Pinehurst fairways were too easy (wide) for a US Open

[J.D. Griffith]

Just an overall bad premise and argument, but what do you think, especially Mr. Mucci?

http://golfweek.com/news/2014/jun/26/us-open-2014-pinehurst-fairways-too-easy-achenbach/

[jeffwarne]

Agree JD, a bad  premise It's called the US Open, not the US driving test.
This time a former #1, current TPC champ, and two time major winner won.
I'll take this year's winner's credentials (and future career) over the last US Open held there.
Narrow the fairways and make it firm and fast and good driving isn't even attempted, but rather long irons and hybrids

[David_Tepper]

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2014/6/26/achenbach-pinehurst-no-2s-width-a-bad-dream.html

[Paul Gray]

Oh dear.

Not for the first time I'll suggest that every week we just spend four days at the next driving range on the road. Without all of those ridiculous overheads involved in preparing a golf course the players could finally earn a living wage. 

[Patrick_Mucci]

Just an overall bad premise and argument, but what do you think, especially Mr. Mucci?

Three golfers broke par, two of them just barely.
So, did the course present a sufficient challenge ?
It would appear so.

Was it the fairways or was it the fairly benign areas flanking the fairways ?

Had the fairways been narrowed would no one have broken par ?

Would 8 over have been the winning score ?

Writers criticize just about anything and everything, that's what they get paid to do.

But, in looking at the scores, I don't see the case for narrower fairways.

http://golfweek.com/news/2014/jun/26/us-open-2014-pinehurst-fairways-too-easy-achenbach/

[cary lichtenstein]

great balance, wide fairways and turtle back greens. Narrow the fairways and +10 will be the winner and no one will watch

[Paul Gray]

7.172 billion people on this planet. Heaven forbid that two people amongst the very best of the best manage to break par over two tournaments. Obviously the course was too easy. 

[Ronald Montesano]

Achenbach is very tall. He is a human drone, seeing things from a height with which I'm unfamiliar (unless supported by a ladder.)

I intimate that his entire premise is concretized by his overly-vertical disdain for the horizontal. Should he have watched the open from his knees, he would have never written an article that he must now recant.

[Will Lozier]

I would suggest that an Open course with perhaps the smallest effective green sizes should have slightly wider fairways.  No?

[Paul Gray]

Will,

Yes and no. And I guess the 'no' bit is yet another example of why short grass makes a player think more.

Those wider fairways can leave a player with more acute angles, potentially bad for hitting smaller greens. 

[Will Lozier]

Will,

Yes and no. And I guess the 'no' bit is yet another example of why short grass makes a player think more.

Those wider fairways can leave a player with more acute angles, potentially bad for hitting smaller greens. 

But therein lies the beauty of giving the field a bit more leeway off the tee...a ball in the fairway doesn't necessarily guarantee a GIR.

[Paul Gray]

Will,

Yes and no. And I guess the 'no' bit is yet another example of why short grass makes a player think more.

Those wider fairways can leave a player with more acute angles, potentially bad for hitting smaller greens. 

But therein lies the beauty of giving the field a bit more leeway off the tee...a ball in the fairway doesn't necessarily guarantee a GIR.

Exactly. So smaller greens do not become easier necessarily if you widen the corridors.

[Terry Lavin]

Nothing necessarily guarantees a GIR at Pinehurst #2. Therein lies the rub.

[Will Lozier]

Nothing necessarily guarantees a GIR at Pinehurst #2. Therein lies the rub.

Terry,

Thanks for repeating my previous post!

[Patrick_Mucci]

Will,

Yes and no. And I guess the 'no' bit is yet another example of why short grass makes a player think more.

Those wider fairways can leave a player with more acute angles, potentially bad for hitting smaller greens. 

But therein lies the beauty of giving the field a bit more leeway off the tee...a ball in the fairway doesn't necessarily guarantee a GIR.

Will,

It pretty much does so for the best golfers in the world, playing their best.

[Brent Hutto]

So if the fairways were 18 yards wide with 2-1/2" Bermuda rough on both sides, would that somehow make these difficult to hit greens easier to hit?

There is no way to construe wide fairways as making any given course more difficult than narrower ones. The only exception would be if a wider fairway flowed directly into a lost-ball or unplayable hazard (and if thich rough would hold up balls from rolling into the hazard). But no such hazards exist at Pinehurst #2.

Some of you guys seem to be implying that narrowing down the fairways to stereotypical US Open widths would somehow magically make the players' tee shots more accurate. If being on the right side of a certain fairway leaves a bad angle to the green, then being in that same spot in thick rough leaves a bad angle and a likely bad lie.