“The course is gone”!

[Garland Bayley]

When the average player hits a shot and the ball doesn't end as close as we had hoped we assume we didn't execute optimally or near optimally. With these guys, they blame the USGA for not being optimal.

I say quit whining and accept our reality.

[Bruce Katona]

It appears Mr. Davis let the the greens superintendent permform the task the membership @ Shinnecock compensates him for - I just flipped the Fox coverage on and the course is rewarding well struck shots - no complaints of crustiness or pins impossible to get near so far.


This may well become a contest to reward the best golfer today, not the luckiest.

[Lou_Duran]

I am very excited to watch the round today. We have a great leaderboard and good bunching. Plenty of bullshit stir the pot controversy and a perfect links day on a great very tough course( one of the hardest I have played). What more can you ask for?

So keep it up and dig your self deeper into your self righteous bitter hole while a lot of us enjoy the golf like we usually don't get to see it today.

Right on Mr. Peyronnin.   I just shake my head.  The admonition not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good comes to mind.  Except our definitions of the perfect and the good seem so fickle and  situational.

Par doesn't mean anything until it does.  Brown is beautiful; F & F is the ideal; the ground game is superior to the aerial attack; controlling the flight and distance of the shot demonstrates a higher level of skill as opposed to bomb and gouge.  And did you know that Phil Mickelson is not only a cheat and a known gambler, but also trades stocks based on inside information?  The horror of it all.  Geez!  Enjoy a fantastic cast of characters playing a world-class golf course in what could be very interesting dry, windy conditions.   Happy Father's Day!

P.S.- what I would give to swing like Finau or Reed.

[Ken Moum]

I’d say there’s something wrong when tied T45 sits in the clubhouse and is joint leader at the end of the action.

So they watered the damned thing, and now T23 is sitting in the clubhouse with a real shot at being the winner.


The solution, and the ONLY one, on a windy, sand-based golf course with elevated greens is to put water on the greens during the day.  Syringing doesn't have to mean that one group is playing to concrete and the next is playing to a sandbox.


I played today and at the crappy course I play the super was out hand watering a couple of the greens that get too dry at 1:30 in the afternoon.


K

[jeffwarne]

I’d say there’s something wrong when tied T45 sits in the clubhouse and is joint leader at the end of the action.

So they watered the damned thing, and now T23 is sitting in the clubhouse with a real shot at being the winner.


The solution, and the ONLY one, on a windy, sand-based golf course with elevated greens is to put water on the greens during the day.  Syringing doesn't have to mean that one group is playing to concrete and the next is playing to a sandbox.


I played today and at the crappy course I play the super was out hand watering a couple of the greens that get too dry at 1:30 in the afternoon.


K

Stay tunec.-ots coming.
Moisture meters under every green doiling out exact firmness all day along with consistent speed.


I find it amusing that the same guy won on both courses/setups despite a knee jerk reaction to the previous year.


Which made a successful prognosticator on Sirius XM a week ago and a small fortune in several office pools.


Now we start a pool on when the golf world falls out of love with setup stars.


I will say it was a very entertaining US Open'particulary watching the final round in Donegal town after a round on actual humpty bumpty firm brown and white links turf at Strandhill)

[Bruce Katona]

The blazers are now thanking their lucky stars, swilling and spitting their Screaming Eagle that Koepka as a realest winner is now the story and not their screwup


If this were the private sector Mr. Davis would be buffing up his CV this evening for his sacking that would be coming as early as tomorrow.

[Jim Nugent]

If this were the private sector Mr. Davis would be buffing up his CV this evening for his sacking that would be coming as early as tomorrow.

The private sector would first look at the bottom line.  If the tournament made lots of money, year after year, TPTB might not want to upset the apple cart. 

[Kalen Braley]

I still have a hard time getting past..."We promise we won't screw it up again this time" 

[Kyle Harris]

If this were the private sector Mr. Davis would be buffing up his CV this evening for his sacking that would be coming as early as tomorrow.

If this were the private sector you wouldn't have the privilege of an uniformed opinion on the matter.


Interpret all of that sentence in multiple ways, please.

[Sean_A]

I’d say there’s something wrong when tied T45 sits in the clubhouse and is joint leader at the end of the action.

