US PGA - Wednesday Practice round - UPDATED WITH PICS

[Jono]

I was fortunate enough to attend the Wednesday practice round at Baltusarol, NJ.  

The course looks great and is in top condition.  A little soft perhaps and the greens not as quick as what pros usually play on, but the marshalls tell me that they will get quicker as the week progresses.  The green keepers have been letting the grass grow a bit longer to save them from the heat.  And it WAS hot ... 90 degrees faranheit ... you do the conversion.     It was pretty humid too.  Forecast is more of the same and around 30% chance of showers heading into the weekend.

The fairways are narrow.  Lot of the landing areas were only 20 yards wide.  Bunkers left and right on most of the holes ... and there are a LOT of bunkers.  Big and deep too.  I saw Dimarco go into a fairway bunker and having to hit a layup shot with a wedge.  The rough is thick and it's the type that swallows the ball.  If you go in the heavy rough, the ball will sit down.  I saw some very ordinary shots out of the rough.  Nick O'hearn dropped a ball in the rough on the 6th and hit what looked like a fairway wood to see if he could reach the green.  The ball came out very low and ran along the ground to about 50 yards short of the green.

I managed to see most of the course, including the famous par 5 17th.  From the back tees, this hole is the mother of all monster par 5's.  Most of the pros drove it about 10 yards past the left bunker.  From there, some chose to hit a long iron, while some chose the 3 wood.  I saw Vijay and Poulter smash their drives and then a 3 wood.  They both came up just short of the greenside bunkers.  The group of bunkers that run across the fairway about 400 - 450 yards from the tee don't really come into play unless you hit your tee shot into the heavy rough.  From there, you have to decide whether you can carry these bunkers or not.  If you lay up short of these, then you have a 200+ yard 3rd shot into a small and well protected green.  A great hole and it should play a big role come Saturday and Sunday.

The par 5 18th is a great hole as well.  At 550 yards, it's about 100 yards shorter than the 17th.  Also, the tee shot is downhill.  Vijay hit two balls off the 18th and reached the green in two with both of them.

Another great hole is the 13th.  Dogleg right, 424 yard par 4.  Water runs along the right side, and a row of bunkers along the left.  It requires you do hit a slight fade with the driver, otherwise you run out of fairway and go into the bunkers.  Vijay hit a monster fade and had only a short iron in.  Dimarco hit it too straight and went into the 2nd fairway bunker.  David Toms hit a great tee shot as well but was about 15 yards behind Vijay.  I was told that great Bobby Jones got the inspiration for the 13th at Augusta from this hole.

I also spent a couple of hours watching the pros on the practice fairway.  Most of these guys look like they were only swinging at 80%.  Very smooth.  There were couple of guys who looked like they were swinging a bit harder ... one was Jesper Parnivik.  He was hitting slight fades and looked to be swinging quite agressively.  More pros were hitting fades than draws.  This surprised me somewhat, but I think the reasoning is that you can control the fade better.  Vijay was practising with a bottle of Gatorade just outside the ball, about 1 foot down the line.  If he came even slightly inside-out, he would have hit the bottle with either the ball or the club.  He didn't hit it once.

I got a glimpse of Tiger leaving the course.  Apparently, he came in at 6 am to practice. To avoid the large crowds, I imagine.     Phil didn't come at all on Wednesday.  I later found out that he went somewhere else to practise.  Ernie's pulled out.  Another player I really wanted to see was Fred Couples.  Oh well, you can't have everything, I guess.  All in all, it was a great to see the top pros in action.

Anyway, I've gotta go.  If I get a chance, I'll post some more later.

[McMw]

nice post!!!
sounds like u learnt something???

As for lefty, I think it's part of his new routine to play 18 holes somewhere the day before the start of a major...

[gazgolf1]

you're a bastard Jono.

[Jarro]

nice report Jono ..... you didn't get any pic's did you

[markTHEblake]

 From the back tees, this hole is the mother of all monster par 5's.  

Thats like the 18th at Jimboomba which is about 15 metres shorter.

The water carry is 480m for your 2nd shot, if you lay up, your left with a minimum of 170m - but how close to the pond will someone lay up.

