The sad part to me was the outcome of the tournament was definitely impacted by the set up and the luck of the draw. Maybe one could say that all the time but in this US Open the players who teed off late on Saturday got screwed and brought the whole field back into contention. The course went over the edge. It had little to do with how they played and more when they teed off.
I did not really get what all the fuss was about.
On Saturday, the players who teed off in the am experienced an average wind speed of 6 MPH.
In the afternoon, the wind doubled to 12 MPH average.
why is this any different than if, at the Open Championship, it started to rain sideways in the pm while it was sunny and calm in the am?
Mother Nature got involved and everyone wants to blame the USGA.
Yes, Mother Nature is part of the game but when approach shots, nearly perfectly placed, roll off the green by 10-20 yards or into bunkers that's not the weather. The fact that the USGA chose to change the conditions on Sunday by greening up the course is evidence enough.
Please tell that to Tom Watson....;-)...his shot to Turnberry's 18th was about as perfect as you could ask with an 8 iron from 187 for a guy who was 59 at the time...;-)
Plus, I disagree with you.
Shots that did what you said were hit to the wrong part of the green. Perhaps the play was not to be so aggressive and instead hit to a fat part of the green to set up a 40' two-putt and NOT try to hit it inside 15' to set up a birdie.
Ian, many of the shots that ran off the greens were hit safely. It was either poor pin placement (13 and 15 on Saturday) and/or poor conditions that caused the poor results on these shots.
Mike-I think it was the former as the conditioning was A1.
Thanks Tim.
Poor conditions was the wrong term. I should have said poor setup. Mainly in letting the greens get too hard and fast.