Let’s just say I don’t have a great feeling about this tournament ending today.

And is it me, or has Tiger Woods been given every opportuniity to win this thing by eight strokes today?

That’s how good Angel Cabrera is looking right now.

In other news, my boy JT just texted me to note that he saw me on TV wearing my red hat.

“Perhaps you should have gone with the matching mock muscle shirt like Tiger,” he added.

Yeah, can’t say I’m a fan of the look Woods is sporting today, although he can come as close as anyone to pulling it off. Meanwhile, If I tried that with my pipe cleaner arms, I’m pretty sure I’d be escorted off the property.

Lastly, I wanted to make sure I passed along a Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, including, of course, my own. Before I started in this gig, we always watched the final round of the Open together, but now he has to settle for a phone call and a passing chance of seeing me on TV.

Which explains why I didn’t wear the mock turtleneck. I’m not sure he’d approve.

We as sportswriters are on record in not having a rooting interest in tournaments like this. And yet with the exception of the guys who get paid by the hour, we’re all adamant that we don’t want to come back tomorrow for an 18-hole Monday…well, I’m actually not even supposed to use the word.

In fact, it’s a pretty common exchange in the press room today and on every Open Sunday:

Sportswriter No. 1: “Who’s going to win today?

Sportswriter No. 2: “I don’t care as long as it’s today.”

Sportswriter No. 1: “I hear you. By the way, are you going to finish that donut?”

Bear in mind this is not just because we don’t want to stay here for another day, although having not seen my wife and son for almost a week, that’s certainly a big part of it.

But the other part of it is the Monday 18-hole thingy always proves to be wretchedly anticlimactic. I’m all for avoiding a flukey winner that comes with a one-hole suddden death whatchamacallit. But both the British Open and the PGA get around it by having a four-hole and three-hole thingamagig instead.

Anyway, here’s hoping it’s not an issue today. With that in mind, I’m off to watch the final round. More later…

Golf, and I personally, lost a good friend last night with the passing of Douglas LaRue Smith, the longtime Winged Foot Golf Club historian, at 89.

Smith was Winged Foot’s proudest and most insightful spokesman, an invaluable source of information about the club, its members, and its most celebrated moments. As a golf writer in this area, you could see how it would be important for me to get to know someone like that. And yet what you might not know is how easy it was to enjoy our time together.

Whenever I was working on a story about Winged Foot’s history—particularly last year in the run-up to the U.S. Open—my first call would be to Smith. He would invite me over to the club, and then we’d retreat upstairs to his office in the clubhouse attic, which might be the most impressive collection of golf books and memorabilia outside of any official hall of fame.

At one point last year, I asked Smith if he had an extra copy of “The Massacre at Winged Foot,” Dick Schaap’s infamous account of the 1974 Open. Smith said he had one, which he wanted me to keep. Then he told me the story behind it.

The book, it turns out, had originally belonged to Jim Murray, the famed Pulitzer Prize-winning sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times. When Murray died shortly after the 1997 PGA at Winged Foot, his widow found the copy and sent it to Smith with an inscription. Now Smith was giving it to me, with his own message inside: “To Sam, a great writer and a good friend.”

I cherish that book for all that it signifies. But more importantly, I cherish the time I had getting to know Doug Smith. Golf will miss him. I sure know I will.

I’ve been down on the overly penal U.S. Open setups for several years now, and I definitely thought the first two rounds here lacked some buzz as a result. I can live with today, however. Far from easy—in fact, it’s still a bear—Oakmont is at least rewarding decent shots. Give me another day of that and this Open may have some juice to it yet.

And speaking of which, in the if-only-he-could-putt department, Tiger Woods has hit his first 13 greens in regulation, but has only two birdies to show for it. It is a ridiculous display of ball-striking. It is quite an average display of putting.

By the time Angel Cabrera and Bubba Watson teed off, there were roughly six people still interested in what they were doing. That’s courtesy, of course, of Tiger Woods, who birdied two of his first four holes, and is driving the ball better than I’ve seen in years.

I’m going to stop short of anointing Woods as your 2007 Open champion just yet seeing how the last time I made that sort of early prediction, at the Masters, it blew up in my face. Let’s just say the game’s No. 1 player has everyone’s attention.

I worked out this morning, and took my sweet time in my hotel room before heading to the golf course. When I walked downstairs for the shuttle bus, it cruelly pulled away right before my eyes, and I was told there wouldn’t be another one for a half hour.

I was admittedly frustrated, but then I saw a guy with a TV parking pass getting into his rental car in front of the hotel. I asked him for a ride, and when he said yes, I loaded my bag into his trunk.

I won’t divulge the guy’s name for fear of getting him in trouble, but when I looked into his trunk, I saw he had a 12 pack of beer on ice. Then he told me he had been up since 4 a.m.

This could have been the end, folks. The last round of golf I ever would have covered would have had Angel Cabrera leading the U.S. Open. I’m not sure that’s how I wanted to go out.

Fortunately, my driver was perfectly sober, instead sipping on an ice coffee, and we arrived safely at the golf course. Better yet, we were ahead of the shuttle bus.

Today will be a late start, with the leaders not going off until 3:15. If you told me one of those leaders was going to be Bubba Watson, I would likely issue you a Breathalyzer test on the spot.

I have since given up trying to figure this thing out. Meanwhile, more links to my work today in The Journal News.

Apparently there’s a little more to Phil Mickelson’s frustration with the USGA than just high rough.

As the story goes, Mickelson met with USGA officials on Wednesday night to discuss the brace on his left wrist. When he didn’t like the tone of the conversation—presumably meaning they were questioning whether the brace was legitimate—Mickelson emerged from the meeting and offered an impromptu interview to The Golf Channel’s Steve Stands.

The message of that interview was similar to what Mickelon said today: that the set up here is dangerous for players.

“It’s disappointing to dream as a kid about winning the U.S. Open and spend all this time getting ready for it and have the course set up injury you, you know?� said Mickelson, who turns 37 today, said. “You’re trying to win it and hit great shots, but you’re also trying not to end your career on one shot, or at least suspend it for a little while. That’s a little disappointing, yeah.�

Bear in mind some of this is speculation. But as Tim Rosaforte said on NBC, the USGA isn’t taking Mickelson’s complaints seriously.

And I doubt anyone is going to get back there.

I predicted 3 p.m as the over/under, so I give myself credit for being close.