Goosen Cooked? June 23, 2005, 6:56 am

by CB Maxwell
I think that your judgement on Goosen being done as a top flight player is a tad premature. I think Goosen has his head on straight enough, and knows that anything can happen at any time on a golf course, and that he won't "personalize" the loss to the extent that he collapses as a player. He was paired with a guy who had prior to Sunday been playing over his head, and as we all know, sometimes poor play can be contagious, just as playing well can be. He didn't hang his head in any kind of self depreciating shame, and it seemed to me, that he took the loss in stride. If anything, Tiger has more to look back on in HIS lose, since it was clearly his Open to win coming down the stretch. Two unforced errors, on 16 and 17 clearly did him in...and I think Tiger will be the better man for it. I see Tiger looking back on this event with more than little juice as he goes into the British Open championship, and we will see the "old" Tiger...steady, relentless and near perfect. As for GOosen, his play will hold up, just as he held his head after the meltdown...he didn't make excuses, he didn't cry, he didn't whine. A champion through and through.

comment on US Open sectators article of Chris Baldwin June 23, 2005, 2:43 am

by Lutz - H. Braumueller
Hi Chris Baldwin,
I follow your comments very often and I am impressed about the encouragement to write critical comments which I guess very often many do not like very much. Not many journalists have the encouragement to tell the truth.
Therefore thanks for your comment on the US Open spectators in Pinehurst.
On one hand it is very impressing, how the crowed is behind their own fellows. On the other hand you are - unfortunately - very right: To stand in mid of these crowds like I did, was really annoying -specially during the final round.
They are incredible loud, doesn't matter if somebody is playing or not. Sometimes the own US players tried to calm down these crowds, when his flight partner - a foreign player - wanted to make his shot.
Obviously not all but a lot of the spectators have got only one point of view: to see the own players winning and forget to watch the whole sportive event.
I traveled a long way from Germany to Pinehurst to see a spectacular event with world class golf prepared at any time to share the experience with others.
But specially on the final day, I felt very lonely standing amongst this shouting and crying crowd. I even had the feeling in case of asking them for more fairness that they are so wild, that I could get hurt.
On the other hand I am glad to say that I fortunately met a lot of fair and very friendly US people as well and at the end I took home a fantastic experience.
Best regards
Lutz - H. Braumueller
Hamburg
Germany

Re: June 23, 2005, 6:11 pm

RE: comment on US Open sectators article of Chris Baldwin June 23, 2005, 6:11 pm

by Mark Weinandt
I was at Pinehurst last week and when my wife and I went home early on Friday to catch the last hour of coverage on TV we heard the birds chirping and thought they must have been fake. But then on the weekend we listened for them, and guess what...they were real! We were amazed, because we didn't notice them until then, but the birds actually were chirping like that! I don't know how we missed it before the TV watching, but when we started paying attention I couldn't believe how loud they actually were at the course.
Just thought I'd add some truth.