Most people will be hitting a wood for their 3rd shot into this hole.

[Jono]

Just a few more impressions from Wednesday in no particular order.

The angle of the sun on the practice fairway was such that you could see the ball flight very well until the ball landed. Couple of things surprised me. Most of the pros had pretty low ball flights with their mid/short irons. No ballooning at all. Very controlled ball flight with consistent spin ... not too much. The drives went on a higher trajectory than I expected. High and "flat". I'm sure these guys must all have had their launch conditions optimized ... That reminds me, I must get on a launch monitor soon.

Vijay had this ultra heavy looking "club" ... sort of like Momentus, but it looked hand made. He was swining it slowly to the top, pausing, then dropping his hands down to waist high, pausing again, and then swinging slowing through to finish. He was doing this a lot in between shots. He also had the red and blue Speed Stiks next to his bag as well. It was in full view of the spectators. The funny thing was, he never used them at the range. It seemed like they were there just for show ... A bit of advertising, perhaps? One of the guys that practised in the same group had a Speed Stik as well. I think his name was John Roland or something. Built like a footballer and hit the ball about as far as Vijay. The funny thing was he had the BLUE Speedstik, not the red one. Figure that one out.

Steve Elkington was doing some interesting stuff at the range as well. He was actually practising what looked like the "reverse pivot" move. I took some pics of this, so I'll post it up when I get back to Sydney. He's obviously working on some kind of swing change. His coach was video taping him and they were viewing the swing on the screen quite often.

All the drivers sounded pretty mute. No loud tinny sounds heard anywhere. I guess that's Tour equipment for you. Lots of R7's and other Taylormades, few Clevelands and Callaways. Didn't see as many Titleists as I expected. Dimarco was using the new Ping G5 driver ...

Vijay was showing off his new putter to the media. It's the new Never Compromise model that has an insert and is supposed to be weighted a bit differently. Heavier and some backweighting, I believe. Toms was using a NC putter as well. On the 10th green, Vijay and Toms were swapping putters and having a few putts with the other guy's putter.

I wanted to see what shafts these guys were playing, but I couldn't get close enough to have a good look. Few NV's, and I noticed Adam Scott was using the new Proforce V2.

One funny moment that stuck in my mind. A lot of the parents were encouraging their little kids to go under the ropes and ask for autographs. In between holes, the players were hounded for autographs ... I could hear some parents telling their children to "hold their grounds". Anyway, most players obliged and signed as many autographs as they could. The group of Jimenez, Olazabal, and Levet were walking off the green and the kids started heading towards them. Olazabal and Levet headed for the children, but Jimenez spotted a rather good looking blonde and approached her with a big smile on his face.

OK. That's about all, I think ...

[Jono]

you're a bastard Jono.  

[Jono]

nice report Jono ..... you didn't get any pic's did you  

I did get a few pics here and there. I'll post them up when I get back to Sydney.

[McMw]

did u take a pic of the blonde???

[Jarro]

did u take a pic of the blonde???  

why Mau, you old dog you

[suwii]

awww thatz maddd jono!!
how kewl!
did u get a glimpse of adam scott??

[Eag's]

Great report Jono keep it coming mate

[Jono]

I've just come back from the States. Here are some pics I took at the US PGA. Enjoy ...

To start, let me quickly show you the line of people waiting to get inside. Remember this is just the Wednesday practice round. School buses were bringing people in from the nearest train station. You can see how the line runs in two directions. You basically started at the carpark next to the gate, went about a kilometer up the road, did a U-turn and came back towards the gate.



The following two pics show you the layout of the Baltusrol golf club. I think this is called the "lower course". As you can see, the ninth hole is the furthest point from the clubhouse.





Imagine standing on the first tee of the US PGA. You are nervous as it is ... and then you see this ...



The landing zone for the pros is where it gets really narrow. Being a 478 yard par 4, you can't really lay up with an iron either. As you probably saw on TV, the rough was pretty thick for the PGA.

Here is a view of the third from the green looking back. 503 yard par 4 but it didn't play that long because it's mostly downhill. Dogleg left with a creek that runs about 75 yards short of the green.



