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# Steve Stricker. Time is running out for Stricker to earn his elusive major. Merion might suit him. It’s not the longest U.S. Open course ever, and Stricker has the type of patient game that it takes to win an Open. He won’t be tempted to try and overpower the course, and we all know what type of putter he is. He’s been in the top 20 in four of the last six Opens.

# Jim Furyk. This is Furyk’s one and only major win, and he always seems to play competitively in the U.S. Open. Since his first Open in 1994, Furyk has missed just two cuts at the event, and he’s had three top-four finishes in his last six appearances. Furyk would love some redemption; it’s tough to forget his late-Sunday meltdown at the Olympic Club last year that handed the title to Webb Simpson.

# Graeme McDowell. Like Furyk, the U.S. Open is his only major title. It’s the only major where he has finished in the top 10 more than once, including last year’s tie for second. Throughout his career, he’s shown a knack for coming up big in big events. Besides his win at the Open in 2010, he beat Indian Jeev Milkha Singh in a playoff at the Ballantines Championship in 2008 and knocked off Thongchai Jaidee, who is in the Open field, in the World Match Play Championship just a month ago. His clutch performance in the 2010 Ryder Cup was one for the ages. Oh, and his PGA Tour win this year at the RBC Heritage came in a playoff over reigning U.S. Open champ Simpson.

# Tiger Woods. OK. It’s kind of mandatory to put Woods in here. Though he hasn’t won a major for five years – the 2008 U.S. Open in his memorable one-legged playoff against Rocco Mediate – he has been the hottest player on the PGA Tour this year. Even if Woods doesn’t win, he’ll certainly be putting heat on whoever does.

# Lee Westwood. Besides the Masters, he’s played better in this major than any of them. Forgotten in the Woods-Mediate showdown of 2008 was that Westwood finished solo third behind the two playoff combatants. He’s been in the top 10 in the last two Opens, including a T3 in 2011. His clock is ticking, too, so perhaps a sense of urgency can help get him over the top. Finally.

# Matt Kuchar. Kuchar doesn’t have a sterling track record in majors. After making waves as the low amateur at the 1998 U.S. Open (not to mention the Masters in the same year), Kuchar’s lone highlight at this event was a T6 in 2010. On the bright side, all five of Kuchar’s career top 10 finishes in majors have come in his last 13 majors, including a T8 at this year’s Masters. Plus, Kuchar has been one of the best players on the Tour this year, winning both the WGC Match Play and the Memorial. It would be nice and symmetrical if he could finish what he started: crown his career with a title at the tournament that launched it.

# The winner: Furyk atones for last year’s blunders and wins his second major title.

– Chuck Curti

(This) week, all eyes will rightly be focused on the U.S. Open at historic Merion Golf Club. Johnny Miller, as usual, will be the television broadcaster that viewers largely rely on for unique flashes of observation and insight.

But the 2013 U.S. Open also marks the 40th anniversary of Miller’s magical final round 63 that won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1973, a round that many experts still consider the greatest ever played in the history of championship golf.

A number of mythologies — some generated by Miller himself — persist about the 1973 U.S. Open, all of which should be re-examined and, wherever possible, clarified. There are also several features of Miller’s extraordinary athletic achievement that haven’t been sufficiently appreciated.

The observations that follow derive from the extensive research we conducted for our 2010 book, “Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, and the Miracle at Oakmont” (Penguin, Inc., 2010). Our goal here is to sharpen several analytic points and present them in a way that will encourage further inquiry and deepen the historical record.

Our research was based in a wide range of historical archives and newspapers; personal and phone interviews with former players, caddies, observers, and USGA officials; extensive video coverage (some of which is not widely available); and our considerable knowledge of Oakmont’s history and of the course itself (although neither of us is a member of Oakmont Country Club).

1. In the early 1970s, Oakmont was still generally regarded as the toughest test in American championship golf. Prior to 1973, the lowest round shot at an Oakmont-hosted U.S. Open (there had been four previous: in 1927, 1935, 1953, and 1962) was Ben Hogan’s opening round 67 in 1953. That five-under-par score (the first hole then played as a par 5) was later matched by Dean Beman in the final round of the 1962 U.S. Open.

Jack Nicklaus’s lowest round in 1962, when he defeated Arnold Palmer in their famous Father’s Day playoff, was 69; Palmer’s lowest round that same year was 68 (tied for the single lowest round in all of his five U.S. Opens at Oakmont).

This is why Gary Player’s 67 in the opening round of the 1973 U.S. Open was so spectacular. Not only was the famed South African recovering from bladder and knee surgery that spring, but his round was the only score under 70 that day. Statistically, Player’s 67 on Day One stood out as an outlier in the overall scoring distribution.

Therefore, at the start of the 1973 championship there was absolutely no reason to expect several U.S. Open scoring records to soon fall. In fact, the average score on Day One in 1973 was a half-stroke higher than in 1962, when Oakmont played notoriously hard and fast.

This is also why the exceptionally low scores shot on Day Two of the 1973 championship — more scores in the 60s than during any previous U.S. Open, and a new course and U.S. Open scoring record of 65 shot by the club pro from Long Island, Gene Borek — shocked the USGA and Oakmont’s members.

2. The oft-rumored but never fully confirmed reports of a pre-dawn sprinkler malfunction that soaked Oakmont’s wickedly fast greens — denied by many, even to this day — occurred prior to Friday’s second round, not Sunday’s final round.

Our candid, in-person interviews with two key USGA officials who are still alive and were on-site at Oakmont in 1973 confirmed the sprinkler malfunction, a point that we had already discovered prior to those interviews by way of careful re-reading of newspaper accounts at the time.

But the sprinkler malfunction occurred in the early hours of Friday morning — not Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday morning, contrary to what many writers, players, and even the two USGA officials we interviewed still claimed. Scoring on Friday was notably different from the other three days — the only day in which differences in day-to-day scoring patterns reached statistical significance.

