PINEHURST, NC - As the years second major tees off on Thursday morning, here are a few things to consider: The Golf Course For t

PINEHURST, NC - As the years second major tees off on Thursday morning, here are a few things to consider: The Golf Course For the first time since the Second World War, there is no rough at the national championship. Fake Yeezy Kaufen Deutschland . Instead, there is whats being called Native Areas. This is how Donald Ross created the course and this is how Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore restored it.Rather than being one-dimensional and having to hack it out of the rough, hitting it off the fairway now means a bit of a lottery. You might end up with a perfectly clean, if somewhat sandy lie or you could end up in a tangle of the wiregrass. If that happens, its like old times and youll be hacking out to the fairway. Depending on whom you talk to, its either a 50-50 or 60-40 or 80-20 situation that youll get a good result in the scrub.It will make for some interesting times. The Phil FactorWe all know that Phil has been runner-up at the U.S. Open six times and that the first of those came here, at Pinehurst back in 1999. We also know that he wants to win this tournament more than any other, to complete the Grand Slam. But we also know that Phil hasnt played very well this year and has struggled on the greens to the point that hes changed his grip coming into this week. Hell use the claw grip, which he says is better for the six to eight footers that will be key for this week. As much as Phil will tell you everything is great, that he loves the course, that his game is coming around, you have to think that the odds arent in his favour here. Oh CanadaGraham DeLaet will complete the Grand Slam here this week – not in terms of winning but just teeing it up in his fourth major. Sometimes we forget that hes still learning his chops in the majors and its a big step up to the majors. Yes, he is ultra-talented with a game that is suited well to this type of set up. In some ways, what he doesnt know may actually help him. In golf sense, DeLaet will always live and die by his putter and this week he is also going with a new putter grip, adopting a left-hand-low style that he says is working for him. History is not on his side this week – the last time a first-time entrant won the Open was way back in 1913. Of course streaks are made to be broken. WeatherRight now, Pinehurst No. 2 is baked out and dry. There is lots of run in the course and the greens are firm. But the weather forecast is for rain over the next four days, (although so far, predictions of rain havent materialized). If that comes true, it will, as Rory McIlroy said, take the fire out of the course. It will aid the longer hitters and, if there are delays, make it tougher on those who have little patience. In short, it will change the number of golfers who can win this tournament and thats why a handful of players are doing the rain dance here this week. ImaginationIts a buzz word in golf. Along with creativity. But here at Pinehurst, there really is a need to think about just how youre going to hit a shot. With so many run-off areas around the greens, youre going to have to find the right way to get the ball close to the hole. So that means a) putting it up; b) chipping it close; c) use a hybrid to bump it; or d) some other club to get it close.The guy who puts its beside the cup will be deemed the most imaginative golfer of the week (instead of the champion golfer of the year). GreensThe greens at Pinehurst No. 2 arent necessarily small in overall size, but the effective area that can be used is tiny. In fact, on some of them, less than 25 per cent of the overall space can be used for a pin. These are not unlike Augusta Nationals putting surfaces, where hitting the right area – not just the green -- is a requirement. Some are more generous than others while a few are absolutely diabolical. McIlroy said the second is just such a green. He estimated that less than 20 per cent of the field will hit that green in regulation. Who Will Win?The golfer who will win this week is one who can drive it long as the course has some length. And it will be the player who can loft it way up in the air, as youll need some height to hold the greens. And it will be the player who has some creativity (see above) for those missed green recovery shots, and it will be the golfer who has a hot putter. Put those all together and I think your winner will be . . . Sergio Garcia. (Second choice – Jason Day) Yeezy Schuhe Größentabelle .com) - Jeff Teague finished with a game-high 26 points and eight assists as the Atlanta Hawks held off the Utah Jazz, 98-92, on Friday. Yeezy Schuhe Bestellen . Ricciardos exclusion from the results tarnished what had been a day of celebration for local fans, who were jubilant that the Red Bull driver had apparently become the first Australian to finish on the podium at his home race. However just before midnight, stewards ruled that Ricciardos car had "exceeded consistently the maximum allowed fuel flow" and that the team refused an instruction from the races technical delegate Charlie Whiting to change the fuel-flow sensor before the race and a further request during the race to reduce the fuel flow. http://www.yeezyschuhe.de/ultra-boost-schuhe.html . It was