So they watered the damned thing, and now T23 is sitting in the clubhouse with a real shot at being the winner.


The solution, and the ONLY one, on a windy, sand-based golf course with elevated greens is to put water on the greens during the day.  Syringing doesn't have to mean that one group is playing to concrete and the next is playing to a sandbox.


I played today and at the crappy course I play the super was out hand watering a couple of the greens that get too dry at 1:30 in the afternoon.


K

Stay tunec.-ots coming.
Moisture meters under every green doiling out exact firmness all day along with consistent speed.


I find it amusing that the same guy won on both courses/setups despite a knee jerk reaction to the previous year.


Which made a successful prognosticator on Sirius XM a week ago and a small fortune in several office pools.


Now we start a pool on when the golf world falls out of love with setup stars.


I will say it was a very entertaining US Open'particulary watching the final round in Donegal town after a round on actual humpty bumpty firm brown and white links turf at Strandhill)

Didn't need a moisture meter for Sunday. They were leaving craters in the greens.... totally different from Saturday and the scores bore this out.


Ciao

[jeffwarne]

I’d say there’s something wrong when tied T45 sits in the clubhouse and is joint leader at the end of the action.

So they watered the damned thing, and now T23 is sitting in the clubhouse with a real shot at being the winner.


The solution, and the ONLY one, on a windy, sand-based golf course with elevated greens is to put water on the greens during the day.  Syringing doesn't have to mean that one group is playing to concrete and the next is playing to a sandbox.


I played today and at the crappy course I play the super was out hand watering a couple of the greens that get too dry at 1:30 in the afternoon.


K

Stay tunec.-ots coming.
Moisture meters under every green doiling out exact firmness all day along with consistent speed.


I find it amusing that the same guy won on both courses/setups despite a knee jerk reaction to the previous year.


Which made a successful prognosticator on Sirius XM a week ago and a small fortune in several office pools.


Now we start a pool on when the golf world falls out of love with setup stars.


I will say it was a very entertaining US Open'particulary watching the final round in Donegal town after a round on actual humpty bumpty firm brown and white links turf at Strandhill)

Didn't need a moisture meter for Sunday. They were leaving craters in the greens.... totally different from Saturday and the scores bore this out.


Ciao

Exactly-management by over correction.
Youd think a club committee of 25 handicappers was involved.... Just wish the putt for 62 had gone down as the ultimate irony/stupidity.
They managed to present the greens vastly differently every day -and unlike how the members ever see them.They are great greens just stop USGA overmanaging.

[Tom Birkert]

I was extremely disappointed with the set up on Sunday. It was Pro-Am pins and the USGA totally overreacted to ridiculous moaning on Saturday.


Were there tough pin positions on Saturday? Absolutely. A couple of them maybe bordered on the unfair. But so be it. If you can't stop the ball from in front of the pin (like on 15 on Saturday), why not play long with your second shot to leave yourself a relatively simple 2 putt / up and down?


But overall the set up on Saturday was very good I thought. There were opportunities out there, specifically if you plotted your way around the course. Rose's front 9 was a case in point. He hit 1 green but shot level par. He missed in the right spots. Compare that to DJ who hit 7 greens and was 6 over.


Shinnecock on Saturday made them think. And - generalisation alert - pros don't like that. They want to be able to focus on the yardage only. At Shinnecock on Saturday poor shots were punished, but poor decisions and poor strategy were punished even more. I love that.


On the Sunday, you had players hitting poor shots which were stopping on the green or spinning back. That is absurd. DJ hit it long on 1 and should have been punished, but it stopped. The set up took so much of the strategy away, and allied with the pro am pin setting it turned it into a regular tour event not the US Open.


All they needed to do was say we got a couple of pins wrong, because that was all they did. There was absolutely no need for them to capitulate to the moaning from pros who hate being made to think and actually execute.

[Jim_Coleman]

   For four consecutive years, the "story" at the U.S. Open has been the failure of the USGA.  In what other industry would the CEO survive four years of poor performance?

[Craig Moore]

I was extremely disappointed with the set up on Sunday. It was Pro-Am pins and the USGA totally overreacted to ridiculous moaning on Saturday.