Gene Borek’s Oakmont- and U.S. Open-record score of 65 on Friday is almost inexplicable otherwise.

Why is it important to determine definitively when the sprinkler malfunction actually occurred? Mainly so that no one continues to claim that the sprinkler malfunction softened and slowed the greens on Sunday morning, thus opening the door for Miller’s final round of 63. The sprinkler malfunction did indeed appear to have a direct impact on scoring by making the greens unusually soft and slow that day — but in Friday’s second round, not in Sunday’s final round.

In short, Miller’s 63 had nothing to do with a sprinkler malfunction.

3. Contrary to a widespread but erroneous impression — as attested by the reports of the U.S. Weather Service and major newspapers in western Pennsylvania — the only considerable rainfall during the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, prior to the third round. As a result, play was delayed an hour or so. The ferocious storm that some writers have ttributed to Saturday night — the night before Miller shot 63 — actually occurred on Sunday night, after play

was over.

And, contrary to another urban legend, a “lift and place” exception was never invoked at

any time during the 1973 U.S. Open.

4. Despite the apparent impact on scoring of the sprinkler malfunction on Friday, no simple, predictable statistical relationship was evident throughout the rest of the week between wet conditions and scoring. For example, Oakmont played softer and slower early on Saturday due to the rains that fell on Saturday morning, but the players’ scores on Saturday were the highest of the entire championship (although the difference did not reach statistical significance; the only significant difference was in Friday’s lower scoring, as discussed above).

5. Johnny Miller shot 63 and Lanny Wadkins shot 65 in the final round at Oakmont in 1973, but very few others shot low scores that day. In fact, Nicklaus and Ralph Johnston (both shot 68) were the only other two players to break 70 on Sunday.

Beyond that, scoring in Sunday’s final round was not statistically different from the scores that these same players (i.e., the qualifiers) had posted on Thursday. Therefore, contrary to what is often claimed, Oakmont did not play unusually easy on Sunday, when Miller shot 63 and Wadkins shot 65.

Two players renowned throughout their careers for the ability to “go low” truly played lights out on Sunday. (And until Wadkins’s right foot slipped on his tee shot at No. 18, leading to a bogey, he too believed that he had a realistic chance to win the championship by shooting 63 on Sunday.)

6. Miller’s 63 was 8-under Oakmont’s par of 71, and included nine birdies and one bogey. He shot 4-under par on both nines: 32-31. He hit 16 of 18 fairways and all 18 greens. He had 15 putts on the front nine (including a three-putt bogey on the par-3 eighth hole and a two-putt birdie on the par-5 ninth hole), and 14 putts on the back nine, for a total of 29 putts.

Miller’s 63 — though matched several times in the years since — remains the lowest final round score ever shot in a U.S. Open, and the lowest final round to win any major championship.

7. Miller’s 63 on Sunday, following his Saturday score of 76, sharply distinguishes his come-from-behind win in 1973 from any other victory in U.S. Open history.

Contrary to legend, consistency of performance has not always accompanied U.S. Open winners. In fact, half the time before 1973, the victors were fairly erratic rather than consistent in their last two rounds of play, shooting four or more strokes higher or lower in their fourth compared to their third rounds.

For example, when Bobby Jones won the U.S. Open at Interlachen in 1930 (during his Grand Slam season), he shot 68 in his third round and 75 in his fourth round. And because he won, history does not remember Jones as having “choked.”

Alternatively, U.S. Open winners have often shot considerably lower in their fourth than their third rounds. Predictably, these victors came from well behind to win: none more famed than Arnold Palmer in 1960, who overcame a seven-stroke deficit at Cherry Hills by shooting a record-setting 65 following a 72 in round three.

It’s the scale of Miller’s 13-shot improvement between rounds three and four that sets his victory apart from every other champion. This achievement singles him out decisively: he’s the only statistical outlier among all the victors in U.S. Open history.

In our judgment, Miller’s 13-shot improvement stands out as a heroic triumph over previous failure that bears comparison with any comeback in all of sport history.

8. Continuing this discussion from another angle: Miller shot 76 on Saturday, dropping six shots behind the leaders going into Sunday’s final round. Miller claims that his 76 resulted from leaving his yardage book in his pants pocket from the day before. He only realized this on the first tee and sent his wife home from the course to retrieve the yardage book. She arrived in time to hand it to him on the 10th tee.

According to Miller, having the yardage book saved the day: he shot 5-over on the front nine (41) but shot par (35) on the back nine, with the yardage book. (1)

That is a cute, seemingly logical story. The only problem is that Miller’s actual scores on Saturday were 38, or 2-over par, on the front nine, and 38, or 3-over par, on the back nine.

Miller actually shot an additional stroke over par on the back nine with the yardage book. Given how much emphasis Miller, even in recent years, places on the absence of precise yardage measurements to explain his third-round 76, he probably shouldn’t have scored worse on the back nine (3-over par versus 2-over par) with the yardage information in hand than without it.

Some additional detail about Miller’s 76 on Saturday: after the first six holes on the front nine, Miller was indeed 5-over par. He then saved par by sinking a 20-foot putt on the seventh hole. But his front nine fortunes changed drastically on holes No. 8 and 9. On the long, par-3 eighth hole, he hit a perfect long iron and sank the short birdie putt. Then, on the par-5 ninth hole, he hit another perfect, high 2-iron onto the green and holed the eagle putt. Thus, he finished the front nine 2-over par, not 5-over par. And his long irons were stiff on both holes No. 8 and 9 — without the yardage book in his possession.

9. How, from a psychological perspective, could Miller go from 38-38 on Saturday to 32-31 on Sunday? In his role as NBC announcer at the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Miller — for the first time on the record, as best we can tell, in a special pre-tournament feature interview — offered his “voices” explanation:

Well, I was on the practice tee and I had about five balls to go and I just had this clear thought or voice say to me, “Open your stance way up. Way open.” And I never had that before, and never had it since. I was thinking, “What was that?” It was like, I don’t want to do that, and it just said, “Open your stance way up,” again. And I thought, “Well, I’ll try it.” I’m always open to trying things.

