Mickelson remains a bridesmaid

The result of this past week's U.S. Open at the Merion Golf Club in Philly was a pleasant surprise with none of the players being able to finish the tournament under par. The media had made a big deal about the problems that the short course and crowds would create and none of it came to play. Even with the crazy weather that brought tons of rain to the course on Thursday, the crews were able to keep the course in excellent shape through the entire week. This event was good for the golfing world because it proved that you don't need a 7500-yard course to offer a good challenge to the pros. This could be a good direction for promoting golf in the years ahead with being able to design smaller courses that still attract all levels of players.

Justin Rose, who won the tournament, has a very interesting background story. He came on the scene in the 1998 British Open as a 17-year-old who was able to finish fourth as an amateur. His decision to turn pro immediately after that tournament turned out to be a huge mistake at the time. He missed 21 straight cuts to start his pro career! It's taken him 14 years to now claim a Major with this past Sunday's win. I call this a pretty good story of perseverance and resilience. I hope it doesn't take him another 14 years to win a second Major.

I was actually rooting for Phil Mickelson in the final round on Sunday. He was playing well for the entire week and has only been able to claim second-place finishes a total of six times in previous U.S. Open championships. I hope Phil can get that win at some point. Tiger Woods blew his chance to win the tournament on Saturday when his short game left him. He really struggled with reading the greens and he was not alone! There were some crazy missed putts by everybody! Tiger's elbow injury is going to take him out of his next scheduled tournament but hopefully he has a lot of golf left in him for the remainder of the year.

In other sports news, Jason Kidd has been hired as the new head coach for the New Jersey Nets. I'm not a huge fan of this because I think you should have to pay your dues as an assistant coach first. Kidd just retired from being a player this year and this move makes it look like he is trying to become this generation's Bill Russell. Russell is a Hall of Fame player who became a coach right after playing back in the 60s.

I am off to one of the Phillies games on Sunday with my dad and sure hope we get to see them beat the Mets. The Phils need every win they can get!