Were there tough pin positions on Saturday? Absolutely. A couple of them maybe bordered on the unfair. But so be it. If you can't stop the ball from in front of the pin (like on 15 on Saturday), why not play long with your second shot to leave yourself a relatively simple 2 putt / up and down?


But overall the set up on Saturday was very good I thought. There were opportunities out there, specifically if you plotted your way around the course. Rose's front 9 was a case in point. He hit 1 green but shot level par. He missed in the right spots. Compare that to DJ who hit 7 greens and was 6 over.


Shinnecock on Saturday made them think. And - generalisation alert - pros don't like that. They want to be able to focus on the yardage only. At Shinnecock on Saturday poor shots were punished, but poor decisions and poor strategy were punished even more. I love that.


On the Sunday, you had players hitting poor shots which were stopping on the green or spinning back. That is absurd. DJ hit it long on 1 and should have been punished, but it stopped. The set up took so much of the strategy away, and allied with the pro am pin setting it turned it into a regular tour event not the US Open.


All they needed to do was say we got a couple of pins wrong, because that was all they did. There was absolutely no need for them to capitulate to the moaning from pros who hate being made to think and actually execute.

+1000


Amen

[Jim Nugent]

I was extremely disappointed with the set up on Sunday. It was Pro-Am pins and the USGA totally overreacted to ridiculous moaning on Saturday.


Were there tough pin positions on Saturday? Absolutely. A couple of them maybe bordered on the unfair. But so be it. If you can't stop the ball from in front of the pin (like on 15 on Saturday), why not play long with your second shot to leave yourself a relatively simple 2 putt / up and down?


But overall the set up on Saturday was very good I thought. There were opportunities out there, specifically if you plotted your way around the course. Rose's front 9 was a case in point. He hit 1 green but shot level par. He missed in the right spots. Compare that to DJ who hit 7 greens and was 6 over.


Shinnecock on Saturday made them think. And - generalisation alert - pros don't like that. They want to be able to focus on the yardage only. At Shinnecock on Saturday poor shots were punished, but poor decisions and poor strategy were punished even more. I love that.


On the Sunday, you had players hitting poor shots which were stopping on the green or spinning back. That is absurd. DJ hit it long on 1 and should have been punished, but it stopped. The set up took so much of the strategy away, and allied with the pro am pin setting it turned it into a regular tour event not the US Open.


All they needed to do was say we got a couple of pins wrong, because that was all they did. There was absolutely no need for them to capitulate to the moaning from pros who hate being made to think and actually execute.

According to the New York Times, "On Saturday the first 11 groups had a scoring average of 73.6.  The last 11 groups — the top 22 golfers through the first 36 holes — averaged 77." 

That's bigger than the difference between the average scores on Saturday (75.327) and Sunday (72.18).  i.e. the course changed more within Saturday than it did between the two days.

Normally I expect the leaders to average better on Saturday than the guys who barely make the cut.  If so, the course probably played 4 to 5 strokes harder in the p.m., compared to the a.m. 

That is why the USGA changed the setup Sunday.  Not due to player grumbling, but the huge disparity in scores that, due to not-so-abnormal conditions, put two guys one stroke under the cutline in Sunday's final group.  They wanted to make sure that didn't repeat in the last round.   

Did the USGA overreact?  Not so much IMO.  Koepka was the only one of the four overnight leaders to shoot under par on Sunday.  No one close to him shot under par either.  Only one other contender (DJ) matched par, and he had to birdie the 72nd to do so, long after his chance to win had evaporated. 

btw I don't believe Rose plotted his way around the course on Saturday, playing a thinking game, making sure he missed in the right spots.  IIRC he hit nearly every fairway.  But he had no clue where his irons (mostly short irons) were going.  He was lucky to miss in decent spots, and rode some short-game/putting magic to stay in contention. 

Similarly, my impression was that DJ's putter turned ice cold the front nine Saturday, and that's why his score ballooned up, not because he got out of position.
I had no problem with Saturday's afternoon setup/conditions.  It was shocking but also entertaining to watch the best golfers in the world bounce their wedge shots off and over so many greens.  I do wish the morning guys had faced the same overall conditions.