Obviously, we can’t verify whether or not Miller heard voices, on the practice tee with five balls remaining, or whenever or wherever. Nor can we dispute that Miller opened his stance substantially on the practice tee and thereby made a swing adjustment that enabled him to hit all 18 greens at Oakmont (truly a miracle) and shoot 63 on Sunday.

That said, we would call attention to a less dramatic, non-supernatural explanation of his swing adjustment that Miller himself offered in the press conference immediately following his round on June 18, 1973:

I remembered earlier in the year, when in eight weeks I was 70-under par and I shot a 63 in the Hope Classic. I was playing with an open stance. I had let my stance slip closed, allowed my left foot to slide around too far, so I opened it up on the practice tee. (2)

On the surface, we find the logic and content of Miller’s explanation of his swing adjustment in 1973 more persuasive and, from an evidentiary standpoint, more fathomable than the supernatural explanation he offered in 2007.

10. Just how well did Miller play from tee to green to shoot 63 at Oakmont? Some confusion remains about this, particularly if one resorts to statistical “averages” to conclude how closely he hit the ball to the pin, or if one includes the par 5s (all three of which Miller birdied) in calculating the “averages.”

Here’s how we prefer to present the available statistics on Miller’s round, drawing from our extensive documentary and video evidence. We think it unwise to portray the round in terms of statistical “averages,” and we also think that one should separate out the par 5s from the par 4s and 3s in presenting the data.

Fairways hit: Miller actually missed two fairways, not one, as is usually claimed. He missed the par-5 12th by a few yards to the left; from deep rough, he hit a 7-iron to escape, followed by a superb 4-iron to the green. Miller also slightly missed the fairway on the par-4 14th, to the right; he was in only mild (almost indistinguishable as) rough and hit an outstanding short iron to the green.

Greens hit: all 18, although he was barely on the greens on holes No. 10 and 16. It’s an exaggeration to claim that every one of Miller’s irons was flawless on Sunday; they weren’t, and certainly not on these two holes. Here’s our count of greens hit, and distances from each flagstick. We could compute “averages” from these data, but, as indicated earlier, we prefer not to do so because we think it confuses understanding.

A) Six feet or less from the flagstick: holes No. 1, 2, 4 (par 5, from the greenside bunker), 7, 9 (par 5, on the green in two shots) and 13. Thus, Miller was within 6 feet of the flagstick on six holes, but two were par 5s. He made five of these six birdie putts (he missed a 6-footer on hole No. 7), but made 5-footers on holes No. 1 and 13; the other three birdies, on holes No. 2, 4 and 9, were from within 2 feet.

B) 15 feet or less, but more than 6 feet from the flagstick: holes No. 11, 12 (par 5, on his third shot), 14, 15 and 17. Thus, Miller was between 6 and 15 feet from the flagstick on five holes — not quite stiff, but still remarkably accurate at Oakmont (especially because the greens had hardened significantly by Sunday as compared to Saturday). Miller made three of his five putts between 6 and 15 feet, on holes No. 11, 12 and 15. That makes for a very good percentage at Oakmont, even though Miller believes that he didn’t putt particularly well on Sunday (especially compared to how exceptionally he putted on Thursday and Friday — “[the] greatest putting I’ve ever seen [at Oakmont],” (3) according to Arnold Palmer, his playing partner on those two days). Overall, Miller was putting for birdies within 15 feet on 11 holes (three of which were par 5s), and he made eight of these 11 birdie putts.

C) 20-30 feet: holes No. 3, 5, 6, 8 and 18. Miller made a 25-footer for birdie on the third hole, but three-putted from 30 feet on the eighth hole. Over time, Miller and others have tended to shorten the length of the putt he left himself on hole No. 8, but from the sources at the time — there’s no video footage — we believe that 30 feet is the best estimate. Clearly, these five iron shots were not particularly precise, although his approach to No. 18 was dead on and looked like it would be “stiff” before rolling back down the hump in front of the flagstick and stopping approximately 22 feet away (Miller’s putt for 62 lipped out).

D) 40-75 feet: holes No. 10 and 16. Miller’s iron shot on the 10th hole came to rest around 45 feet from the flagstick, on the left front portion of the green. Miller hit an excellent lag putt that broke around 7 feet, leaving him an easy, uphill 2-footer for par. Miller’s long iron on hole No. 16 left him a difficult 70+-foot putt. It was his only significantly off line shot all day (perhaps intentionally so, given the far right flagstick), and with the ball in the air Miller showed real concern that it might end up in the left

bunker. But he hit a fine putt over the green’s tricky center hump, leaving a relatively simple, flat, 4-footer for par.

11. Some commentators continue to believe that Miller felt no pressure in shooting his final round 63 because he finished several hours before the leaders. This is just not true.

He was in the seventh-to-last twosome, teeing off at 1:47 p.m., so he was not a morning starter, an also-ran. And at six shots behind (3-under) and in a tie for 13th place, Miller wasn’t so far back that it would be unprecedented for him to win; recall that Palmer won the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills from seven shots behind in 1960.

Furthermore, after his four consecutive birdies to start the round, Miller immediately jumped into the mix well before the four leaders (Palmer, John Schlee, Julius Boros and Jerry Heard) teed off. He knew precisely where he stood on the leaderboard as he walked to the fifth tee: -1 for the championship, only two shots behind the leaders as they prepared to play the toughest opening hole in all of American championship golf. Miller (quite reasonably) assumed that that it was the leaders who might begin to tremble on the first tee when they learned what he had already done.

