Everything in the world

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Graeme McDowell opened the day looking like someone who knows how to win the U.S. Open.

Phil Mickelson opened the day looking like someone who has lost it a lot.

In search of his first major victory, McDowell started the third round with a pair of birdies Saturday to extend his lead to four strokes early on a windblown Pebble Beach course that was only playing easy for those who were playing well.

Trying to win his first U.S. Open after a record five second-place finishes, Mickelson started with two bogeys that dropped him to 1-over par, and suddenly six shots back of McDowell.

Ernie Els and Ryo Ishikawa, who began the day tied with Mickelson for second, each bogeyed to start the day, leaving Dustin Johnson, who opened with two pars, alone in second place.

Tiger Woods made four birdies and three bogeys to move to 3 over through 11 holes.

With the leaders on the course, it was sunny and 61 degrees with gusts up to 20 mph at Pebble Beach — possibly treacherous conditions even though there were some good scores early.

Davis Love III, a two-time winner of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, went out in 5-under 30 en route to a 3-under 68 that left him at 4-over 217 for the tournament.

Tom Watson, the 60-year-old playing his fifth U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, also got in on the act until missing short putts over the final couple of holes. Watson still managed a 1-under 70 to complete three rounds in 6-over 219.

Watson warned that the greens, which he said makes a player feel like he's "putting over a heard of turtles," would get more difficult as the wind dried the course out in the afternoon.

"The backs of those turtles get higher and higher, and the winds will come up and it will dry out the lower parts of these greens," he said. "It will get more bumpy. It's always been the case here."

Woods called the greens "awful" after his opening round Thursday, then drew some criticism from the USGA before he headed to the course for the third round.

"As far as the greens are concerned, he's wrong," USGA executive director David Fay said. "That old statement that you're entitled to your opinion? He is entitled to his opinion, but he's off on his facts. These putting surfaces have never been better."

Woods' biggest problem early didn't have so much to do with putting. After driving the ball to 40 yards from the green on the par-4 third, he tried a flop shot from a tight lie to the back, right pin location and knocked it over the green. His chip rolled to 10 feet past the hole and he missed for his second straight bogey.

But he took advantage of No. 4, where the tee box has been moved to only 284 yards from the hole to make it drivable. Woods' tee shot landed just short of the green and after a chip and a putt, he had the first of three straight birdies. He had a 15-foot putt for eagle on No. 6 that barely missed.

Also taking advantage of the easier layout was Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, who aced the 181-yard, fifth hole — the first hole-in-one at the U.S. Open since 2006.

The famous par-3 seventh hole was playing at 99 yards — a lob wedge for almost everyone. Ian Poulter, at even par through six holes, hit his shot into the left rough and was picked up on the TV mike saying, "How on earth are you supposed to play to that?"

While the USGA was moving up tee boxes, it was not as liberal in watering the course overnight, and the wind was gusting up to 20 mph, which could dry the course and make things progressively more difficult for the afternoon and evening rounds.

He starts the final round of the U.S. Open with a three-stroke lead over Graeme McDowell and five clear of Tiger Woods, staring history smack in the face. All he has to do is finish it.

Johnson, who played college golf at Coastal Carolina and lives in Myrtle Beach, looks like he's ready to do it. He's made very few mistakes through three rounds and used his enormous power to overwhelm Pebble Beach at times.

But doing it for three days is different from doing it on the fourth, especially when the greens are bumpy and the nerves are raw. That's not to say Johnson can't get it done, only that this is very different from winning the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach the past two years.

Before the Open started, I didn't put a lot of stock into Johnson's two February wins at Pebble Beach. He'd only played three rounds at Pebble Beach in those two multi-course tournaments and the set-up is so different from what it is this week. It's wet in the winter, firm right now.

Evidently, it doesn't matter to Johnson.

He is so long and strong, that he's playing a different Pebble Beach than everyone else. Even Tiger Woods marvels at Johnson's length, calling him "stupid long."

He drove the par-4 fourth hole, playing a short 286 yards, with a 4-iron Saturday. He hit a 273-yard, uphill 3-iron over the sixth green and hit a 206-yard 7-iron to set up a birdie at the 17th hole.

If you caught the slow-motion replay of Johnson's swing with a driver on Saturday, you saw one of the most athletic rips you'll ever see. He gets the club so wide it allows him to generate enormous speed with his 6-foot, 4-inch frame and then he seems to compress it all as he makes his downswing.

