U.S.Open at Pebble Beach

Before I get back to the subject of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach taking place this week, I want to thank all the readers who have asked me about buying my new novel, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH.

In the last week I gave my readers a small sample of the stories in the book about the Professional Golf Tour stars with whom I have worked when demonstrating my new golf products over the last 25 years or so. I explained why I wrote the book, to share my experiences with running a golf business while finding a losing my best friend and soul mate five times in 16 years, the final time to a heart attack! I hope the lessons I learned about marriage, and raising kids will help all readers do the right things in the future in their own search for happiness.

Now, back to the Open. The golf media loves to talk about which player is favored to win, but they seldom take into account the mental side of the game when listing the favorites in the field. They are practically always listing Tiger and Phil as the favorites, just because they are the two best players in the world.

I'd like to state right now the reasons why I do not think Tiger or Phil will win this week. Tiger is on his way back from having all the demons in his head caused by his personal life and his marriage tormenting him, but I don't think he is completely back mentally. He'll have his moments this week, and will be in the mix on Sunday, but I predict someone else will hold the trophy when it is all over.

Phil will not handle the longer grass in the rough this week, which he will hit often because he has to play a Callaway driver. The USGA always grows the rough longer at the Open, so Phil's previous wins at Pebble are discounted this week. At the same time the greens should be hard and fast, again eliminating Phil due to his having to play the Odyssey (Callaway) blade putter.

As long as Phil Mickelson allows Callaway to own him contractually, instead of putting major wins ahead of endorsement money, Phil Mickelson will be the one of the biggest disappointments on tour to his fans over his career!

I'd keep my eye on Dustin Johnson this week if I had to pick a favorite to win. Dustin has won the last two AT&T National Pro-Ams, and has displayed his talents at Pebble in a variety of weather conditions the last two years. I have not yet checked on the weather forecast for this week at Pebble, so I thought it would be fun to make my predictions before researching how the weather might affect the outcome.

Before I meet with my metallurgist today about how we might make the new Probe 20/10 putter more different and beneficial to our customers, I think I'll research what the weather is projected to be starting this Thursday at the Open. It may change my predictions for the Open in tomorrow's blog.