Well, so much for “The Featured Groups”. The powers that be have been busy lately pairing up the top superstars of the game in opening round pairings. All the majors do it as does The PLAYERS and lately it’s been hard to watch as they don’t play up to our..or their expectations.
The latest casualties were the U.S. Open’s Thursday morning “Featured Grouping” of superstars Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. All three are multiple major winners, Hall of Fame worthy, (Phil’s in already) and so very popular all over the world. It was a viewers early morning dream come true as we were able to see every shot on line through Fox Sports or the USGA website (when it was working).
Well, talk about disappointment. The three of them laid one big Long Island egg. It was tough to watch and I don’t care how hard Shinnecock was playing, or how bad the wind was screwing them up. In a word they stunk.
Phil shoots seven over 77 and missed just one fairway. Spieth cards a 78 and still can’t putt and Rory couldn’t find the greens and stumbled to an ugly 80.
Here’s a breakdown:
Phil : 13/14 fairways, 9/18 greens, 1.83 putts
Jordan: 9/14 fairways, 11/18 greens, 1.83 putts.
Rory : 7/14 fairways, 5/18 greens, 1.72 putts.
So Phil was hitting fairways like he never does, bit couldn’t find the greens and couldn’t putt when he did.
Jordan had trouble putting again, like he has for months and was spraying his tee balls.
And Rory is ready to beat the traffic and get off this damn island. Few fairways and fewer greens had him shaking his head all day. He looks done.
So much for these featured groups…they rarely deliver.
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