Does Mike Davis' US Open set-up depend on perfect conditions?

[jeffwarne]

Watching Mike Weir treat the Black like the old GMO in Milwaukee makes me wonder:

Does the set-up approach of the USGA's Mike Davis -- much-praised by golfers for being more "playable" and not as punishing as those of Meeks -- depend a lot on ideal weather conditions, i.e., avoiding rain and wet conditions? For instance, Oakmont proved really challenging for the players, relative to par, yet a guy like Cabrera could still miss a lot of fairways and win the Open. Torrey Pines last year proved similarly challenging. Both had, from what I remember, ideal weather conditions leading into and during the tourney.

The Black will obviously not dry out by tourney's end, and we could easily see another birdie-fest Sunday or Monday, or the day after the next weather system moves through. I have to think that things like the graduated rough, non-diabolical pin positions, and widending/opening of fairways -- intended to avoid making the US Open a slog, but more a test of shotmaking -- have made the Black much easier for these guys under these conditions.

The USGA was criticized when its set-up for, to take one example, Shinnecock -- described by ideal leading up to the tourney re. fast-and-firm for a course that lends itself to those conditions -- went over the top when the winds really picked up that Saturday night before the final round. Should Davis come under similar criticism for what's taking place today? (Caveat -- I know it's one day, and one day only, but this is pretty easy stuff -- Toms could be around 62 or 61 if he had brought his putter today; Weir may get there.)

the fact that we all know who Mike Davis is demonstrates how far amuk golf has "grown".

Choose a great golf course and play the event!!
-US Open set-up should not be a career.

day in,day out Shinnecock(and many other courses) could host the US Open and doesn't need the confusing setups forced upon it by conflicting interests of the USGA and Tom Meeks.  Cutting the deep beautiful bluestem rough ,yet growing in via seed squirrelly weird green rough near the fairways(as was done in 2004)
Narrowing of fairways negating angles and the basically killing the greens to promote firmness and a goofy weird event won by the man who missed in the best places and then made his recovery putt on every hole.


Bethpage plays perfectly fine and tougher every year in the new York State Open (and daily for those who walk to the back tees)
They actually discussed that they won't use the "new" tee on #7 because the wind will be in the player's face on Monday (they haven't yet either in the event)
The new tee is 525 yards-why not play the old one behind it and make it a par 5 as it's designed-or play the new tee and make it a long par4-or short par 5.
fairness crap is ruining the game although it is keeping the tee builders in business with the "Goldilocks" tee on # 7-which actually is not even going to be used. What a joke.
In 1960 when the drives went 250 when they got a 460 par 4 into the wind did they move the tees up?

The Ryder Cup hoopla is the same-captains devoting 2 years of their life to captain an event that could be coordinated with a ten minute huddle an hour before the tee time
(for the things that matter like pairings-not dinners,uniforms, and cameraderie)

kudos to the staff and volunteers who have allowed the course to be playable this week.

[BCrosby]

Niall -

The R&A does indeed "prepare" its venues for the Open, but if you dig behind that abstract notion, the comparisons break down. The tournament preps for the two organizations difffer in fundamental ways. I think that is because there is no British equivalent to the USGA deep anxiety about "fairness" (Their word, not mine. I'm not even sure what it means in the context).

To repeat, the R&A does not worry overly much about stimps, thumpers to assure uniform turf firmness, carefully calibrated graduated roughs (it's not just thickness, pains are taken to vary height to make it proportional to different kinds of misses), turf quality (a US Open at Hoyake on brown grass? Unimaginable. Water would have been trucked in, cost be damned.), nor does the R&A require wholesale changes to courses as a condition to their hosting an Open. And so forth.

Based on how the two organiztions bake their venues, it seems to me that the R&A has a different and much healthier way of approaching these things. Whatever their concerns about "fairness" (again, don't press me for a definition - I don't have one), those concerns are balanced against a range of other considerations.

Even more interesting is that the existence of those differences suggests that the American approach to these things is neither pre-ordained nor self evidently the right thing to do. Because most US sanctioning bodies want us to think that is the case.

Bob

 

[Phil McDade]

"...nor does the R&A require wholesale changes to courses as a condition to their hosting an Open. And so forth.:

Bob:

In general I'd agree with you, but I think the R&A is creeping toward the USGA/US Open model, unfortunately. One of the par 5 greens at Birkdale was moved back considerably, I believe in preparation for the Open there last year, and Liverpool had its entire (and terrific) routing changed to accomodate spectators (16th as closer, 1st -- with its unnerving tee shot -- not right out of the box). Muirfield is apparently changing the fabled 9th, presumably for an upcoming Open, and Turnberry has had some changes as well. And Carnoustie was changed dramatically -- largely by tightening the fairways in the extreme -- for the '99 Open there.

[Wayne_Kozun]

It looks like the final scores will look very much like most US Opens - only a handful of players will be under par.  (As I write this the leaders are through 6 holes in the final round and only 6 players are under par).  Sure Ricky Barnes got to double digits but that appears to have been a short-lived anomaly and normalcy has returned.

The course setup is turning out to work out pretty well.  The only issue that one could have is that the leader board isn't all that great with several low ranked golfers near the top, but that happens sometimes.