What the heck is a purist anyway? I would think someone who argues for maintaining the challenge of a golf course by changing it can lay claim to that title as much as someone arguing for keeping it exactly as it was at some point in time, especially for an Open course.
This is the $64,000 question.I think it's sad that "purist" is now frequently a pejorative,almost a synonym for stick-in-the-mud.Maybe traditionalist would work better.
Just speaking for myself,I actually would like to see US Open courses set up exactly as they were in the day.Even with the technology advances,I'd like to compare/contrast how Tiger Woods would play Merion,for example, as opposed to how Ben Hogan did.I concede that the comparisons would be few and the contrasts would be otherworldly.Still...
Somewhere in the Sandy Tatum interview, he says that his reasoning for leaving CPC as it is rather than lengthening it was,and I'm paraphrasing,to say "F... you" to those who've allowed technology to become so important.I admire this position.
So,as a self-proclaimed purist/traditionalist,I could live with someone possibly shooting 260 at Merion(or PB).Especially if it caused enough people to wonder if maybe the "solution" was somewhere other than added length and 6" rough.