On the other coast, the ShopRite LPGA Classic will be taking place .Friday-Sunday on the Bay Course at Seaview – A Dolce Resort, in Galloway Township, New Jersey.  In this tournament, Paula Creamer will be giving her surgically repaired thumb a try-out.  She had her surgery on March 31.

In an Atlantic City Press story, Creamer remarked, “It won’t be completely healed for quite a long time.  It’s a progression. I have to work through it. It’s been a roller-coaster ride, but right now we’re heading in the right direction.”

You may recall that the thumb issue arose during the Honda PTT LPGA tournament in Thailand back in February.  After her tee shot on the 16th hole of the first round, she felt it “pop or tear.”

She said “the only thing that was going through my head was, ‘Oh, my gosh. Am I ever going to be able to play golf (again)?’ ”

Playing this weekend is a big step.

——

• The Golf Channel will be covering this event.
• The purse is  $1,500,000.
• The ShopRite LPGA Classic is returning to New Jersey after a 4-year break.
• Here is a link to the pairings

###

The USGA (as in United States Golf Association) put out an announcement on Monday that spelled out some of the ways fans can follow the action using “a variety of exciting technologies, digital applications and devices to access scoring, live streaming and the latest news from their home, office or virtually any location.”

New to the U.S. Open website (www.USOPEN.com) this year is an interactive play tracker that expands and modernizes the traditional leaderboard and gives control to the user. This new feature includes an overview map that allows users to follow all groups on the course and a dynamic heat-mapping feature with red, gray and green color indicators to show how hard different parts of the course are playing during each round, using scoring averages on each hole.

Other new features include:

• An Enhanced Course Section that interactively presents the U.S. Open course setup at Pebble Beach through high-resolution images of each hole, flyover and course walkthrough videos
• A new “Experience History” feature developed in association with World Golf Tour that allows fans to watch a video clip of a historical shot from a previous U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and then attempt to replicate it through an HD golf experience. For example, fans can watch and then play out Tom Watson’s famous chip-in shot at the par-3 17th that propelled him to a two-stroke victory over Jack Nicklaus in the 1982 U.S. Open.
• HD Live Streaming across devices, extending coverage to the iPhone and a wide range of other mobile browsers.
• The “Rules Corner” where USGA Rules officials provide expert commentary on rulings pertaining to each day’s action.

As for social networking, there is a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/USOPEN) and there will be Twitter feeds from fans on the course via the American Express Experience Tent.

Clearly, this will be he most connected U.S. Open yet.

###

U.S. Open Championship will be taking place Thursday June 17 – Sunday June 20) at the Pebble Beach Golf Links.

On Friday, the tee times for the first two rounds of the 2010 U.S. Open were announced.  Tiger Woods will play with Lee Westwood and Ernie Els in one group (1:36 p.m. PT in the first round) while reigning Masters champion Phil Mickelson is paired with Padraig Harrington and Y.E. Yang (8:06 a.m. PT) in another group.

On Day Two,  things flip with the “Tiger” group teeing off on No. 10 at 8:06 a.m., and the “Phil” group starting at the No. 1 at 1:36 p.m.

The golf writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, Ron Kroichick, noted how some of the groupings announced Friday, included the USGA’s traditional touch of whimsy:

— Tom Watson, 60, will play alongside 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa of Japan and 21-year-old Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland.

— Three U.S. Open champs will play together: Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk and Angel Cabrera. So will three British Open champs: David Duval, Tom Lehman and Ben Curtis.

— The short-man group (with PGA Tour wins) features 5-foot-9 Mike Weir, 5-8 K.J Choi and 5-7 Tim Clark. The tall-man group (with AT&T wins at Pebble Beach): 6-4 Dustin Johnson, 6-3 Davis Love III and 6-2 Vijay Singh.

— The no-worries group consists of three accomplished Australians in Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Robert Allenby.

###

“I’ll never watch the Open the same way again,” Wahlberg said afterward. “And this is not even Open-ready yet – the rough is going to be longer and the fairways are going to be harder. … Hey, I love the game, and I’ll always enjoy it. But if I had to do it for a living, I’d slit my wrists.”

Actor Mark Wahlberg was reacting to his experience on Wednesday at the Pebble Beach Golf Links where he played in the Third Annual Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge with hockey great Wayne Gretzky,  Super Bowl-winning quarterback Drew Brees, and essay contest winner, Peggy Ference from New Jersey.

The challenge, a made-for-TV event,  was born from a quote by Tiger Woods during the 2007 U.S. Open, when he said a 10-handicap couldn’t break 100 on such a tough setup.

Wahlberg was the only player in the foursome to break 100, making a par on the last hole to shoot 97.  Gretzky made a triple-bogey on the final hole to shoot 100, and Brees finished at 102.

Ference, who was playing from the championship tees, struggled to reach many of the fairways.  She ended up shooting 118.  The 7,040-yard layout was deemed a par 78 for her.

The conditions were calm for most of the front nine until the foursome turned inland, when gusts of 25 mph blew in the players’ face.

“This was really about the game of golf and how anybody can play it from any set of tees in any conditions,” Ference said. “I have so much appreciation for what the PGA Tour players encounter, not just in the U.S. Open, but regular tournaments too.”

