The golf course and the usga vs. the players

[Glen Rapoport]

Interesting that Winged Foot: the course, the design and routing, the USGA, the course set up and the agronomy are the main focus of so much of the reporting.  On the other hand, the players: their preparation and mental approach to this championship takes a somewhat secondary postion albeit an important one.  It is refreshing that both areas are under such scrutiny.....wish it was this way every week on the PGA tour!  Unfortunatley we get the birdie barage most weekends.....if I equate some of that to the "entertainment" component of the PGA tour, would that ruffle too many feathers?

Glen

[Brad Klein]

Glen, Bill,

how many writers do you think could take that level of intense time on site writing these details up?

Seriously, you raise a good point. It's a reflection of the quality of the courses, the passion of the participants, and the efforts required today to counteract distance gains with all sorts of other defensive maintenance/design measures. It's also part of the incredible calibration technology and agronomic science available to everyone.

Even as simple as caddying. I spent time with Colin Montgomerie's caddie yesterday and got a good look at his yardge book. It looked like a high-tech spreadsheet.

[Craig Sweet]

Brad, the "calibration technology and agronomic science" is available to everyone, but you need lots of dollars to implement it. I'm not sure how many PGA events offer the resources and time to set up US Open style....

That said, I do find the weekly minus 15....birdie brigade boring golf....at the very least the US Open provides entertainment.

[Mike_Sweeney]

A couple of observations from two days at The Open:

1.   Tree removal: When Geoffrey and I walked in yesterday, we were immediately confronted by a drive from Chris DeMarco than landed near us in the deep right #2 trees. We went over so that we had a golfer’s view of his shot. Geoffrey and I both assumed that DeMarco would punch out based on where he was – 2nd day, just make bogey from a bad drive deep in the woods. DeMarco comes over clears the crowd finds a 5 foot opening up high, asked the yardage, steps up with a 6 iron from a 176 hardpanish lie, backs off when a kid creeps right into his backswing trying to see the green around a tree behind him, steps up again and smokes a shot right onto the green. Now 99% percent of the people were amazed by his thought process and ability to hit that shot, GCA scholars Sweeney and Childs were thankful for Winged Foot’s removal of trees where he had an option!! It really was an amazing shot that will never be seen on TV.

2.   Expansion of greens – We sat in the grandstands for awhile on #10 and #18 which have had significant green expansions. On Friday, the 18 pin was back in the back left quadrant which is completely new, at least since I first saw the course in 1996. While the popular press may call this the Jones pin position or something similar, we shall call this the Regan Pin for all the digging that Neil did for the renovation committee up at Winged Foot.  See this thread for the back right Regan Pin.

http://tinyurl.com/hak99

We watched 5 groups come through, 15 golfers including Tiger. Of those 15, only 6 hit the green, and Geoffrey can correct me, but only Mark Calcavecchia hit the back left quadrant. The left green side of the left bunker were two of the worst misses. Tiger went long and did make a nice up and down. Great interesting pin on a great interesting finisher. Would love to see it there Sunday.

3.   Length – Yesterday the tees on #12 were up at 571, thus length is used as an option, not a mandate, by the USGA on some holes.

4.   US Open infrastructure – The USGA does an amazing job of setting up the logistics. 35,000+ people into a suburban neighborhood with a tiny access road, and I had no problems either day. Heard Monday was a little rough, but mainly due to bus drivers who were still learning their routes. They do run a practice route on Sunday. Spoke to my buddy from Merion who attended on Thursday. He is basically planning on not having access to Merion for 2013! WF East literally has flower beds that were planted on fairways as decoration for corporate tents. I went to The Open in 1981 at Merion. Back then it was run by Merion’s committees. Now the USGA could give a few lessons to Disneyworld. It is a big big drop of infrastructure on two courses let alone one course. Makes me wonder how much longer these historical courses will put up with the event.