2024 US Open

[The Whyte Boar]

The way I heard that story was: a guy was watching Gary Player practice sand shots. He made 2 in a row and the guy said he was lucky. That's when Player replied "The more I work and practice, the luckier I seem to get."You cannot view this attachment.

No, Hogan said it.

Player worships Hogan. 

[Ray Zorback]

No, Hogan said it.

Player worships Hogan. 

Well, if you google 'Ben Hogan quotes', that doesn't show up. If you google 'Gary Player quotes', it's the first thing to come up. But maybe Player stole the quote from Hogan.

[The Whyte Boar]

Well, if you google 'Ben Hogan quotes', that doesn't show up. If you google 'Gary Player quotes', it's the first thing to come up. But maybe Player stole the quote from Hogan.

He did.  It's in several Hogan biographies.  I've read them all.

Kris Tschetter who played at TCU and knew Hogan really well, credits Hogan with saying.  Player, who was always known to have a tenuous relationship with the truth, wrote a book in 1962 in which he credited the saying to Miller Barber, I think.  Only later did he claim the story about practicing.

Odds are neither one of them said it first.  It's a common saying that's been around in some form or the other form more than a 100 years.

[Ray Zorback]

I've spent too much time on this. Here is an interesting article that mentions a lot of people, but not Hogan.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/07/14/luck/

[woodhog14]

He did.  It's in several Hogan biographies.  I've read them all.

Kris Tschetter who played at TCU and knew Hogan really well, credits Hogan with saying.  Player, who was always known to have a tenuous relationship with the truth, wrote a book in 1962 in which he credited the saying to Miller Barber, I think.  Only later did he claim the story about practicing.

Odds are neither one of them said it first.  It's a common saying that's been around in some form or the other form more than a 100 years.

Did you know that Ben Hogan was the Head Pro at Texarkana Country Club in 1934 for a year. He also made an albatross on hole #16. There is a plaque in the fairway from where he hit it.

I think that is pretty cool.

[The Whyte Boar]

Did you know that Ben Hogan was the Head Pro at Texarkana Country Club in 1934 for a year. He also made an albatross on hole #16. There is a plaque in the fairway from where he hit it.

I think that is pretty cool.

No that was Byron Nelson.  Nelson's wife was from Texarkana.

[Corn Pop]

Pretty sure Miller Barber is from Texarkana too. So between him, Hogan, Nelson and Nelson's wife, there's a pretty good chance that Texarkana can take pride in that quote.

[egregious]

Pretty sure Miller Barber is from Texarkana too. So between him, Hogan, Nelson and Nelson's wife, there's a pretty good chance that Texarkana can take pride in that quote.

"Did you know that your Uncle Jimmy played with Miller Barber at the University?"

I must have heard that 100 times if I heard it once.

[obijuana]

No that was Byron Nelson.  Nelson's wife was from Texarkana.

I don't know about all that. But, there was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland - he was from Detroit; and Tex... well, I don't remember where Tex come from.

[jdcatty]

No that was Byron Nelson.  Nelson's wife was from Texarkana.

Exactly.  There is a large painting of Nelson in TCC.

Pretty sure Miller Barber is from Texarkana too. So between him, Hogan, Nelson and Nelson's wife, there's a pretty good chance that Texarkana can take pride in that quote.

And yes, Miller Barber was from Texarkana.  Considered TCC his home club. 

Bill Rogers, who won the British Open in about 1982, was also from Texarkana.  His brother Rick Rogers was a lawyer who later became the head pro at Northridge Country Club in Texarkana.  Bill always considered Northridge his home club.  Not Rick.  Rick played TCC every weekend till he quit practicing law and started at NCC as the pro.  Rick always said TCC was the far superior course.

I knew Rick well, and met Bill a few times.  Both nice guys.  Most of the people that really knew them well said that if Bill had Rick's competitiveness, he would have been an all time great.

[Corn Pop]

  Good stuff, JD.

[Corn Pop]

"Did you know that your Uncle Jimmy played with Miller Barber at the University?"

I must have heard that 100 times if I heard it once.

We take our pride where we can find it. I bet Uncle Jimmy has some stories to tell.

[Corn Pop]

Back to the U.S. Open. On BetSaracen I've got Adam Hadwin (+15000), Sahith Theegala (+4000), Wyndham Clark (+6000) and Xander Schaffele (+900).

Back in the day, I used to participate in a Calcutta every year. When Tiger was in his prime, the guy who ran the Calcutta announced out of the blue one year "We've got to 'Tiger-proof' it this year. Sorry, no bets will be taken on Tiger."

If Scottie keeps playing like this, "Scottie-proofing" Calcuttas might become a thing.

[jdcatty]

Back to the U.S. Open. On BetSaracen I've got Adam Hadwin (+15000), Sahith Theegala (+4000), Wyndham Clark (+6000) and Xander Schaffele (+900).