just business as usual for the Thunder at home. Durant scored 32 points and the Thunder beat the Bulls 107-95 on Thursday night for their eighth straight win.EDMONTON - The Edmonton Oilers looked poise to snap a six-game losing skid Sunday night. But the Dallas Stars wouldnt let that happen.Up 5-2 over Dallas in the last minute of the second period, the Oilers were forced to settle for a single point when the Stars rallied for three unanswered goals to tie the game before Shawn Horcoff scored the winner in the eighth round of the shootout for a 6-5 Dallas victory.We were sitting back on our heels a bit for the second half of the game and that cant happen, said Edmontons interim head coach Todd Nelson, who was overseeing his third game since replacing the fired Dallas Eakins. When you are up you have to keep forechecking hard and pressing for the puck. Those things werent happening. We were loose on the puck.We need to be consistent for 60 minutes.Horcoff, a former Oiler, also added a goal in regulation time as the Stars (14-13-5) erased the three-goal deficit to win their fourth straight game.Tyler Seguin had two third-period goals and added an assist, and captain Jamie Benn scored on the power play at 19:39 of the second period to start the Dallas rally. Erik Cole had the other Stars goal. It was a gutsy effort, said Benn. We laid an egg in the second period and we found a way to grind it out for 20 minutes and found a way to win the shootout. We have a lot of character guys in here and we really wanted to finish this road trip off with two points.Added Seguin: We all tested ourselves in the third and I think (head coach) Lindy (Ruff) challenged us. Weve had a few games in the past where weve been down a goal or two in the third and we havent had much of a push, but I thought we dominated the game in the third period.Taylor Hall and Mark Arcobello each had two goals and Teddy Purcell had the other for the Oilers (7-20-7), who extended their losing streak to seven. They have just one win over their last 19 games.You just cant let teams come back like that, said Hall, who halted a career-high 11-game scoring drought. You cant let them get the momentum. That power-play goal we gave up at the end of the second, that was a world-class goal. I dont know what we could change on that. But in the third period they really forechecked us hard and as a team we were unable to break out and get it into their end.It was tough sledding in that third and they had the momentum the whole time. It is tough to play like that.Horcoff said its always fun to come up big against your old club.Yeah it did (feel good), Id be lying if I said it didnt, he said. We needed that win and just coming back in the thiird the way we did. Yeezy Boost 700 Sale Bestellen. Edmonton got on the board first with a power-play goal three minutes in. Stars starter Kari Lehtonen made the stop on a Jordan Eberle shot, but Hall came racing in to shoot in the rebound from a tough angle.Dallas pulled even three-and-a-half minutes later as the rebound from a Jyrki Jokipakka shot through traffic was corralled by Horcoff in front, and he batted the puck through the legs of Edmonton goalie Ben Scrivens.The Stars went up 2-1 midway through the opening period as an Ales Hemsky shot deflected off an Oiler defender right onto the stick of Cole, who got the puck by a diving Scrivens.Edmonton tied the game 11 seconds into the second period as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins battled off a Stars defender and sent the puck across to Purcell, who scored on Lehtonen.The Oilers then took the lead less than three minutes later as a Jeff Petry point shot was picked up by Arcobello on the Dallas doorstep and hooked into the net to make it 3-2.Edmonton went up by a pair with just under 11 minutes left to play in the second period as Arcobello followed up a Steven Pinizzotto shot by putting the rebound into the net for his second of the game. The goal chased Lehtonen from the Stars net after he allowed four on 19 shots. Anders Lindback came in as his replacement.The Oilers went up 5-2 with seven minutes left to play in the second period as Hall got a partial breakaway and beat Lindback through the legs for his second of the game.Dallas got one of those goals back with 21 seconds remaining in the second as Jason Spezza made a cross-ice feed to Benn, who sent a perfect laser beam of a shot to the top corner.The Stars made it a one-goal game again 52 seconds into the third period as Seguin took a shot and raced in to deposit his own rebound for his 24th goal of the year and 41st point.Dallas tied the game 5-5 with 10:47 left in the third period. Scrivens made a stop on a Benn shot but couldnt stop Seguin on the rebound.Notes: It was the second of three games between the Oilers and Stars this season, with Dallas winning the first contest 3-2 on Nov. 25. The Stars came into the game on a five-game winning streak in Edmonton and having won 14 of their past 17 games against the Oilers. … Hall hadnt scored since last months loss to the Stars. ... Oilers rookie centre Leon Draisaitl was a healthy scratch, despite not being loaned to play for Germany at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Centre Anton Lander, who was recalled from Oklahoma City of the American Hockey League on Friday, took his place. ' ' '