Another early start yesterday, we were first out on the course at 7.01. We played nine holes and then hit the range for an hour or so. The place is getting a lot busier now and practice rounds for the full 18 holes look like they are taking up to six hours which is mad. It’s not the rough that causing the long rounds, it’s the slopes and the undulations on the greens. The greens are running pretty fast now and everyone is trying to work out the angles, the slopes and the backstops.
After lunch myself and Mike went out to the back nine. We had a good walk around and took plenty of notes. The yardage book is fine but it doesn’t help in term of lines off the tee or slopes so we’ll have all that planned out by Thursday. We still don’t know when we’re out in the first round. The draw should be out in the morning, I think it might have been delayed due to the changes to the start list.
I think the week is going to be all about driving and putting. The fairways are narrow, very narrow in places so James has been spending most of his time on the range working on his driving. He’ll probably start working on his short game today and Wednesday. It’s all aimed towards sharpening up, and his game should be in nice shape for Thursday.
Off the course very little is happening, there are very few people around and none of our friends and family from Mallow. We’re in the bubble that the US sports have spoken about so it’s literally moving from the hotel to course, and from the course to the hotel. The weather is nice, it’s around 23/24 degrees at the moment so it’s really nice. It should be around the same on Thursday and Friday with a bit of cloud so that should suit us perfectly.
Conor Dowling’s US Open Report – Sunday
The rough is still the talking point for many people, we took the video below on the right of the 11th when walking the course. That’s it for Monday, we’re heading down for a bite to eat now and we’re planning another early start in the morning.
