Remember to do something nice for all those great dads this weekend!

This year's U.S. Open will be very interesting to watch for more than the obvious reasons. In the field of 156 players, there are only 10 or so who have competed on the course before. Tiger Woods was only five years old in 1981, the last time the U.S. Open was played at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.  Merion Golf Club is perhaps the most famous golf club in America outside Augusta National. This course can boast that it has had a record 13 USGA events. This is mostly due to Bobby Jones' win in the 1930 U.S. Amateur Championship, which gave him the calendar grand slam at that time. The feat made Bobby Jones one the most famous athletes in the world—along with Babe Ruth—at that time in sports history.

The main reason the U.S. Open has not been back to Merion in such a long time is that the course is fairly small and in an area that does not make large crowds easy to manage. So many people like to watch these events live today that it has the potential to be a bit of a nightmare for the organizers. And to add to that, the weather forecast for the start of the championship isn't going to help! I personally hope they can pull it off.

I was pleased with the outcome of last week's French Open tennis tournament. Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams were deserving winners. Nadal came back from pretty serious knee problems of last year and gave us great matches to enjoy. Williams won her 16th major championship, which is very impressive, but I don't think she's going to be able to beat Steffi Graf's record of 22 wins. I hate to say this, but Serena is getting close to being considered "old" for tennis.

And while some of you are groaning with my last remark, I will add that I have nothing good to say about the Phillies' performance this past week!