2010 U.S. Open Second Round, This And That

A far more interesting day Friday and some fun reporting worth checking out before the telecast Saturday.

Larry Dorman on second round leader Graeme McDowell and his early wake-up call Friday.

Cameron Morfit reports on Phil Mickelson's 66.

Mickelson consulted with his putting coach, Dave Stockton, and found he was setting up "a little contorted," in Mickelson's words. He changed his address, and the small fix paid big dividends as Mickelson took only 25 putts Friday, a day after taking 32.

He one-putted the first six holes.

Bob Harig on the impressive play of Ryo Ishikawa.

This kind of success, of course, produces unprecedented media attention at home. Among those following him Friday was Isao Aoki, a former Japanese star who battled Jack Nicklaus at the 1980 U.S. Open and now does television work. Dozens, if not hundreds, of photographers and journalists follow every move.

"I don't see how he does it," Watson said. "It's a constant din."

"It's worse for him at home," said McIlroy. "I've played with him in Japan and he handles himself very, very well. That's one of the most impressive things about him, how he handles everything, apart from his golf."

Steve Elling on the two-chip incident involving Shaun Micheel and the tournament leader who called him on it.

Michael Bamberger says Tiger's Thursday rant about the greens was self-serving excuse making and he features a strong rebuttal from the USGA's David Fay.

He's wrong," David Fay, the USGA executive director, told me yesterday. "They're smoother than they were in 2000." That would be the year the U.S. Open was last at Pebble, when Tiger won by 15. "It was a harsh thing for him to say. I don't want to turn this into a whole turf-surface advisory thing, but the fact is the people who grow this grass are highly skilled, highly educated, and they have so many tools at their disposal. Conditions have been good for growing grass and we're very pleased with the greens. We can take criticism when it's warranted. We have pretty thick skin. Criticism is useful. But this is not useful criticism." No, it was a one-word rant from a deeply frustrated man.

Ron Sirak has this to say about Tiger's second round:

If body language came with captions, television would have had one long expletive deleted when showing Tiger Woods' second round at the U.S. Open. Or, at the very least, the broadcast would have had to carry a warning stating: "Caution, What You Are About to See May Bum You Out." There are never a lot of yuks at a U.S. Open, but Woods walked the course Friday as if he were on his way to root canal.

Randall Mell points this out about Tiger:

If Woods were seven shots behind with two rounds to go in a major championship and said he felt good about his position, you wondered when players would start getting out of his way.

You knew such confidence would sound delusional coming out of most any other player’s mouth except his.

That’s the invincible nature that surrounded Woods when he came from seven shots back with seven holes to go to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am a decade ago. It’s the overpowering aura he possessed a few months later when he won the U.S. Open here by 15 shots.

And John Hawkins is more blunt:

He said he would change, and change he has – for the worse. The clumsy evasiveness with the media is nothing new, nor was the unexplained parting with his swing coach, for that matter, but the neck injury out of nowhere? How about Thursday’s Poa-annua pout? Since when did Tiger Woods start blaming his sloppy play on course conditions?

Sean Martin tells us about Pebble master Dustin Johnson and the improvement he's seen from working with Butch Harmon.

Alex Miceli reports on Erik Compton's next move after missing the cut.

Craig Bestrom on Y.E. Yang's epic back nine unraveling that led to a 49.

Jeff Babineau reviews some of the 14th hole boondoggles.

And finally, Sam Weinman's birdie/bogey column includes this:

BIRDIE: Tom Watson -- The 60-year-old snuck into the weekend on the number, and then had them lined up at least 100 deep for autographs at the Lexus tent. Watson still has some magic, and people want a piece of it.