Brees remarked, “Golf is the only sport where you have a lot of time to think about your shot. You stare at your ball, walking around and lining up and you start thinking, ‘I’ve got water on the right, out of bounds on the left, high grass here.’ You start thinking about all these problems, so you have to be very strong mentally. That’s why I can really appreciate the mental toughness of these guys.”

Pebble Beach Golf Links will host the 2010 U.S. Open June 17-20. Designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant, it opened in 1919, Pebble Beach has hosted 10 previous USGA championships, including four U.S. Opens.  Each of those Opens was won by one of the game’s great players – Jack Nicklaus in 1972, Tom Watson in 1982, Tom Kite in 1992, and Tiger Woods in 2000.

###

Note:  Source for this story include  AP , the San Francisco Chronicle and Golf Digest (also credited for the picture).

Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam submitted a letter to the International Golf Federation to let them know they are interested in building the golf course in Brazil where the Olympics will be played in 2016, according to an AP story.

There isn’t a public golf course in Brazil, so one of the objectives is to create something accessible to the all golfers after the Olympics.  As architects, Nicklaus and Sorenstam would be responsible for the first Olympic golf course since 1904

Nicklaus is no stranger to South America.  Nordelta in Buenos Aires and the Chapelco Golf and Resort located in San Martin de los Andes, Neuquen, Argentina were designed by Nicklaus and team.

Sorenstam has been involved in a number of projects worldwide.  Last month it was announced Sorenstam had signed an agreement to design a new 18-hole project, the Olivion Golf Resort, in Belek, Turkey. Olivion is Annika’s first course design project in Europe and ninth worldwide.

When asked about her design philosophy, Annika has said, “As I approach a new design or redesign, I look to capture the natural character of the landscape.  I feel it is very important to preserve the environment, spirit, and traditions of the game.  My goal is to design courses that golfers of any age, gender or skill level can enjoy equally.”

Examples of her work can be found at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, China, Euphoria in Pretoria, South Africa, and the Golden Bay Golf & Resort which will open this year in TaeAn, South Korea.

David Fay, who represents the USGA for the International Golf Federation, confirmed the letter was received:

“It was a very nice letter,” he said. “When you get a letter from two Hall of Famers, that will get a lot of attention. But there definitely will be a process to go through. Sometimes there’s a feeling that you don’t want to Americanize the process. We’ve been very respectful of the fact, as we should be, that it is an international game.”

Olympians and mere mortals would be honored to play a course designed by this dynamic duo.

###

You probably heard by now that Dallas Cowboys quarterback,Tony Romo won’t be playing in the U.S. Open.  He withdrew from the 36-hole sectional qualifier on Monday after bad weather delayed it a second time.  For sure, starting his round with a quadruple bogey wasn’t exactly encouraging (see Tweets here).

Romo pulled out because he needed to return to the Cowboys on Tuesday for practice.  The way things were going, that qualifier round would have been continued on Tuesday.

In an AP story, Romo was quoted talking about what he learned from the experience and what he’d share with his Cowboy teammates.

“On the football field, we’re going and all of a sudden, we have two drives that stall,” Romo said. “Everyone is saying, ‘What’s going on? Why haven’t we done anything?’ We’ll talk about it, we’ll learn from it, we’ll go out and execute on the next one. No matter what happened in the past, it’s about the next play and about going forward and I think that’s what I tried to do today, and I was very proud of fighting back.”

The United States Golf Association said Romo would’ve become the fourth athlete from a professional team sport to qualify for the U.S. Open.

###

At the Memorial Tournament,  which was won by Justin Rose with a flawless final round (he overcame a four-shot deficit and had one-putt greens on eight consecutive holes Sunday to close with a 6-under 66), there was a bit of off course play by some notable Tour members.

Phil Mickelson hit a terrible drive on the 15th that ended up far, far to the left into a creek that usually doesn’t come into play.  Instead of going back to the tee, he opted to take a one-shot penalty — playing his ball from a drop from the middle of the cart path on the 17th hole.

The drop was fraught with problems.  Both times his ball bounded down into the weeds, unplayable.  Per the rules, at that point, he is allowed to place the ball at the site of the drop, in this case in the middle of the blacktop.

Playing like he’s used to hitting off paved surface, Mickelson pulled out a 3 wood and cleanly picked the ball off the cart path, hitting a high draw that left him near the tee at the par-3 16th hole.  If only the rest of the course was through streets and parking lots, he would have won and claimed #1 position going into the U.S. Open.

Instead, Mickelson ended up three-putting for a double-bogey 7.  For the tournament, where he finished tied for 5th, putting was a challenge (he took 30 on his way to a 69).

Another golfer who spent time off-course was Tiger Woods.  He ended up hitting not one, not two, but three fans on three different holes.

According to an AP story appearing at Golfweek.com

“On his first swing on the first hole, Woods pulled his drive left and drilled 37-year-old Jeramy May in the neck. “I’m just glad they were on the other side,” May said, pointing toward his daughter and a friend.

On the second hole, Woods hit 19-year-old Alan Flood in the back of his left leg as he was standing far left of the fairway. Then at the 15th hole, Jimmy Craig of suburban Columbus was in the right rough when Woods’ drive hit him in the thumb and then the side.”

Tiger’s way of making it up to the people he hits is to give them an autographed golf glove.

On Sunday he remarked, “Thank God I get them for free.”

Errant shots at Pebble Beach in a few weeks may end up plunking an otter or sea lion.

Spare gloves won’t be an issue.  Extra sleeves of balls will.

###