USGA Clusterf#<k!

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BrendanC

BrendanC

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On the front nine, Rory also hit his driver off the tee, laid up at a par five (wedge), chipped out to within wedge distance from the trees/deep rough.

On the rough, the USGA correctly figured out that penalising the guy who misses the fairway by a yard the same as the guy who misses by 10 is a less effective way of finding the best golfer.

But yeah, having an effective 40 yards of fairway to hit at wedge distance probably did help.
 
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birly-shirly

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littleacorns said:
You don't know what you're looking at.

Tom Watson, commented on the 2011 U.S. Open:

“When I played the U.S. Open before this change, there was no first cut of rough,” said Watson, who missed last year’s inaugural Classic while playing in the Senior PGA Championship. “Now, you have the first cut of rough and then the primary rough. The first cut is usually pretty playable.

“Plus, they’re making it shorter. You couple that with soft greens and it makes for low scores. I don’t care if the course is 8,700 yards long, these guys are going to shoot low scores.”
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Tom Watson. 5 times British Open winner. 1 time US Open winner. I know what tournament I would rather be.
 
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Rick Dandy

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I surely agree 'shirly.

....Mikey's head thoughts on the pillow...
...rough height, green firmness, fairway width, hole locations, tee locations, wind affects, player skills...

“How does a Tour pro hit a 5-iron, how much rough can they recover from, where’s the breaking point of the greens being too firm? Those are all things you have to understand about the group of players you’re setting up a course for,” says Davis. “And I think understanding grasses is more important than the average person would believe.”

And on the big picture...

“To really get the most out of each course,” he says, “it’s helpful to think about what the architect was intending here.”

To know or not to know, which tournament you would rather be, that is the question.
 
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Rick Dandy

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and Venturi:

"The uproar over the seventh hole at Shinnecock during the U.S. Open was ridiculous. I couldn't help but think of Billy Casper at Winged Foot in the 1959 Open, when he deliberately laid up at the third hole, another tough par 3. Every day, Billy deliberately played short, then chipped up and made his par. On the other hand, the players this year just bombed away at that par 3 like lemmings heading over a cliff. They complained that it wouldn't hold a well-struck shot. Well, so what? What did you expect, Bermuda Dunes? If they had looked at it as a par 4, which it really was under those conditions, and accepted that score and moved on, they would have been fine. But they couldn't do it. The USGA people promised a total test—skill, endurance and patience—and boy, did they deliver. The bottom line is, the section of the exam marked "patience" is the part a lot of them flunked."
 
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dbl

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Venturi and "patience" - wow! In 1964, when he played his fourth round I believe there was a gap of 4 open holes in front of him, he was so laggardly. But Boatwright refused to penalize him and allowed it. The group behind him, including a guy in contention, kept their mouths shut.
 
birdie_man

birdie_man

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And the NFL on Ricky Williams. Not livid about US Open scoring (though "bowls" are kinda dumb if they did that) but good job to this guy on that. He should brush up on his Kennedy research though.
 
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dbl

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ms1170 said:
They should have switched the US Open to Aronimink and kept the ATT at Congressional.
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Should have agreed with thus earlier.

Aronimink: faster greens, more rough.

Had to be at +3 or better to make the cut today, and +4 or better for Congressional....so the comparison is apt.
 
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mgranato

mgranato

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dbl said:
Should have agreed with thus earlier.

faster greens, more rough.

Had to be at +3 or better to make the cut today, and +4 or better for Congressional....so the comparison is apt.
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I don't know...

31 players under par at the AT&T, and Watney being the highest ranked player in the field at 15th might have something to do with it. It seems that playing for Tiger and unlimited cellular minutes isn't the same draw as what the USGA has to offer.
 
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ms1170

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Aronimink just looks like a better golf course. I'll take Donald Ross over something Rees Jones has messed with every time.
 
faux_maestro

faux_maestro

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mgranato said:
I don't know...

31 players under par at the AT&T, and Watney being the highest ranked player in the field at 15th might have something to do with it. It seems that playing for Tiger and unlimited cellular minutes isn't the same draw as what the USGA has to offer.
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Basically the difference between AT&T and the U.S. Open scoring is ONE guy WAY ahead at Congressional. Let's not forget that, Rory was on fire all week.
 
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dbl

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What are you guys saying about the good players being missing? That "worse" players are there and the scores would be better if better players were there? I don't think so on the face of it, since I wouldn't think the top10 in the world would really light up the scoreboard here.

Think about it this way, if the ATT at Aronimink was suddenly going to offer 200 world ranking points and a 10 million dollar first prize and the big boys showed up, the cut would have been at +6 or higher! Similarly if it was offering a "major" everyone would have been a bit tighter or played more protectively and the scores would be higher than what we actually see.
 
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dbl

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Hah, well my comments were before seeing today's scores. But with all the records a falling, Marino (63) did say the Tour had watered the greens and put the flags in easy spots...so the tour had green-lighted the easy scoring. Nonetheless, the course is a good one.
 
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dbl

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Well sure they are good, but that is relative to others...and of course earning points in the events they choose to play (which might be the 'hard' ones). Success in ranking points is not necessarily indicative of low scoring, just lower than certain other players.

FWIW, I do think Watney is the best ranking American in 2011, and he has proven many times of being quite capable of going low.
 
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