Short 13th hole always long on entertainment

Short 13th hole always long on entertainment












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Spectators expect an ace on every shot at the short par-3 13th hole at Merion.(Getty Images)

PGA.COM June 14, 2013 8:41 PM


By Dan Gelston, Associated Press

ARDMORE, Pa. -- With the tease of an ace on each tee shot, golfers count down to the 13th hole.

It's where the shortest hole at Merion Golf Club waits.

And at the U.S. Open, that makes 13 the life of the 18-hole party, the off-campus bash down the block from the staid library.

Playing in his second U.S. Open, unheralded Scott Langleyand Morgan Hoffmann noticed they were turning into Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as they walked toward 13. Fans tailed their group all the way to the par-3 hole on Friday.

"I was walking up the fairway and was like, look at all these people that suddenly showed up to watch us," Langley said, laughing. "They're hoping for something to happen. I'm hoping to give it to them."

Lose your course map? Not a problem. Follow the roar from a crowd that sounds like it's watching a zigzagging 90-yard touchdown run more than just another tee shot. Almost every shot lands about 20 feet from the pin, prompting booming "Ohs!" from the crowd as each ball crawls toward the cup.

The bleacher seats were filled with hundreds of fans on perhaps the only hole where they wouldn't have to budge to watch first shot to last. The overhead walkway was lined with fans hoping a bird's eye view on some birdies.

Stan Feldman, of Huntington Valley, spent a few hours on Thursday and Friday in a second-row bleacher seat that lined the right of the course.

"You just expect every guy to hit an ace," he said. "Even the ones you never heard of."


Leave the driver and the power game in the bag. The sand wedge was the club of choice for every tee shot.

"It's only a wedge shot, but you don't want to be missing that green, either," said John Senden, who parred the hole.

The hole measures a taut 115 yards -- about four of them could snugly fit into the 464-yard 14th hole. The distance gives the field a needed mental break from three other daunting par 3s (third hole, 256 yards; ninth hole, 236 yards; and 17th hole, 246 yards).

"You can somewhat turn the brain off," said Langley, who made par.

At Merion, 13 has been nothing but lucky for the leaders down to the ones buried on the leaderboard. The hole had more birdies than any other and the fewest bogeys by late Friday.

"The pressure's on to make a birdie, almost," said 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. "It's the only one where you can take a breath. It's really difficult to not hit inside 20 feet putting uphill."

The lone challenge should have come from a deep, gaping bunker in front of the green that obscures the putting surface. But ball after ball soared over the sand and onto the green.

That made fans from hold their breath as they follow the hopeful flight for a hole-in-one.

Even scuffling golfers made quick work of 13.

Kevin Streelman was a whopping 9 over by the time he trudged up to 13. But his shot dropped just to the right of the pin as the crowd went wild. One putt later, he had a birdie on the scorecard -- and a rare reason to feel good about Merion.

Streelman flipped his club to his caddie and walked off with a smile and to a rousing ovation -- and the rare delight of being in the red.

Phil Mickelson's magical putt has him tied for the U.S. Open lead after 36 holes

Phil Mickelson's magical putt has him tied for the U.S. Open lead after 36 holes











Eric Adelson June 14, 2013 10:03 PMYahoo Sports





ARDMORE, Pa. – The horn blew. Darkness had come to Merion Golf Club. And Phil Mickelson's ball sat at the edge of the 18th green, 30 feet away from the last hole of the second round of the U.S. Open. He had a birdie chance on a day when he had not made one birdie.



He had the option to take out a ball marker, place it on the green and call it a night; he certainly didn't expect to make such a tricky putt at the end of a day when putting had all but unmade him.

In the twilight of the day, nearing the twilight of his career, Mickelson, who turns 43 on Sunday, stepped to his ball and took a good long look at the hole. He let it go.

And then there was a roar in the dark.

Mickelson, the people's choice, was back to 1-under par, good enough for a share of the lead.

It had felt all day that heartbreak was slowly creeping toward Mickelson. He held the lead for hours while he waited for his round to begin, and just about every other golfer in this Open was stumbling, some badly. The course was going to come after him too, the moment he stepped onto it.





