Rain swamps U.S. Open

For thePilot

The Beth Page Black Golf Course is truly one of the best courses in the world and was in fabulous conditions until Al Roker started messing with the weather.

Had the course remained firm and dry it would not have been feasible for even the best players in the world to shoot scores under par on this track. What tee-time draws the players received had a huge impact on their scoring, with those getting to play the first round on soft greens without the rain having a tremendous advantage.

Players of this caliber know the exact yardage with each club and when you know you can stop the ball it becomes a dart contest.

What is perhaps the biggest downer related to the torrential rainfall is having all the years of preparation washed away by more than an inch of rain on Thursday morning. When we arrived at the course on Monday, June 15, it was absolutely impeccable, with very fast green speeds measuring up to 14 feet on the Stimpmeter, and firm fairways.

So not only did the rain slow the greens a little, it basically prevented the ball from rolling in the fairway, which is both good and bad. Good from the sense that the player's ball would not land in the fairway and run into the rough, but bad in that it stopped what is usually more than 40 yards of roll to get even closer to the holes on the lengthy course.

Craig Currier, golf course superintendent at Beth Page, and his crew did an unbelievable job of getting the golf course, inside the ropes, in fantastic condition after the downpour. I would add that inside the ropes the course played remarkably well even after all the rain.

Beth Page State Park, the location of the Black Course, is a 1,500-acre park in middle of Long Island and includes four other golf courses.

The volunteer crew at the U.S. Open includes more than 5,000 people working to put this championship show all together. The green crew volunteers, nearly 200 workers, are from courses around the country, and most often the superintendents of those courses. Our own Dick Collins and Mike Girard were volunteers at Beth Page Black in 2002.

The amount of equipment needed to groom and maintain the course is phenomenal. Mowers run in tandem down the fairways, greens mowers work in pairs and rollers fly across the greens after the cutting is completed. Every squeegee on the East Coast must have been collected for use at the U.S. Open.

Teams of up to 10 volunteers worked an every green during the rain, trying to move the standing water from the surface. The volunteers would even squeegee the line of a putt for players when asked to do so.

My part as a volunteer included being able to assist with testing the speeds and firmness of the greens. The speeds are tested with a simple devise called a Stimpmeter that measures how far a ball rolls on the green after being released down an 18-inch ramp at a 45-degree angle.

If the balls average rolling 13.5 feet, then the green speed is called 13.5. Most of us play on greens with speeds around 9.5, so believe me, anything above 12 is really fast. The firmness test measures how hard the green surface is and subsequently how well they receive a shot.

The goal with speed and firmness is to get as consistent as possible, not necessarily as fast and hard as possible. For those of you who play the Whitefish Lake Golf Course, the USGA was trying to get the firmness to about the level of the No. 2 green on the North Course. (No. 2 is firm because it is still rather new and has not developed a thick root-zone, but it will soften over time with continued aeration and TLC.) Really good players can discern the difference between green speeds of less than two feet of roll from green to green.

Lucas Glover is a great example of what the U.S. Open is all about and demonstrated that by holding on under trying conditions to hoist the trophy after five days of play. My prediction for a winning score was three under par, and even with soft conditions, the winning score was only four under.

Phil Mickelson was by far the New York-crowd favorite, with a huge following of his every move around the course and cheering each shot. Normally Tiger Woods garners the biggest gallery, but not this year. The New Yorkers love their sports and are certainly not afraid to cheer — and even occasionally heckle. They were even supportive of Sergio Garcia this year, whereas in 2002 at Beth Page, he was the target for his continual re-gripping and slow play.

The U.S. Open, like most major sporting events is a happening that must be experienced in person in order to take in all the enormity of the occasion. While the best seat may well be in front of the TV, being there brings a whole new dimension and understanding of how big a deal you are witnessing.