Tiptoeing Through Hell

Once a year the United States Open Championship picks a course and wickedly redesigns it so that the world's best golfers scramble to avoid triple-bogeys.

Nobody wins the Open. It wins you" said one former PGA tour player. Now golf writer John Strege reveals all the ways the USGA has venomously transformed already difficult courses into "monsters" over the past 50 years.

He also relishes telling what happened to the pros - Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Woods, Snead, Hogan and more - who hooked into the rough, missed putts, and routinely finished over par in this gruelling annual competition.

When the 1963 US Open was won with a score of nine over par, Arthur Daley of the New York Times wrote" Every hacker had to rub his hands in unholy glee at such mass disconfiture. "Now in this irresistible account, today's golfers can experience the same pleasure all over again.