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Phil Mickelson hits his second shot from the 18th fairway as darkness fell on Merion. (USA Today)Sure enough, Mickelson started his round at nearly 4 p.m. with a bogey. He fought back valiantly with a long string of pars, and then came the inevitable gut-punch: an easy par putt missed on 12, followed by another bogey on 13, the easiest of Merion's 18 holes. The lead was gone. He was back to even par, as if everything he had done over two days was gone.



He trod up 14 slowly, his sure smile melted into a look of concern. His eyes were reddened. His hands were on his hips. His visor was pointed down.

The scene looked like something akin to a slow drowning, just the way other leaders had raced into the red and then wilted into the black. The roar of the early afternoon had given way to worried encouragement from the winnowing gallery. "Do this, Phil!" one yelled. Another lit up a cigarette and folded her arms.

There's always been this balance of wild hope and deep dread with Mickelson. His wins have been epic; his losses have been frightful. Could a man so prone to that one mistake stand up to a course that kills with a thousand cuts? He had never won the U.S. Open, finishing second a record five times. Could he finally win here?

Merion has laid out even the best players. Nearly five hours before Mickelson's final putt fell, three weary champions walked away from their last hole of the day, their faces creased with exhaustion and regret. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Adam Scott were all supposed to dazzle; instead the course had left them dazed, Tiger injured.

They cut across the first fairway to the scorer's tent – the only shortcut Merion allowed them all day – and the roar of the crowd that always follows Woods and McIlroy suddenly exploded.







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Rory McIlroy, left, and Tiger Woods are both plus-3 after 36holes. (AP)Mickelson was lumbering straight at them, chasing after his first tee shot of the day, grinning like a madman.



The throaty cheers had met and multiplied like two thunderclouds building over the plains, and it was hard not to witness the scene and wonder if the paths of these men – the best golfers of this generation – are bound to cross again. But it was also hard not to wonder if Mickelson's wide smile would last the weekend. Or the day.

"This is the stiffest test of par 3s we've ever faced," Woods said moments later, which is quite the statement considering the two toughest holes on the course are not par 3s.

"It feels like you can shoot 66," said McIlroy, who along with Woods is plus-3, "but where these pins are …"

McIlroy wondered, almost to himself, what the 18th will be like with a weekend of good weather. He suggested tee shots would be impossible to keep on the fairway without some sort of idiotic slice. We've learned a player must stay in the fairway to win, yet what if that's not possible?

As Woods and McIlroy spoke of the par 3s and the nasty finishing hole, Mickelson trudged on, getting closer to that 18th. There was only one player under par for the entire tournament – Billy Horschel at 1-under – andMickelson would need something outrageous to match that now.

"Throughout every hole at Merion," he would later say, "you fight for par, fight for par …"

Then he arrived at the 18th green even for the tournament, and there was one more fight for birdie. There was one more shot in the dark.

If you believe in history, you can feel it unfolding here. This is the course that bequeathed Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Lee Trevino versus Jack Nicklaus in a playoff. There is a sense that something of great magnitude is getting ready to happen. There is a sense that a legendary name will be called on Sunday night.

Eventually this tournament will belong to history. For now, it belongs to Phil.

Horschel and Mickelson share clubhouse lead

Horschel and Mickelson share clubhouse lead












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Billy Horschel hit an amazing 18 of 18 greens in his second round on Friday.(Getty Images)

PGA.COM June 14, 2013 10:05 PM


ARDMORE, Pa. -- Billy Horschel hit all 18 greens in regulation. Hard to think of a better way to climb to the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Open.

He shot 3-under 67, sufficiently managing the nasty rough and hard-to-read greens to become the clubhouse leader late in the second round Friday at the Merion Golf Club.

Horschel was 1 under with a 139 total, posting one of the few red numbers on a trying day for much of the field. He missed the cut in his only previous U.S. Open, in 2006, but recently won for the first time on the PGA Tour at the Zurich Classic.

"I've acquired some patience, not as much as I wish I had," said the 26-yeaar-old from Jacksonville Beach, Fla. "But I just think that the older I get, the more mature I get on the golf course, the more understanding that if I do have a bad stretch of holes, it's not that I don't hit the panic button, I just don't press right away."

