2010 U.S. Open

By Jack Moorehouse

You have to love technology. It not only makes our lives easier, it also enables us to see and do things we might not see and do otherwise. Take the Internet. If you haven’t been to the official U.S. Open Web site (www.usopen.com), go there. The site provides numerous high tech features, like an iPhone app, to help you truly enjoy the 2010 U.S. Open at California’s Pebble Beach golf course. The Web site also provides some unique articles that will not only peak your interest, but also help you chop strokes off your golf handicap.

Perhaps the most interesting high-tech feature on the Web site—for serious golfers, that is—is the course preview page. It gives you a great overview of the course from a variety of angles. It’s so good you almost feel like you’re walking the course. The Web site lets you not only watch a Fly-Over video of Pebble Beach, but also do a video walkthrough of the course. The walkthrough is like you were really there. In addition, the page offers tee, fairway, and green views of the course. The preview page comes as close as you can to being at the course without actually being there. The page is a golf instruction session all on its own.

Among The Prettiest Courses
The Web page’s overview of Pebble Beach is so detailed that people who’ve never had a golf lesson or read a golf tip in their life will enjoy it. Pebble Beach is among America’s prettiest public courses. Opened in 1919, it hugs the rugged California coastline. The course offers wide-open vistas, cliff-side fairways, and slopping greens. Pebble Beach claims Jack Neville and Douglas Grant as its designers. Home for the annual AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Championship, the course often serves as a site for PGA events. This is the fifth time it’s hosted the U.S. Open. It also hosted the event in 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2000.

Another interesting feature of the Web site is a two-part article on how the U.S.G.A gets a course ready for an open championship. The article examines all the decisions and changes that need to be made by the grounds keepers to get the course in shape for the U.S. Open. In this case officials from the United States Golf Association walked the course addressing the changes that needed to be made.

For example, one changes involved the rough: Would it be a graduated? Officials decided to make it graduated. Another decision involved the bunkers. Previously, Pebble Beach had light rough running into around the fringes of its bunkers. Officials had all the fringes cut. Now, a wayward shot is more likely to run into the bunker than be stopped by the fringe, penalizing the golfer. This year Pebble Beach has a course rating of 76.6 and a slope of 149 for the Open. Course length is over 7,000 yards. Players will hit from the black tees.

Experts Choices To Win
Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood are among the more popular choices to win the Open.

Westwood is fresh off his win at the St. Jude’s Classic. It was his first win in the United States since 1998 and he seems to play well on West Coast courses. He also plays well in the U.S. Open. He’s played in three Opens and finished near the top in all three. He came in seventh in 1998 at Olympic, fifth in 2000 at Pebble Beach, and third in 2007 at Torrey Pines. He had a good chance to win in 2000, but left some shots out there and made some bad decisions. Westwood is playing well, Woods, on the other hand, is not playing well. His layoff seems to have affected him more than some experts thought. Then he had some problems with his neck a few weeks ago, so it’s anybody’s guess how well he will play this year around. Still, Wood is 113th in driving accuracy and 164th in driving length.

His putting accuracy this year is 1.708, which would be first on Tour if he were eligible for the ranking. Experts who pick woods say he needs to leave his driver and the bag and use his 2-iron off the tee. They thing the course sets up well for him, if he features his “stinger” out of the tee box.

It’s anybody’s guess which player will win this year’s tournament. But if you really want the full U.S. Open experience, stop by the championship’s Web site and make use of the technological features there, especially the course views. You’ll not only get a up close and personal view of the course, you may also get glean a few golf tips based on how the course is set up to help you chop a stroke or two off your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.