Here's probably the prettiest hole on the course, par 3 4th. Big dam in front of the green, and the green has two distinct tiers. The pin was on the top tier on Wednesday, but a lot of the players were taking two from the tee, first aiming for the top tier and then the bottom tier. You could tell they were aiming for the each tier because a lot of them changed clubs for each shot.



Here's the view of the 4th from the tee.



Here's probably the most famous hole from this year's PGA, the par 5 17th. I understand only John Daly managed to get on in 2. I think a few others came close ... Tiger went through the green once, I think. The view is from just right of the green looking back. The patch of dark green you see across the fairway in the distance is where the big row of bunkers are. Players were hitting their second shots about 50 to 100 yards behind these bunkers. From there, you have an uphill shot of some 300 yards to the green, which is pretty small and well protected with more bunkers and heavy rough. It's a monster hole in anyone's book.



Now, let's move on to the players themselves. I really enjoyed watching these top players. Not just recognising the famous faces, but seeing what their ball flights were like, how they practised, etc.

Here's a picture of Tiger. This blurry photo basically sums up my encounter with world's number 1 player. As I was coming in, he was going out. He came in around 6am to avoid the large crowds. Perhaps that's why he didn't do as well in the first two rounds. He didn't get used to the heat. And it did get very hot (and humid) later on in the day.



Here are some other familiar faces ...

Jim Carey lookalike ... aka Paul Azinger.



Faxon and Love teeing off on the par 3 12th.





Charles Howell III, turning towards the camera after I yelled out "Hey Charles! Smile, you are on Ozgolf!" ...



Vijay and Toms teeing off the 11th, dogleg left par 4 with bunkers all the way down the right side. Vijay tried to cut the corner with the driver, but got stuck in the trees. Toms was safe on the fairway some 15 yards behind.





Vijay, Toms and Dimarco hitting off the 18th tee.







Vijay hitting his 2nd from the 18th fairway. He reached the green quite comfortably. Compared to the 17th, the 554 yard 18th seemed "short". Tee shot is downhill and then you have about 230 to 260 yards uphill second shot to the green.



Vijay's group on the 13th fairway. Vijay hit a monster on this dogleg right par 4 and only had a short iron in. You can see Dimarco's caddie in the bunker getting rid of the evidence ... Dimarco had to chop out of the bunker and pitch onto the green for 3.



Olazabal, indicating what he thought of his play as he walked off the 10th green ...



Jimenez walking off the 10th green towards a pretty blonde who called out for a signature ... Can you see the big smile on his face? Unfortunately, I didn't get the blonde in the picture ...



Jimenez in the practice bunker. Notice the cigar ...



Saw some Aussies too. Parry practiced with Campbell.









Scott and Green practised together ...



... along with another familiar face ... the guy with the sunnies



Duval hit some great shots on Wednesday. His swing looks as smooth as ever. Can't understand why he can't compete any more.

There were some colourful characters, including this one:



Yes, it's Jesper ... He played pretty well.

I've gotta go for now ... I'll post some pics from the practice range later.

Here's a quick quiz. Does anyone know who this is?

[Eag's]

Some top pics there Jono, must of been great to get up close with the worlds best

[BrisVegas]

That last guy.... Is it the "unknown" who won the British open last year? His name escapes me....

[andylo]

Jono... thanks for the topic.

1 seriously important question...

Did you take pics of their bag?!?!

[McMw]

not todd hamilton....

looks like Peter Jacobsen...but don't think it is...

[Jono]

OK ... Some more pics. This time, mainly from the practice range.

Steve Elkington, who ended up doing very well in the tournament, was practising hard on Wednesday. He had his swing coach by his side, who was video taping his swing. Elk was looking at the monitor on the camcorder after every 10 shots or so. He seemed to be working on a particular move. It looked like he was trying to keep more of his weight on the left side during the backswing ... he did these funny slow motion drills, where he looked out of position at the top and almost looked like he was reverse pivotting.



His actual swings looked more conventional, but you can see that he is hanging on the left side a bit more than he used to at the top.



