 10 Loudest Grunters And Shriekers In Women's Tennis
Golf is a walking activity.
Yes, most courses are now overrun with carts. This is annoying.
If you're in a cart, you're robbing yourself of half the fun.
The most reliably enjoyable aspect of golf is walking through a giant park.
(The least reliably enjoyable aspect of golf is the hitting of the golf ball. Sometimes that's great, other times, not so much.)
Walking is also the only way you can even moderately claim golf is a physical activity, a sport, even.
If you're sitting in a cart, driving to the ball, whacking it, then getting back in the cart, you might as well be playing Wii golf.
But, I digress. My point is that golfing and walking are perfect together. Therefore, you need really comfortable shoes when you're golfing.
For the past few months, I've been testing Nike's newest Tiger Woods golf shoe, the TW'14.
The verdict: they are very comfortable, and pretty good looking, too.
I've played 36 holes in 90+ degree heat in one day wearing the shoes. I've played on hilly courses, flat courses, and even in a cart a few times. (Some courses force carts on you.)
After all the walking, my feet felt great. If daylight allowed it, I would be able to play another 36 without worrying about my feet hurting. (Back would hurt, hands would hurt, but feet, they'd probably be fine.)
My main concern with these shoes when I first saw them was breathability. They're rather thick looking. But, no problems on that front either. My feet stay rather dry, even on the super hot days.
The TW'14s are waterproof, too, which is great on rainy days, or just days when there's still dew on the grass.
The sneaker-like look has also gotten a lot of comments, most of them complimentary. Whether or not you like them, is your call, of course. Personally, I'm a fan.
My only complaint about the shoes is the price. They're $180, which is a bit expensive.
However, these shoes aren't any more expensive than other top-of-the-line golf shoes. In fact, they're in the second-tier of pricing for high-end shoes. It's a question of whether or not you want to spend top-of-the-line money.
If you really like these shoes, and money is no object, I recommend going with the Nike iD which lets you customize the shoes, choosing a mesh option and colors of your choice. It will set you back $225, but you'll look awesome.
SEE ALSO: PHOTOS: The New Tiger Woods Shoe Unboxed
Jordan Spieth, who won't turn 20 until the end of this month, sank a shot from the bunker on the 18th hole to tie for the lead at the John Deere Classic.
The shot ultimately put Spieth into a playoff with Zach Johnson and David Hearn.
Spieth would be the first teenager to win a PGA Tour event since 1931 and only the fourth teenager since 1900. A win would also qualify Spieth for this week's British Open.
Here's the video...
