Enjoyed Watching the U.S. Open Golf Tournament This Weekend

I hadn't planned on watching any golf on TV this weekend...I hadn't done so in years.  But I was captivated by the beautiful Pacific Ocean, harbor, and beach background to the Pebble Beach golf course on the mid-Californian coast...where the annual PGA United States Open is held, one of the major golf tournaments.  The leader at the close of Saturday was Gary Woodland, who had only a one-stroke lead over Justin Rose and at age 35 was still looking for his first ever majors victory.  Brooks Koepka, who had won the U.S. Open the previous two years, was also in contention.  By the time the leaders reached the final holes today, Rose had faded while Koepka had surged to second place, finishing his round two strokes behind Woodland.  But Woodland, who was previously 0 for 7 when defending a tournament lead going into the final day, showed exceptional poise and consistency, getting a long birdie at his turn on the 18th to finish with a three-stroke win over Koepka...

I've never played any "regular" golf although I've always been pretty good at miniature golf...at 62 I'm probably not going to go buy a set of clubs at this point.  But it was fun to follow the sport, something I used to do when I was much younger and stars like Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player, and Tom Watson were consistently on the leader board.  And for some reason, as I watched golfer after golfer drive the ball off into the rough yesterday and today, I thought of the scene in that old James Bond movie Goldfinger when 007 plays a major prank on the title villain while playing against him.  Like horse racing or next month's Tour de France bicycle races, some sports I follow only during major events...maybe I'll be checking out golf like this, too.  Let's see...the next major tournament will be the British Open on July 18-21, to take place at Dunluce Course in Northern Ireland.  Now that I recognize some of the players it should be fun to follow...although I'm expecting the scenery to not be as good as Pebble Beach...