Miller also claims that he felt great pressure from that point onward. The pressure grew after he hit good approach shots but left putts short on holes No. 5 and 6, and especially after he botched a 6-foot birdie attempt on hole No. 7. That poor putt may have been on his mind on hole No. 8, where he left a relatively flat 30-footer five feet short, and then badly missed the follow-up.

While on the ninth tee, Miller was back to even par for the championship. He didn’t know exactly where he stood at this point (the leaders were still on the opening holes), but despite the bogey on hole No. 8, he still felt very much in contention. Miller knew that he was playing exceptionally well from tee to green — far better than in any of the first three rounds — and from the lack of crowd noise behind him, he was confident that  none of the leaders was off to a similarly fast start. As he prepared to tee off on the par-5 ninth hole, which he had eagled the day before, Miller knew he could gain even more ground with a quick birdie or two, maybe even another eagle.

In short, we think it is flat-out wrong to claim, as many previous commentators have, that Miller saw his round as a casual stroll in the park on Sunday, or that he went low because he was totally carefree and didn’t feel any pressure to win. After Miller two-putted for a birdie on hole No. 9, by way of hitting the green with another beautiful 2-iron, he was only three shots behind the leaders, with nine holes to play. And he still hadn’t come close to missing a green.

12. Ultimately, Miller won at Oakmont because of his extraordinary play on holes No. 11 to 15. No one else in the field came close to matching him on these holes. In fact, no other leader played these holes in better than par; Miller played them at 4-under.

Following a safe par on the very difficult 10th hole, Miller birdied holes No. 11, 12, 13 and 15, with putts ranging from five to 14 feet. On hole No. 14, much to his dismay, his 12-foot downhill putt stopped an inch short of the hole, narrowly ruining a chance for five birdies in a row.

During that stretch, as Sunday morning’s leaders failed to mount a charge of any kind on the front nine, Miller passed by everyone. Julius Boros 3-putted on hole No. 9 to remain at -4, just as Miller took the lead for good at hole No. 15 with a bold 4-iron that rode a left-to-right breeze and stopped 10 feet to the right of the hole, leaving a slightly uphill birdie putt with minimal break. Interestingly, his birdies on holes No. 12, 13 and 15 all were all the result of superb 4-iron shots.

13. Miller was 8-under par in his final round of 63: 32-31, or 4-under on each side (in 1973 par was 71; the 9th hole was first declared a par 4 in the 2007 U.S. Open).

Miller was not the only one to shoot 32 on the front nine at Oakmont in 1973 (Wadkins did so too, also in the final round). But he remains the only player in the course’s illustrious championship golf history — Oakmont has hosted more major championships than any other course, except for Augusta National — ever to shoot 31 on Oakmont’s back nine.

That back-nine 31 to win by one stroke deserves consideration as perhaps the greatest back nine ever played (the 12th chapter of “Chasing Greatness” is so titled) to win a major championship: no player before or since has matched that back nine score at Oakmont, either in a final round or any other round of a major championship played at Oakmont.

14. A final set of observations about “The King,” Arnold Palmer of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, at Oakmont in 1973.

The sports media viewed the 1973 U.S. Open as Palmer’s chance for redemption following his heartbreaking loss to Nicklaus at Oakmont 11 years earlier. Palmer — refuting speculation that he had slowed down at age 43 — did so as well. After all, he had bested his rival Nicklaus to win the Bob Hope Desert Classic that February. The seven-time major championship winner had even stopped playing on tour for a full month prior to the U.S. Open in order to work on fine-tuning his game with his club pro father and concentrate solely on preparing to win at Oakmont.

To the press and the fans, the 1973 U.S. Open centered around Arnold Palmer.

Palmer was supremely confident as he began the final round. An Oakmont career-best 68 in the third round had surged Palmer into a four-way tie for the lead. Playing alongside John Schlee — who also played quickly and with whom he got along well — Palmer was positioned exactly where he wanted to be. He had Julius Boros — the man he feared most, Palmer told us — immediately behind him. He had Tom Weiskopf, the hottest player on tour with three victories and one second-place finish in his previous four starts, directly in front of him.

With his top competitors in sight, Palmer felt that he could play the course strategically — the intelligent way to play Oakmont, he told us. He believed only a fool would try to go low at Oakmont, especially as the greens returned to normal speed on Sunday. Palmer thought that if he shot 1- or possibly 2-under for the day, he would surely win.

Everything went pretty much as planned until hole No. 12. Palmer was solid from tee to green, and after a birdie on No. 9 and a beautiful chip to secure par on hole No. 10, he thought he was tied for the lead with Boros.

At hole No. 11 he hit a perfect short iron to 4 feet, then watched Boros and Heard mangle hole No. 10 on the parallel fairway. Palmer was in a great position to grab a 2-shot lead and, in his view, take the championship. To his great angst, however, he missed the 4-footer and had to settle for par.

Still, Palmer went to the 12th tee secure that, at -4 for the championship, he had at least a one-shot lead. He had no clue what Miller — now -5 for the championship and playing the 18th hole — had done.

Standing on the 12th tee, Palmer — who, because he knew Oakmont so well, had chosen to play this tournament without the glasses or contact lenses that corrected his diminishing vision — could not clearly make out the scoreboard behind the nearby 14^th green. He thought he saw a red number next to Miller’s name, at the very bottom of the scoreboard, but asked Schlee for clarification. Schlee told him that Miller was, in fact, -5 for the championship, one ahead of Palmer.

Palmer was in genuine disbelief. Miller had played poorly from tee to green when they were paired together in the first two rounds. Only stellar putting had kept Miller in contention. It simply never occurred to Palmer that Miller could become a factor in the final round at Oakmont. (Tom Weiskopf — who finished third, two shots back — facetiously remarked Sunday evening that “I didn’t even know Miller had made the cut” [4])

Palmer did his best to fight through the shock, but he couldn’t. Even 36 years later, when we interviewed him in Latrobe, Pa., the defeat and bewilderment that he felt at the time projected through his words and pained facial expressions. Only his collapse on the back nine at The Olympic Club in 1966, he told us, haunted him more deeply than his collapse at Oakmont in 1973.

