Tiptoeing Through Hell not quite heavenly reading

For the past two years, the U.S. Open proved to be the most monotonous major of the year. NBC's eight-hour per day overkill coverage didn't help, but just how fun can it be watching golfers do nothing but hitting irons off the tee, slashing wedges out of rough and three-putting every other green?

Believe it or not, there are people who not only enjoy watching players struggle but actually create an environment conducive to such bad golf that results in high winning scores.

Meet the United States Golf Association (USGA), the organization that runs the U.S. Open and sets up the venues according to its masochistic, diabolic standards.

John Strege's fourth book, Tiptoeing Through Hell: Playing the U.S. Open on Golf's Most Treacherous Courses, takes a historical look at the memorable battles between golfers and the USGA at 14 toughest and most notorious U.S. Opens ever played. The title originates from a touring pro Jerry McGee, who once said "playing in the U.S. Open is like tiptoeing through hell." Never before has a single quote so aptly summed up the essence of a golf tournament.

Strege, who has covered golf for more than 15 years, currently writes for Golf Digest and Golf World. His feature article "Strokes of Genius" from March 8th issue of Golf World was so brilliant that Strege quickly became one of my favourite sportswriters. http://www.golfdigest.com/features/index...

Of four major championships, the U.S. Open is consistently the most difficult of them all year in and year out, at least in terms of scoring average. In winning this year's championship, Tiger Woods was 5 under par, the highest among 2002's majors, and no one else was below par, with the runner-up Phil Mickelson finishing at even. Woods' winning score of -12 in 2000 U.S. Open was a historic occasion and no one, not even Woods, may come close to shooting double-digit under pars at the U.S. Open again.

The slogan for U.S. Open promotion is that it's the toughest challenge in golf, but, as previously mentioned, it often makes an awfully tedious television. One can only stand so much of players constantly chopping out of rough and missing putts on slick greens. It's fun, even masochistic, for a bit, but four rounds of bad golf is too much.

Nonetheless, it is generally understood among golf aficionados-and confirmed so in Strege's book-that the USGA does not enjoy seeing too many red numbers on the U.S. Open leaderboard. The length that the USGA official would go just to ensure that the scores will be high can be found in the chapter "Payback: Winged Foot Golf Club, 1974." Just the previous year, at Oakmont Country Club, Johnny Miller fired an U.S. Open-record 63, eight under par on Sunday to capture the championship by a stroke. After the 1972 U.S. Open which Jack Nicklaus won at two over par and where the scoring average was 78.8, Miller's performance was a slap in the face for the USGA personnel.

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