Couple more pics of Elk ...





Langer was on the practice tee early, but he didn't stay around long. Probably because of his bad back. I heard that he can't beat balls all day like he used to because of his back. Similar story for Couples as well.



One person that did stay at the range till late was Parnevik. He even outlasted Vijay ...



I'm not sure whether you can tell from the above picture, but his left wrist seemed slightly bowed at the top. He was hitting gentle fades at the range. Pretty pure ball striking ...

Here's one for Speirsy. Fellow Canadian, Mike Weir ... Man, his swing is SMOOOOTH. His trajectory seemed slightly higher than the other pros, but very straight.



KJ Choi at the putting green ...



And who can leave out Vijay when it comes to the practice range ...

He had the Speedstiks there for all to see ...



But he never used it. Perhaps he was just advertising it ... Instead, he had this really heavy looking "club" ... looked like a home-made thing with an iron bar as the shaft and a heavy plate of metal as the "clubhead". He did numerous slow motion swings with this thing, stopping at the top and half way down positions.



Vijay had this specific routine working through his bag. He had a red shaft just inside the ball, pointing at the target. Then he stuck another shaft on the ground in line with the swing plane some 4 feet behind the ball. He also put a bottle of Gatorade about a foot in front of the ball, just outside it. You can see this in the following picture.



He used these "training aids" for all his full shots, from the wedge up to the driver. The only thing he changed was the plane angle of the shaft stuck in the ground. He adjusted it flatter as the club got longer.

the following video clip shows him hitting a shot through this "gate" he made for himself. The file is some 3 megs so only click if you have broadband.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~ohjohn1/vijaygate.MPG

Here's Vijay hitting some pitch shots to finish off his session. He was hitting to pins about 30 to 70 yards out. It was amazing to see him hit so close to the pins time after time. He seemed to be taking the club back about the same amount ... hands about chest height. He seemed to control the length of the pitch shot purely by feel and adjusting the clubhead speed. It sort of goes against what we are commonly taught ... that you need to adjust the length of your backswing accoring to the length of the pitch shot.



During his practice session, Vijay took some time out to talk to the media. He seemed to be discussing his new Nevercompromise putter, which is supposed to be heavier than the previous models.



Here's some pics for Alo, Nudgee, 3oneday, gazgolf and other Ozgolf Ho's ...

Towards the end of the day, the Tourvans were driving out. Can you imagine the gear in those vans? I saw about 8 tour vans leaving, but only took pics of Taylormade and Titleist ...





To finish off, a view of the clubhouse as the sun was going down ...

[Jono]

Jono... thanks for the topic.

1 seriously important question...

Did you take pics of their bag?!?!  

Alo,  I couldn't get close enough to take good pics of their bags.  

One thing I noticed from my visit to the States ... Since the 2001 Sep 11th incident, the security is very tough ... everywhere.  I couldn't take my backpack into the Yankee's baseball stadium and I had to go through metal detectors for any kind of tourist venues.

[Jono]

not todd hamilton....

looks like Peter Jacobsen...but don't think it is...

Sorry, but thanks for playing. Please try again ...

Hint: He has roman numerals at the end of his name.

[Jono]

That last guy....  Is it the "unknown" who won the British open last year?  His name escapes me....  

Are you talking about the guy with the Titleist visor or the Adidas visor?

The quiz is directed at the Titleist one.

[gazgolf1]

Vijay link did'nt work for me Jono.

[3oneday]

not todd hamilton....

looks like Peter Jacobsen...but don't think it is...

Sorry, but thanks for playing.     Please try again ...  

Hint: He has roman numerals at the end of his name.

Tommy Armour III

Do I win a Titleist Tour Van ?????



Great pics Jono, thanks.....

[Jarro]

great pic's Jono, you are one lucky son-of-a-gun

[Fishman Dan]

Sorry, but thanks for playing.     Please try again ...  

Hint: He has roman numerals at the end of his name.

You don't mean Richard LXIX?

Great pics Jono, must have been worth all the cavity searches to get in there in the first place. Very jealous.

PS - I heard those vans just had several port-a-loo's in them??