You’ve probably heard of Casey Martin before.  His lawsuit and eventual victory at the Supreme Court gave him the right to use a golf cart in PGA Tour competitions.  It turned out to not make much of a difference as Martin lost his tour card and eventually became the golf coach at Oregon.  He qualified for the Open last week and now will be making his first US Open appearance since 1998 (also at Olympic).

If you’re at all interested in Casey’s story, this is a great video.  Martin is entertaining, engaging, and humble.  Regardless of what you think of the Supreme Court’s ruling in his case, it’s hard not to pull for the guy.

No, that's not the Road Hole bunker at St. Andrews. It's Rory's backyard.

The BBC ran an hour long documentary on Rory McIlory last night entitled Major Breakthrough.  It’s available online here, but you have to be located in the UK to watch it.

However, I did find a really cool sneak peek clip of Rory showing off his amazing backyard practice facility.  Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video, but definitely hit up the link if you have a couple of minutes and prepare to be blown away.

BBC – Rory Sneak Peak

Over 2 years ago, Tiger told Golf.com that he thought a then 19-year old Rory McIlroy had the tools to become the best player in the world:

“There’s no doubt,” Woods said. “But hopefully it’s not while I’m around,” he added, laughing.

“Certainly he has the talent. We can all see it. The way he hits the ball, the way he putts, the way he can chip, and get up-and-down. He has the composure and all the components to be the best player in the world. It’s just a matter of time and experience and then gaining that experience in big events. That just takes time and, I mean, geez, he’s only 19. Just give him some time and I’m sure he’ll be there.”

I’m not sure if Tiger thought that a mere 2 years later Rory would be turning the US Open into a clinic while he himself would be in the middle of the longest winless streak of his career and would have fallen outside of the top 10 in the world.  But there you have it.

Golf.com (via Dogs That Chase Cars)

[Image Flickr/ltbeyer]

snapped this pic of today’s paper identifying the winner of the US Open as John McIlroy.

I know that typos happen, but WTF Chicago Daily Herald?  How do you miss this one?

Alright, I’m a believer.  After the Masters, I wasn’t sure if McIlroy was the real deal or not.  I don’t think anybody has any doubts about that after witnessing one of the most dominant performances in US Open history.  No I don’t think it’s a better performance than Tiger in 2000, but it’s damn close.

Here’s the thing about Rory.  By all accounts, he’s a very friendly, engaging, and humble young man.  He doesn’t take issue with being asked tough questions by reporters and didn’t run off and hide after a disastrous Sunday in April at the Masters.

Over the last 4 days, McIlroy was elevated himself to the pinnacle of the game.  But he’s not the only player that made a statement this weekend.

Jason Day again finished in 2nd place.  Day has played in 4 majors now and finished T10 or better in 3 of them with 2 consecutive 2nd place finishes.  It seems like just a matter of time before he’s bringing home a trophy.

There’s also been a lot of discussion around the long-term prospects (in the majors) of recent major champions such as Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell, YE Yang, and Charl Schwartzel.  I think we got an answer when all of them finished T14 or better.  These guys are the real deal and are here to stay.

But above all, this is the most fun I’ve had watching golf in a long time.  It’s entertaining to watch golf being played to it’s fullest potential and that’s something that we hadn’t seen since Tiger’s fall from grace in 2009.

I for one hope we see more performances like this from Rory in the future because it’s good for the game and it’s just plain fun to watch. I also hope that Tiger is able to return in full health because I can’t think of many things I’d rather see than Tiger and Rory battling it out in the final pairing of a major championship.

Right place at the right time…

It’s that time of year again.  The best players in the world are getting in last minute practice for the start of the US Open at Congressional on Thursday.

The last 2 US Opens have produced champions who weren’t picked by many pundits to win.  There are probably 50 players with a reasonable chance this week.  So instead of picking who I think it most likely to win, I’m picking 5 “under-the-radar” players that I think could win this week.

Lucas Glover - The 2009 US Open winner disappeared in 2010 but roared back this year with a great win last month at Quail Hollow.  He’s sitting 4th right now in the Strokes Gained – Putting stat, which means he’s rolling the ball really, really well.  And given the USGA’s obsession with keeping the winning score at even par, you know the greens and pin positions are going to be ridiculously hard.  Plus, .