To use one of the most over-used words in the English language, it's awesome.

"He stood up and had no fear," said Graeme McDowell, his playing partner, after seeing Johnson shoot 66 Saturday.

"But he has to sleep on a three-shot lead. We'll see how he feels (Sunday)."

Johnson just smiled when told of McDowell's comment.

"I think I'm going to feel good," Johnson said. "It's going to be very hard. I have to stay patient and keep playing like I've been playing and I'll be tough to beat."

When the inevitable question came about having Woods looming in third place, though five shots back, Johnson faced it like he faces Pebble Beach -- going right at it.

"He's the best player in the world," Johnson said. "It's not a shock to see him right there. All I can do is worry about myself. I can't control what he does. I can only control what I do."

Read more: http://green-side.blogspot.com/2010/06/biggest-day-in-dustin-johnsons-golf.html#ixzz0rMlnqTLs

President Barack Obama met on his own turf with top BP officials on Wednesday to press his demands that the London-based oil giant pay into a claims fund for victims of the worst oil spill in the nation's history.

BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO Tony Hayward, and other officials walked slowly as a group from the Southwest Gate of the White House, where they were dropped off, and climbed the steps leading to the West Wing.

The meeting comes the morning after Obama vowed to an angry nation that "we will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused." BP is the majority owner of the deep water well that blew out on April 20, killing 11 rig workers and triggering the spill.

It was Obama's first meeting with BP officials since the spill. While Hayward has served as the voice of the company, the White House has been emphasizing the role of the company's chairman, Svanberg, instead.

Obama in his speech to the nation from the Oval Office backed creation of a fund administered by an independent trustee to pay damages and clean up costs associated with the spill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats have suggested the fund be established with $20 billion from BP.

In his Oval Office address, Obama described the battle against the spill in combat terms, calling it o — a "siege" on the shores of America.

Joining the president at the meeting were Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the secretaries of energy, interior, commerce, homeland security and labor.

For the president, the tough diplomacy with a few officials behind closed doors is a bookend to his attempt to reach millions at once. Using a delivery in which even the harshest words were uttered in subdued tones, Obama did not offer much in the way of new ideas or details in his speech to the nation Tuesday night. Instead, he mainly recapped the government's efforts, insisted once again that BP will be held to account and tried to tap the resilience of a nation in promising that "something better awaits."

Now, at the White House, Obama said he will tell the chairman of the British-based oil company that it must set aside "whatever resources are required" to compensate the Gulf Coast people whose lives have been upended because of what he called BP's recklessness.

What's more, Obama said this new damages fund, used to pay claims to workers and business owners, won't be run by BP. He said an independent third party will be in charge to ensure people are paid in a fair and timely way.

The cost of such a fund would be enormous. The White House insists is has the legal authority to make it happen.

Still, administration officials also acknowledge a negotiation is at play here, and key issues remain unsolved.

Among them: Who will oversee the escrow fund, who will make that decision, how large will the fund be and whether BP will pay the salaries of oil workers idled by a six-month moratorium on new deep-water oil drilling.

The company said in a statement that it shares Obama's goal of "shutting off the well as quickly as possible, cleaning up the oil and mitigating the impact on the people and environment of the Gulf Coast. We look forward to meeting with President Obama tomorrow for a constructive discussion about how to best achieve these mutual goals."

In another development, BP said it began burning oil siphoned from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico as part of its plans to more than triple the amount of crude it can stop from reaching the sea. The company said oil and gas siphoned from the well first reached a semi-submersible drilling rig on the ocean surface around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Reaction to Obama's speech was mixed.

Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana said recovery work in the Gulf doesn't reflect the urgency that Obama suggested in his speech. "I just know being on the ground that that's not yet the reality," he said on CBS's "The Early Show."

Obama's forceful tone about BP's behavior shows how far matters have deteriorated. The White House once had described BP as an essential partner in plugging the crude oil spewing from the broken well beneath nearly a mile of water. Now Obama says BP has threatened to destroy a whole way of life.

An Associated Press-GfK poll released Tuesday showed 52 percent now disapprove of Obama's handling of the oil spill, up significantly from last month. Most people — 56 percent — think the government's actions in response to the disaster really haven't had any impact on the situation.