Phil Mickelson held the solo lead for much of the afternoon, but he missed birdie chances during a streak of 10 consecutive pars. He then 3-putted No. 12 for a bogey and dropped another stroke when he put his tee shot in the sand on the short par-3 13th, the easiest hole on the course.

Seconds later, Steve Stricker, playing in Mickelson's group, sank a birdie putt from about 15 feet to move into a tie with Horschel for the lead. Justin Rose was also at 1 under on the back nine.

Hoping to build on his own 67 from Thursday, Mickelson put his first shot in a bunker and 3-putted the first hole for a bogey. He was in rough and sand at No. 2, but he recovered to start the run of pars, avoiding even the distraction of a groundhog -- a relative of Punxsutawney Phil? -- who made a mad dash across the fairway at No. 6. Mickelson lipped out a 4-foot birdie putt at No. 8.

A five-time runner-up seeking his first U.S. Open title, Mickelson had the luxury of a late tee time, much needed after he showed up with just a few hours to spare for the opening round so he could attend his daughter's eighth-grade graduation in California. It turned out to be a gift. While Mickelson was able to rest Friday morning, much of the field endured the ordeal of finishing a delayed first round followed by a second round with little break in between.

By the time Mickelson teed off, only he and Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts were under par. Colsaerts shot a 69 in the first round, but he fell off the pace Friday with three bogeys on the front nine.

As for the weather, the sun stayed around for most of the afternoon after play began in a cool drizzle that was far gentler than the storms that interrupted play twice on Thursday. The fallout from all the rain was a cramped schedule, complicated because the course requires long shuttle rides to move the players to and fro. It also left players and spectators spackled in mud from their shoes on up.

The must-see group of Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy was at times a hard-to-watch bunch -- perhaps even for Woods' ski champion girlfriend Lindsey Vonn, who was part of the gallery.


The trio combined to shoot 14 over at the halfway mark. Woods' troublesome left elbow flared up again, and he hit a chip from just off the green that traveled barely a foot while making bogey at the par-4 7th.

Woods then dropped his left hand off the club and shook his wrist while putting his tee shot wide of the fairway at No. 8, just as he had done several times on Thursday. The arm clearly bothered him again on the next shot, which he put in the rough near the green. He saved par on the hole and finished a second-round 70 that left him at 3 over for the tournament, still in contention if he can stay healthy.

"It's hard with the wind and the pin locations," Woods said. "They're really tough. ... We didn't think they were going to be as severe as they are."

Woods was tight-lipped about his elbow, saying only that it first bothered him at the Players Championship five weeks ago. Asked what he felt, he answered: "Pain."

Masters champion Scott fell apart quickly, all but quashing any hope for a Grand Slam. He was 3 under when first-round play was suspended Thursday, but he hit a hard-luck Merion shot at No. 12: an approach that landed just short of the pin, spun backward and rolled some 75 feet to the edge of the fairway rough. He also put a tee shot out of bounds at No. 14 to complete a first-round 72, then came back after the short turnaround to post a 76, 8 over, through two rounds.

"I got off on the wrong foot and just struggled to find my rhythm all day," Scott said. "I didn't make the putts I needed to kind of save some shots here and there. And they just slipped away too easily. But that's what can happen if you're just a little bit off."

McIlroy had quite the adventure, putting his drive at No. 4 onto the No. 8 fairway. Once he got back to the correct hole, he put a shot in a bunker and bogeyed the par 5. His second-round 70 left him at 3 over.

"I'm very happy. Right in there for the weekend," McIlroy said. "I don't think I'll be too far away by the end of the day."

Then there was Luke Donald, who actually pulled ahead of Mickelson at 4 under with back-to-back birdies, including a chip-in at the par-3 13th during his second round. But Merion took him apart on the front nine when he bogeyed four consecutive holes, turning his number from red to black. His second-round 72 left him at even-par.

Coming into the Open, the question was how Merion would fare against a modern-day championship field. It last hosted this event in 1981, with the thinking that today's golfers had outgrown the course.

Certainly, the 301-yard par-3 10th and 102-yard par-3 13th yielded their share of makeable shots, but pre-tournament concerns about scores in the low 60s seem totally unwarranted.

"It's very difficult to make those putts," Donald said, "when the ball is breaking so much."