The end for Palmer came quickly and decisively. After driving into deep rough, he scrambled for a bogey on hole No. 12. A poor iron on hole No. 13 led to a 3-putt bogey. He then made a mess of hole No. 14, and any chance to win died out. The only silver lining came on the 18th green as he holed a long, snaking putt for a birdie, which pushed him into a tie for fourth place with Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, behind Miller, Schlee and Weiskopf.

FOOTNOTE : 1 Mike Dudurich, “Miller’s Dissection of Oakmont Stands the Test of Time,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

FOOTNOTE 2: Art Spander, “Miller Wary Until the End,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 18, 1973.

FOOTNOTE 3: Ken McKee, “Roller-coaster Greens Become Putt Paradise as Par Beats U.S. Open,” Toronto Star, June 16, 1973.

FOOTNOTE 4: Dan Jenkins, “Battle of the Ages,” Sports Illustrated, June 25, 1973.

The plane ride was pleasant as Burnett took with her the satisfaction that she had just tied for 12th in what was only her second start on the LPGA Tour. After missing out on full status by one shot at the final stage of Q School and planning instead to play on the LET where she had full status, Burnett was pleased that she had made the most of her sponsor’s invitation to Kingsmill.

But as she perused her Twitter account in the aftermath of the tournament, Burnett kept seeing messages from LPGA Tour veteran Christina Kim. She told Burnett to keep her eye on the upcoming reshuffle. Burnett’s effort at Kingsmill, tweeted Kim, might just earn her a better standing for upcoming LPGA Tour events.

“I had no clue,” said Burnett during last week’s ShopRite LPGA Classic. “I wasn’t sure how that worked because I am a rookie.”

Because she already had conditional status on the LPGA Tour, the money she earned at Kingsmill did, indeed, count toward the tour’s official money list. And following the reshuffle, Burnett’s status was upgraded to the point where she can get into the rest of the full-field events for the season.

This week, she’s playing in the LPGA Championship; she’ll play with Sandra Gal and Stacy Prammanasudh the first two days. It is Burnett’s second appearance in a major; she played in the 2012 U.S. Open, missing the cut.

So Burnett’s plans have changed quite a bit since the winter.

She had intended to play both on the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour from the outset. She wanted to play a full schedule this season to gain the experience.

“Being in Europe, you play so many different places and in so many types of conditions … if it’s not good conditions I figured if you could play well there you could play well anywhere,” she said.

Being on the LET also afforded her the opportunity to play in front of larger crowds, something she wouldn’t have had playing on the Symetra Tour. (She played in a handful of Symetra Tour events after turning pro in 2012.)

Burnett, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, began the year in Europe, and began it well. She placed in the top five in two of the three events she played. That effort, she said, helped to earn her that fateful sponsor’s invite to Kingsmill.

After her T12 there, she posted a T22 at the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic before missing the cut in Galloway, N.J., last week.

Regardless of how she fares the rest of the season on the LPGA Tour, Burnett is still planning on going back to Europe to conclude her year. She said she would have had no problem bouncing back and forth across the Atlantic all year, but there is at least some satisfaction in being able to stay on her home soil for a while.

“I didn’t really mind it either way,” she said. “I have a lot of friends in Europe, and I really enjoy Europe. I think the (Ladies) European Tour is a great tour. I obviously like playing in the States so my family and people can come see me. But I love to travel, so it doesn’t bother me to be over there and here.

“(My goals) are pretty much the same. I just have to change my schedule a little.”

– Chuck Curti

Inbee Park captured the year’s first major, running away with the Kraft Nabisco Championship by four shots. Park’s win, her second career major, continued a trend of Asians dominating in the big events. Asians have won the last eight majors. An American last won a major in 2011 when Stacy Lewis captured the Kraft Nabisco Championship on her way to the world’s No. 1 ranking. Catriona Matthew is the last European woman to win a major (2009 British Open).

Shanshan Feng is the reigning champion, scoring a historic win last year to become the first golfer from China – male or female – to capture a major championship. Feng certainly has a good chance to defend her title … but that’s getting ahead of things.

Without further ado, here are five (plus one) who could win the Wegmans LPGA Championship:

Stacy Lewis: Lewis has played well in this tournament, earning top-10 finishes in three of the last four events. She tied for runner-up honors last year with three others. She’s coming off a forgettable tournament at the ShopRite LPGA Classic that featured an 80 in the second round, but she’s already won twice this year, and she’s still No. 2 in the world. Lewis will be right there in the thick of things this week.

Inbee Park: It would be silly to not include the world’s No. 1 player in the discussion. Park stormed to No. 1 with an impressive four-event stretch that saw her win twice and place in the top 7 in the other two events. On the flipside, Park has been anything but hot lately. She missed the cut in the Bahamas and was T38 in Galloway, N.J., last week without ever being a factor. She also has history working against her; the last woman to go back-to-back in majors was Lorena Ochoa (2007 British, 2008 Kraft).

Beatriz Recari: Before Park went on her dominant run, no one on the LPGA Tour was playing better than Recari. She had a T3, T4 and a win (her second on the tour) in her first five events of the season. She has never fared well in majors; the Spaniard has made the cut in her last five but never finished better than T25. But Recari is confident, and she’s on a mission to earn a spot on the European Solheim Cup team. Winning a major certainly would go a long way toward that end.

I.K. Kim: Anytime the subject of majors comes up, I.K. Kim has to be in the conversation. She’s still looking for her first – not to mention looking to overcome the crushing disappointment of letting one slip away at the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship. In the 20 majors she played between 2008 and 2012, she finished in the top 10 in exactly half. In her 10 tournaments this year, she’s been in the top 10 in five of them, including a T5 in brutal conditions at ShopRite last week.

