All U.S. Open, all the time

All eyes of the golf world are on Torrey Pines and the U.S. Open this week. Most of the pre-tournament attention has focused on both the U.S. Open being played on primetime television, and the Tiger-Phil pairing in the first two rounds. Considering I'm not there and won't be writing on deadline _ the lack of time would definitely affect creativity and the types of stories I could work on _ I like the later television coverage. Ratings will tell whether or not others are with me. I'm thinking they will be. One of the cool things about it is the final round is on Father's Day. So fathers and sons can go play a round of golf in the afternoon, then watch the final round of the Open afterward.
The Woods-Mickelson early pairing I'm not so enamored with. The USGA's idea to pair the top three players in the world in the same group _ along with other members in the top 12 in descending order in threesomes _ seems to me to be contrived and anticlimactic. To the best of my recollection, it's the first time Phil and Tiger are paired together in a major since the 2006 PGA Championship, and just second time in a U.S. Open. The PGA Tour could do it every time Phil and Tiger play together but choose not to. They have a more random selection process. The Masters could do it but chooses not to. The PGA traditionally pairs the winners of the year's first three majors together, which could lead to a pairing if they both earn the pairing that season. To me it waters down the pairing, and I'd hate to see other tournaments resort to doing the same thing. I'd much rather see them paired together on the weekend after earning a pairing together near the top of the leaderboard, when the pressure and importance will be elevated.