Back in the day, I used to participate in a Calcutta every year. When Tiger was in his prime, the guy who ran the Calcutta announced out of the blue one year "We've got to 'Tiger-proof' it this year. Sorry, no bets will be taken on Tiger."

If Scottie keeps playing like this, "Scottie-proofing" Calcuttas might become a thing.

The Calcuttas at TCC are big money deals.  Maybe they are everywhere.

[woodhog14]

No that was Byron Nelson.  Nelson's wife was from Texarkana.

Oh yeah, my bad. Ha! Got the two mixed up.

[Thin Red Swine]

Back to the U.S. Open. On BetSaracen I've got Adam Hadwin (+15000), Sahith Theegala (+4000), Wyndham Clark (+6000) and Xander Schaffele (+900).

Back in the day, I used to participate in a Calcutta every year. When Tiger was in his prime, the guy who ran the Calcutta announced out of the blue one year "We've got to 'Tiger-proof' it this year. Sorry, no bets will be taken on Tiger."

If Scottie keeps playing like this, "Scottie-proofing" Calcuttas might become a thing.

I run a small pool of pick 6 (across multiple tiers) with the best 4 scores each day are counted. Obviously, that format in and of itself limits how much he contributes to the pool outcome.

But I've tried different approaches to mix it up and get some variety in the picks.  The latest one that's stuck is allowing his scores to be counted in only two rounds out of four. It seems to be just enough of a psychological ploy that it works.

[Corn Pop]

I run a small pool of pick 6 (across multiple tiers) with the best 4 scores each day are counted. Obviously, that format in and of itself limits how much he contributes to the pool outcome.

But I've tried different approaches to mix it up and get some variety in the picks.  The latest one that's stuck is allowing his scores to be counted in only two rounds out of four. It seems to be just enough of a psychological ploy that it works.

  Interesting. Sounds like you're sort of "Semi-Scottie-Proofing" it. He's currently +260 on BetSaracen to win the U.S. Open, which sounds pretty good, until you let it sink in that you're taking him against the entire field. Golf is a hard sport to dominate.

Those Calcuttas I used to play in were some pretty high-dollar affairs, kind of like what JD is talking about at the Texarkana CC I'd imagine. In those you had to buy the winner to win. All the high-rollers would outbid everybody else for Tiger and they'd usually win back when he was almost unstoppable.

Us poor folks were left to bid on everybody else. One year, I think it was '07, I got lucky. It was The Masters. I bought Zach Johnson for next to nothing and lo and behold he won. 

[FNG]

Practice is over (for the players and for the marshals) and you can feel the whole vibe changing.

Got to run the directional paddles for Finau and Harris English on the tee box today--intimidating but fun.

The amount of infrastructure required for these major tournaments is mind-boggling.

[Thin Red Swine]

Interesting. Sounds like you're sort of "Semi-Scottie-Proofing" it. He's currently +260 on BetSaracen to win the U.S. Open, which sounds pretty good, until you let it sink in that you're taking him against the entire field. Golf is a hard sport to dominate.

Those Calcuttas I used to play in were some pretty high-dollar affairs, kind of like what JD is talking about at the Texarkana CC I'd imagine. In those you had to buy the winner to win. All the high-rollers would outbid everybody else for Tiger and they'd usually win back when he was almost unstoppable.

Us poor folks were left to bid on everybody else. One year, I think it was '07, I got lucky. It was The Masters. I bought Zach Johnson for next to nothing and lo and behold he won. 

Yeah, the rule is everyone gets two Tier 1 selections (usually top 10-15 depending on field size). Both choices are restricted to two rounds and can't be both in the same round. It's really made the whole thing more fun.

They talked about the Scottie v. the field bet on Golf Channel and no one was willing to take him. As good as he's been, he's not Tiger (yet) and this golf course can produce a very unexpected winner (see the last two there).

[jdcatty]

Practice is over (for the players and for the marshals) and you can feel the whole vibe changing.

Got to run the directional paddles for Finau and Harris English on the tee box today--intimidating but fun.

The amount of infrastructure required for these major tournaments is mind-boggling.

Right about the infrastructure, for sure.  We went to the US Open at Congressional that Rory ran away with a long time ago.  Maybe 2011?  Somewhere around there. 

I was amazed at the infrastructure then, and I suspect it is even greater now.  The portable "tent style" buildings (my term, don't know what they are really called) were amazing-- a huge one for the American Express Lounge/food court (worth every penny of what I paid for my American Express card that year) and the one for the US Open clothing/memorabilia were huge, guessing 20k sq ft each.  And there were a dozen more sponsored by different companies-- AT&T, etc.  The food service places were plentiful and generally handled the volumes of people well. 

I said then I can now understand why these things take so many years to plan.