Suzann Pettersen: Pettersen looked clearly frustrated in missing the cut at the Bay Course last week, but prior to that, she was on an impressive run. In a four-tournament stretch, beginning with the Kia Classic, she went T3, win, 3 and 2. And there’s this: Pettersen won this tournament – her only major title – in 2007, and in the last two she’s finished T3 and T2.

Caroline Hedwall: As usual, 7CsGOLF likes to go a bit off the board with one of the picks. Hedwall is that pick … except that it isn’t totally off the wall. Hedwall has plenty of experience with winning. She has five wins on the Ladies European Tour, and she’s played well in her brief time on the LPGA Tour, including … wait for it … a T3 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Oh, and the winner … let’s go with Pettersen. She’s too good to have just one major.

– Chuck Curti

In July 2011, just two weeks past her 21st birthday, Ryu, who was still a member of the Korea LPGA at the time, stunned the golf world by winning the U.S. Open, beating compatriot Hee Kyung Seo in a three-hole playoff.

After a slow start, consecutive 69s at The Broadmoor East Course vaulted Ryu into a three-way tie for first at the end of the third round. A third consecutive 69 put her in a playoff with Seo, who shot 68 in both the third and fourth rounds.

Ryu clinched the title by routing Seo by three strokes in the playoff. With her title came notoriety and automatic membership to the LPGA Tour.

And just to prove her feat in Colorado wasn’t a one-off showing, Ryu ran away with the LPGA’s rookie of the year award for the 2012 season. Not only that, she finished fifth in the overall player of the year standings.

She got her first “official” LPGA Tour win in Toledo and had 15 additional top-10 finishes. That’s not a misprint: 15 additional top 10s. That means in the 24 tournaments she entered, she was in the top 10 in two-thirds of them.

Not impressed yet? Then consider that of the 16 top 10s, 12 of those were top fives.

Ryu made it look easy. But now comes the hard part: the encore.

Ryu is trying to prove that she can be among the LPGA’s best on a consistent basis.

“I feel a little (pressure). (This year) will be compared to last year,” she said following her second round at last week’s ShopRite LPGA Classic. “All the fans really expect wins from me. It’s kind of pressure for me, but I’m a professional and I kind of have to handle it. I just try to enjoy it.”

Even though Ryu was technically a rookie on the LPGA Tour last year, she had plenty of experience playing professionally. She had played three-plus years on the KLPGA after turning pro in 2008. It was her success on the KLPGA, in fact, that earned her the spot in the 2011 U.S. Open; the top five money winners from the KLPGA in 2010 were exempted into the U.S. Open.

She adjusted to the LPGA Tour quickly, and she credited her fellow players for helping her to become acclimated to her new surroundings.

After her run of success, maybe they regret it now.

She finished sixth on the LPGA money list in 2012 and finished in the top 10 in several statistical categories, including first in number of under-par holes.

And that encore? Ryu, No. 6 in the world in the latest rankings, doesn’t have a win yet in 2013, but she’s still posting some fine results.

She has yet to miss a cut and has four top-10 finishes, including a runner-up showing at the year’s first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She ranks eighth in the player of the year race.

The LPGA is entering a stretch where three majors will be played over a two-month span beginning this week with the LPGA Championship in Pittsford, N.Y. Ryu finished T25 there a year ago but has been in the top five in her last two majors.

“After I won the U.S. Open, I really want to win the major tournaments. One is not enough,” she said with a laugh.

If Ryu wants to add that second major this week, she’ll need to clean up her putting. She acknowledged that she hasn’t been rolling it well on the greens of late, but she believes the problems are more mental than mechanical.

She had her coach with her at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, so she’s hopeful her game is in shape for Locust Hill Country Club.

“Every shot is really important, but I think tee shots and putting are most important in major tournaments,” she said. “The fairways are very narrow, and the rough is very thick, and the greens are so fast.”

Fast would describe Ryu’s rise in the LPGA. Her rookie season indeed may be a tough act to follow, but another major – or two – this season certainly could make 2012 look like nothing more than a warmup for bigger things.

“I finished second at Nabisco, so it gave me a lot of confidence,” she said. “So I think I’m ready to win.”

Then she laughed her infectious laugh.

“I just need a bit more luck.”

– Chuck Curti

GALLOWAY, N.J. – Mother Nature turned up the heat and turned on the fan, making conditions difficult on the field at the Stockton Seaview Resort’s Bay Course on Saturday. The swirling, gusting winds and baked greens made what was turning into a tough week even tougher.

It should come as no surprise that many of the players who struggled Saturday had afternoon tee times.

First-round leader Amanda Blumenherst (1:43 p.m. tee time) stumbled to a 75 Saturday. Her co-leader after Friday’s round, Moriya Jutanugarn (1:21 p.m.), had a 2-over 73. Former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis (12:59 p.m) was brought to her knees by the conditions; she was just a shot off the lead Friday, but carded an unsightly 80 Saturday.

But there were those who weren’t as affected by the weather, namely those with morning tee times.

The big beneficiary was Shanshan Feng (8:32 a.m.), who followed her opening-round 69 with a 4-under 67 to take a three-shot lead over Jutanugarn and Haeji Kang. Feng ran off six birdies in an eight-hole stretch – including four in a row – early in her round.

Kang (7:59 a.m.) shot a 2-under 69.

Anna Nordqvist (7:59 a.m.) moved into contention with a 3-under 68.

Chie Arimura (7:48 a.m.) matched Feng’s 4-under round as did Karine Icher (8:10 a.m.).

Marcy Hart, who shot a 78 while playing in the afternoon on Friday, teed off at 7:15 a.m. Saturday and shot a 69.

Today’s round shouldn’t be quite as hot, but the winds are expected to be blowing, and with no precipitation, the course promises to be firm and fast. This could be a final round where someone in the middle of the pack can make a run if conditions get too tough for the leaders.

