US Open Threesomes Announced

The Open pairings were announced last night first on NBC - during a very good hockey game between Detroit and Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Final. The USGA is doing something unprecedented in that they are intentionally pairing players together in order of their world ranking for the first two days. That leads to some blockbuster pairings for Thursday and Friday.

8:06 a.m. - 1:36 p.m. - Adam Scott, Australia; Phil Mickelson, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; Tiger Woods, Windermere, Fla.
1:36 p.m. - 8:06 a.m. - Justin Rose, England; Geoff Ogilvy, Australia; Ernie Els, South Africa
7:22 a.m. - 12:52 p.m. – K.J. Choi, Korea; Jim Furyk, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.; Steve Stricker, Madison, Wis.
12:52 p.m. - 7:22 a.m. - Stewart Cink, Duluth, Ga.; Sergio Garcia, Spain; Vijay Singh, Fiji

Note that this only is happening for the top 12 ranked players in the world. The problem with this is logistical - seemingly. You would imagine that most of the fans there would only be interested in these groups. The USGA was smart on this one, though, in that they staggered the pairing times between 1 and 10 and morning and afternoon so as to allow for fans to move around the course with these groups without as much trouble.

Mike Davis, senior director of rules and competition at the USGA, acknowledged fears in a conference call.

Woods and Mickelson are the biggest draws, and Davis said traffic to the course and on the course could be a problem. There also is the possibility that everyone leaves when the stars are done.

"We all know how traffic can be in San Diego," Davis said. "That was a huge part of the equation. We all talked long and hard about it. And the end of the day, we felt we could make that work."

Davis said there was some trepidation among USGA officials that the idea would create havoc, but he felt it was worth a shot.

The best part of the AP story, though, is this quote from Davis:

"Why not put them [Woods and Mickelson] in the same wave?" Davis said in a telephone interview from San Diego. "The heck with what TV wants. Let's do what we want for the championship."