The 109th U.S. Open Championship

Back to this year's U.S. Open... It better not frickin rain on the weekend, because I will be at Bethpage, in the gallery, screaming "You da man" at Tiger right in his backswing!

I have tickets for Saturday and Sunday, and am flying there using frequent flyer miles (cost $10 to redeem) and staying at the Renaissance Times Square using Marriott Rewards (cost $0). I paid for one day's ticket and my buddy paid for the other since he's getting to stay for free too. He also has to pay for dinner Friday night in NYC and we're going to Patsy's, his favorite Italian restaurant in that area.

 

Curious...how much were tickets? Just got my tickets for Tiger's tournament in DC, which cost $30 a day.

 

Thirty bucks? I may have to look into that. The Wachovia Quail Hollow Championship is $50 for a grounds pass.

 

Yeah. I was surprised, too. I'll be there Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are cheap, but parking is a big issue. Thankfully, the friend I'm going with knows a guy who is willing to let us park at his house, which is less than 2 miles from Congressional.

 

He got them thru AmEx, and they include access to the Trophy Club pavilion. $150 per day.

 

weather.com calls for a 60 percent chance of rain for Thursday and 40 percent the next three days.

 

Sonner, there's a ton of shuttle parking for the AT&T. You can catch rides in Tysons or Bethesda or Germantown and get there. Even the media parking is a good mile from the course.

On to the Open ... It should be a Phil lovefest up there, no? You know who will hang around but won't get a lick of press? Geoff Ogilvy.

Maybe I'll remember to set my lineup in the SportsJournalists.com golf league this week. [/facepalm]

 

One more thing about Tiger's tournament, and then on to the US Open: It appears that free tickets are available to military members (active, retired, civilian) -- Just to pass that along to any SJ members in the DC area who served.

As for the US Open (The Open is played in Great Britain), it should be a Phil lovefest for the first day, but he's gong to have to produce the scores to stay relevant. That may be too hard to given all that has happened, and the time it's taken him away from him being able to tune up. Too bad NASCAR can't step in and let him run illegal to promote a story line.

 

If Phil and Tiger are the final pair to tee off on Sunday, this would have the potential to be the most emotional day of golf ever played.

 

Here at the Coast Guard HQ, an e-mail went out a few weeks ago from someone who was giving away about a dozen free tickets. Another e-mail went out SIX MINUTES later saying they were all taken.

 

Re: AT&T National.

Took Ms. Matador and her son there in 2007. Tickets were $30 but we got ours for nothing since I have a friend that works for the DofD and they had a shitload they were looking to give away. We parked in some garage in Bethesda and took a shuttle bus to the course. Not a bad setup, I think it took about 40 minutes to go from getting in line for the bus to reach the car.

Far cry from the previous year, which was the final year of the Booz Allen. I drove down for the Friday rounds and parked right on course grounds. I got about 100 feet from my car and had a guy approach me and say, "You have a ticket? I paid $20 for these but I'll take $10 just to get rid of them." Place was dead. Followed Rich Beem for all 18 holes and you could actually have a conversation with the guy.

 

It's rained 14 of 15 days in June in NYC. The average temp has been 63, compared to 70, which would be the coldest June ever. It's sucked. I'm sure it's going to suck this weekend. Hopefully it's just rain and not storms that would bring about a bunch of delays.