## On the short par-3 17th hole, Sun Young Yoo hit the flag with her tee shot. Not the stick, but the actual flag. The ball was tossed to the left of the hole about 18 feet away, but Yoo still managed to make par.

Yoo (8:21 a.m. tee time) shot a 1-under 70. (Sense a theme here?)

## Michelle Wie, who started the Saturday just two shots behind the leaders, also fell victim to the afternoon conditions. But, Wie (12:48 p.m.) managed to minimize the damage, shooting a 2-over 73. She trails Feng by five shots.

## Some others who managed the tough afternoon conditions relatively well:

I.K. Kim, -1; Jutanugarn, +2; Jenny Shin, +2; Na Yeon Choi, E; Alison Walshe, E; Jessica Shepley, E; and Sandra Gal, E.

## The American contingent looks like it may miss out on a three-peat at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Brittany Lincicome, who sat out this year’s event, and Lewis won the last two ShopRite LPGA Classics, but heading into today’s final round, only three Americans are within six shots of the lead: Wie, Blumenherst and Jennie Lee.

Lee fired a 69. And, you guessed it, she teed off in the morning (7:37).

## If the conditions continue to be difficult, the winner likely won’t reach double digits under par. The last time the winner of this event was single digits under par was 1995 (Betsy King, minus-9).

– Chuck Curti

But Friday after her first round at the 2013 ShopRite LPGA Classic, the words wouldn’t come.

“Sorry,” said Lee, a 24-year-old South Korean. “When I play bad, golf bad, my English is bad, too. I think my head is tired.”

Strangely enough, her apology flowed in flawless English. Lee was able to laugh when the irony was pointed out to her. Otherwise, there wasn’t much for her to smile about after carding a 5-over-par 76 that included eight bogeys at the Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club’s Bay Course.

“This week … I don’t know why. This golf course, I’ve played bad every year. This is my fourth year, and I only made one cut.”

Lee is in danger of making it three of four missed cuts at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. But if she needs any comfort, all she has to do is look back at last week.

In an unprecedented week that saw the LPGA Tour’s inaugural event in the Bahamas shortened to three 12-hole rounds, Lee emerged from the confusion with her first Tour win.

The course had a foot of rain dumped on it two days before the first round was scheduled to begin, and parts of it were rendered unplayable. So organizers had the course revamped, reconfigured and rerouted in order to stage the 36 holes required to make it an official LPGA event.

Lee started the final round three shots behind second-round leader Paola Moreno but shot a 42 (5-under on the abridged course) to earn a two-shot victory.

Lee said there was no big secret to maintaining her composure during such an unusual week.

“I just stayed focused, tried to keep the ball straight,” she said. “Just thought about not missing, that it’s OK to miss just a little bit.”

Lee didn’t miss much during the week. In fact, she had just two bogeys in her 36 holes.

The victory puts her in a sorority with the multitude of her fellow South Koreans who have won on the LPGA Tour. There’s no secret that the tiny Asian nation has been dominant on the LPGA Tour for the past decade, yet Lee said she never felt pressure to live up to the standards established by her compatriots.

“That’s my personality,” she said. “I don’t worry about the other players. I just care about myself.”

And that personality remains the same. Lee said she doesn’t feel any different since winning – except for having relieved the pressure of trying to attain a victory.

So, the next item on her agenda is to add a major championship to her trophy case. The LPGA Tour will get into the teeth of its majors beginning next week with the LPGA Championship in Pittsford, N.Y.

That will be followed three weeks later by the U.S. Open, and, just over a month from that, will be the British Open.

Lee should get a shot of confidence knowing that her best career finish prior to last week’s victory was a T4 at a major: the 2012 U.S. Open. But more than that, she has the reassurance of knowing that she does indeed have what it takes to win on the LPGA Tour.

“I have a win, so now I feel I can do it,” she said.

– Chuck Curti

GALLOWAY, N.J. — Look who’s near the top of the leaderboard: Michelle Wie.

Wie shot a 3-under 68 to trail leaders Amanda Blumenherst and Moryia Jutanugarn by two shots.

It would not be a stretch to call Wie’s 2013 an unmitigated disaster so far. She’s missed the cut in half of her 10 events and hasn’t finished higher than 28th in the five that she has survived into the weekend. Friday’s 68 was just her third sub-70 round of the season.

So perhaps there’s hope for the beleaguered Wie this week on the outskirts of Atlantic City.

While Wie has failed to live up to her immense talent thus far, her fellow competitors haven’t given up on her. In a press conference to start the run-up to the Solheim Cup, there was effusive praise for Wie and her game.

“She can still hit shots that nobody else on tour can hit,” said Stacy Lewis, former world No. 1 and Wie’s teammate on the 2011 American Cup team. “She’s just that talented. And, I mean, she works hard.”

And though she is far down in the points standings, no one is ruling out the possibility of Wie being a captain’s pick for the upcoming Solheim Cup.

“I think the surroundings at the Solheim bring her passion and her heart into it,” said Suzann Pettersen, who edged Wie, 1 up, in singles to help Europe capture the Cup in 2011. “Just seeing her in that environment an entire week really brings out her enjoyment of being out there playing golf the way she did growing up.”

## American Jennifer Johnson can walk a little taller around the fairways these days. The 21-year-old chalked up her first win LPGA Tour win two weeks ago at the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic.

“I accomplished one of my goals. Now I just have to keep chugging along and my other goals,” she said after her round Friday.

Johnson is just 21 (she’ll be 22 in August) and turned pro in 2011 before her 20th birthday. It was the year after she made the cut at both the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the U.S. Open at Oakmont, where Johnson had the distinction of being the low amateur.

Those tournaments are what convinced Johnson it was time to turn pro. Her win makes that decision look like a good one.

