Another day that’s to be hot as blazes. We’ve been here ten years and I don’t recall it getting this hot this early. Heck, the pool temp is already at 94 – a month ahead of when it usually gets that high. Today I’ll be staying inside and keeping cool, unlike yesterday (see below). In the meanwhile, just a few worthy items of note:

I have a feeling the USGA’s decision to hold the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion is going to be regretted, big-time. Not only will the weather play a significant role in how the Open is played, the shortness of the course combined with the soft conditions will turn the event into a birdie-fest joke. Perhaps if the conditions were dry and the course playing hard Merion would still be a true test, but you can’t give golfers this good using the equipment available to them a short, soft course. The only good thing I see coming out of this is that maybe, just maybe, the USGA will stop worrying about non-issues like the anchored putter and focus it’s attention on the balls being used. It’s the ball that is causing these classic old courses like Merion to become dinosaurs and the glorified executive courses, allowing things you can’t control like the weather to play an even larger role.

This story makes you wonder who exactly the Obama administration is collecting information about and why. I’ll tell you why now, but it’s a given this will be revealed in the future (probably during a Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend news dump): the whole data collection effort was designed to exploit the previously-passed Patriot Act for two purposes: 1) identify like-minded individuals the Organizing for America group could contact and exploit in order to get people energized and to the polls to re-elect the President, and 2) suppress and create obstacles for conservatives and Tea Party activists to organize against the President’s re-election by passing their info along to other government agencies like the IRS and EPA. This is high crimes and misdemeanors beyond anything the Nixon administration was accused of doing – yet, Nixon was forced to resign and people went to jail. Not only will President Obama stay in office, but I sincerely doubt anyone in his administration will go to prison for this. Truly frightening stuff.

So, my friend Paul calls me while I’m at the Superstition Springs driving range yesterday. “Where are you?”, he asks. “Where do you think?”, I reply. “Wasn’t Jesus teaching in the temple? I’m at the driving range.” Paul’s surprised to hear that and tells me the Accuweather site says it’s 110 in Gilbert with an Excessive Heat Warning in effect. And all of a sudden I realize he’s right – I knew the afternoon felt hotter than usual. I’m drinking my water and still sweating like a pig. And that’s when I look around me and see that, except for one guy at the far end of the range beating balls, I’m alone. No one’s on the course, no one’s on the putting green, there are no cart attendants in sight, and the range is a mess with stewn buckets – many with a handful of balls left in them – strewn all over the place. The trash bins and the driving range haven’t been picked for at least two days. The usual sing-song of the birds has been replaced by an soft quiet, and the sky has the sizzing quality of a Ruth’s Chris steak. “Wow”, is all I can say to myself. I hadn’t noticed a thing. I go back to beating balls.