Michael Whitehead – Michael who?  He’s the guy that got Tiger’s spot after he withdrew.  This is his first event as a professional.  Is he likely to make the cut?  Probably not, but it would be a great story if Tiger’s replacement ends up winning the US Open in his first professional start.

Harrison Frazar – Obviously Harrison is coming off a big week with his first victory on the PGA Tour.  Normally, he wouldn’t be on my radar as somebody who has an outside chance to win, but sometimes when guys get hot, they stay hot for a few weeks.  Of course sometimes they also have a post win hangover and don’t sniff the cut a week after a win.

Sergio Garcia – Garcia was not guaranteed a spot this week because he’s no longer in the top 50 in the OWGR.   He originally had not planned on trying to qualify, but at the last minute decided to play in the Memphis sectional event.  He earned one of 4 spots and ensured that his streak of 47 consecutive major starts will continue.  He obviously wants to be there this week and hopefully will bring his “A-game”.  He’s been playing pretty good golf this year and it’s always great to see a qualifier in contention on Sunday.

Adam Scott – I don’t know if Adam Scott is “under the radar” or not.  But I do know that he damn close to winning a major on Sunday at Augusta.  The long putter seems to be working for him and Tiger even loaned him Stevie for the week.  Could having Williams on the bag be the missing ingredient that Scott needs to finally break through in the Majors?

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

When it was first posted on Golfwrx that Steve Williams was spotted on a DC-bound flight today, many people assumed that it was bad info or that Stevie was just planning on attending the event.  Nobody seemed to think that it was really possible he was on his way to Congressional to caddie for somebody other than Tiger.

That is until the story broke that Stevie would be on Adam Scott’s bag this week.  Of course this is going to fire up all kinds of speculation about Tiger/Stevie, Tiger’s health and future in golf, etc.

But the bottom line is that Williams and Scott are friends, Scott had an open bag this week, and once Tiger gave it the OK, Stevie was on his way to Congressional to help out a pal.

Given Scott’s performance at Augusta and his renewed success on the greens with a long putter, you have to wonder if this might be the week that Scott finally breaks through and wins a major.

[Image Flicker/Keith Allison]

Tiger just announced that he won’t be playing the in the US Open next week.  I can’t say that this was a huge surprise after Jack Nicklaus stated last week that Tiger might not be healthy enough to play:

“Tiger called me Friday [to withdraw from the Memorial],” Nicklaus said. “He said, ‘I’m still hobbling, and I don’t know whether I’m going to make the U.S. Open or not.’ “

From TigerWoods.com:

“I am extremely disappointed that I won’t be playing in the U.S. Open, but it’s time for me to listen to my doctors and focus on the future,” Woods said. “I was hopeful that I could play, but if I did, I risk further damage to my left leg. My knee and Achilles tendon are not fully healed. I hope to be ready for AT&T National, the next two majors and the rest of the year.”

Tony Romo fired off a 81 today at a North Texas local qualifier to end his hopes of playing in next month’s US Open.  Last year Romo made it to the sectional qualifier but withdrew when a weather delay caused a conflict with a Cowboys practice event.

Tony Romo’s “obsession” with golf has become a perennial source of complaints among Cowboys fans who believe it distracts him from focusing on Football.

Jason Garrett, the Cowboy’s new head coach, takes the opposing view:

I know since I’ve been around the NFL, players love to play golf, and they love to play golf in the offseason.  It’s really a way for them to kind of get away from what they’re doing at the facility, with the workouts or with the practice they’re involved in. So it’s always been a relief for a lot of guys at a lot of different positions.

Tony just so happens to be pretty good at it. He gets a lot of attention for it, but we probably have some guys on our team that play a lot more golf than Tony does.

…

We’ve never viewed it as a distraction. He’s always the first guy in the building. He stays there late. He loves football and he loves his role as the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. He’s never shown us any reason to think that it’s a distraction in any way from what he’s doing for us with the Cowboys.

Romo’s 81 is unfortunate, especially considering the fact that there may not be a football season this year.  If there’s no football being played, he can’t be accused of not focusing on the Cowboys.

I think that Romo has a shot at qualifying one of these days.  He’s a solid golfer.  I also suspect that we’ll see him tee it up at the Monday qualifier for the Byron Nelson in a couple of weeks.

And for all of the complaining from some golf fans about John Smoltz and Jerry Rice getting sponsors exemptions to shoot 85 and finish dead last in Nationwide Tour events, you have to at least give Romo credit for going out there and working hard to earn his way inside the ropes.