## The LPGA – and all the tours, for that matter – need to rethink their policy on allowing cell phones into tournaments. Several could be heard going off during the morning rounds Friday – including one that was in possession of a volunteer on the seventh tee.

## American Mo Martin complained of a cold prior to the start of her opening round at Seaview. But Martin, one of the most accurate drivers on the LPGA Tour, crafted a 1-under-par 70 to sit four shots behind the leaders.

## Three weeks, three first-time winners? Neither Blumenherst nor Jutanugarn has an LPGA Tour win.

Likewise for a host of other players within striking distance, including Pornanong Phatlum (-2), Jennifer Song (-2), Sara-Maude Juneau (-2), Jenny Shin (-1), Martin (-1) and Gerina Piller (-1).

If one of these ladies – or someone else who has yet to record a victory – can top the leaderboard on Sunday, it would make three straight events with first-time winners following Johnson and Ilhee Lee in the Bahamas last week.

As a sidebar: Phatlum does have a win in an unofficial LPGA Tour event (2012 HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup).

## Wie’s struggles in 2013 are well known. But former world No. 1 Yani Tseng’s year isn’t anything to write home about either.

Since the Tour came Stateside after opening with three overseas events, Tseng hasn’t finished better than T24. She has dropped to No. 5 in the world and opened the ShopRite LPGA Classic with a 3-over 74.

## One final thought on the Solheim Cup:

USA vs. Europe in this format is all well and good, but wouldn’t it make for a more meaningful contest if the USA (or Europe) played Asia in a Solheim-type competition? After all, it’s hard for anyone to argue which continent has the world’s most talented players at the moment.

I can see it now: Se Ri Pak as the captain guiding a team led by current world No. 1 Inbee Park, Tseng, Jiyai Shin, reigning U.S. Open champ Na Yeon Choi, Shanshan Feng and Ai Miyazato.

I like that team’s chances.

– Chuck Curti

The ramifications won’t shake the women’s game quite as much, but there are those who will be affected.

In the field of 144 at this weekend’s ShopRite LPGA Classic, only two women use the anchored putting stroke: Mo Martin and Maria Hjorth. Norway’s Marita Engzelius, an LPGA Tour rookie and an alternate for the tournament, also uses an anchored stroke.

Martin, who won more than $170,000 as a rookie on the tour last year, learned to putt using a “broom handle” putter with the anchored stroke. Martin has scoliosis, the same spinal irregularity that former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis had to overcome, and said that using the long putter has saved her back. (Lewis told 7CsGOLF.com that she never experimented with the long putter as a means of easing the strain on her back because she has never had back pain.)

Martin, for one, believes the ruling is unfair.

“In 1989, the USGA and R&A said the (long) putter was legal,” said Martin Thursday at the Bay Course. “So it was deemed legal then. I started with it, I built my amateur career, my college career and now my professional career on it. Now they’re saying it’s not legal.”

Martin believes the emergence of the belly putter rather than the flurry of majors won with long putters contributed to the recent ban on the anchored stroke, which is scheduled to take effect in 2016. To her way of thinking, the belly putter and the broom handle putter should be addressed separately.

In her putting stroke, Martin does not rest any part of the club against her body. Instead, she rests her hands on her chest. The concept of “anchoring” was foreign to her.

“I hadn’t heard the term ‘anchor’ until the proposed ban came out,” she said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for the long putter. The club is not against my body.

“They have stated clearly that it’s not (an advantage). They’ve looked at the statistical evidence, and there’s nothing pointing to it being advantage. It’s not an advantage; it’s just a different method.”

Hjorth agrees that belly putters and long putters should have differing regulations. Hjorth has used both in her career; she switched to a long putter nine years ago at, coincidentally, the ShopRite LPGA Classic.

Like Martin, Hjorth does not rest the club against her chest but rather her hands.

She said if the ban does come to fruition, she simply will move her hands away from her body slightly. But, she said, that could lead to further controversy.

“I think that’s where they’re going to have the biggest issues,” said Hjorth. “With the long putter, you can move it out a little bit and it’s not anchored, but your opponents might say, ‘She looks like she’s anchoring it. Is she? Is she not?’ It’s just really up to my trust and my word saying, ‘No, I’m not.’

“I think there’s a lot of issues that still have to be clarified to make sure everyone is on the same page.”

Whether the method Hjorth and Martin use in their putting stroke is technically anchoring may be open to interpretation. With Engzelius, however, there’s no gray area; the end of the putter is clearly resting on her stomach.

Engzelius learned golf using a traditional putter but switched to the belly putter two years ago after she fell in love with the feel while using it as a training aid. She doesn’t believe it gives her any kind of an edge over those who use a traditional putter.

“I think if it would have been a big advantage everyone would have used it,” said Engzelius, who has made two LPGA starts this season. “I think putting is a feel thing. It’s the same as the grip. There’s thousands of grips out there, and … there’s not one grip that’s more advanced than the other grips. Same thing with the putter. You just have to do what you think is comfortable.”

It should be noted that the long putters and belly putters themselves will not be banned, only resting them against part of the body will be outlawed. That’s of no comfort to someone like Martin, who believes alleviating the wear and tear on her back has helped her get to where she is.

There are still three years remaining before the ban becomes official, so there’s plenty of time for those who use the anchored stroke to adapt – or for the ban to be overturned. A group of PGA Tour players, including Scott, has enlisted the services of an attorney to look into the impending ban.

Martin is rooting for the ruling to be nullified. But she’ll adapt to whatever happens.

“I hope it gets overturned because I think it would be unfortunate for the game of golf,” she said. “I think it was a mistake. And if it doesn’t (get overturned), life goes on. I’ll have a different method and that’s that.”

Engzelius isn’t too worried about the proposed ban one way or the other.

“I think they will make a decision that I think is right, and you just have to follow them,” she said. “I’ve used the short putter most of my life … a little practice will help. It hopefully will not be a problem (going back to the short putter).”

– Chuck Curti