Choose your “F-Word”

[Kalen Braley]

I find myself torn as I've watched my 2nd day of coverage, (multiple hours today)

On the one hand John K is absolutely right about the fairway/rough transitions, its a bit jarring and no doubt must be driving the players nuts due to the aforementioned luck component of being completely screwed or having a nice open look with a reasonable lie.

But...the play overall has been nothing short of compelling, and its been terrific not to be subjected to a long-grass chip-out hackathon for those who go wayward (with a few notable exceptions of course).  The amazing thing is watching how expertly they can negotiate those greens and surrounds, some of these camera angles make those little chips and pitches look absolutely terrifying.

Overall I'm mostly entertained if for no other reason its a fairly unique open compared to the typical Torrey Pines/WingFoot setups..

P.S.  Michael, same here, don't understand the xenophobic crap

[Terry Lavin]

Why are the fans chanting USA USA for Bryson when he left the USA Tour for LIV?  Aberg deserves better comportment. This isn’t the Ryder Cup.

This struck me as rather odd.

[Greg Hohman]

Fun (for this tv viewer). I have never understood how a shot is “well struck” if a green, any green, rejects it. Losing connectivity while the leaders were starting the back nine was maddening, for a change. I can take or leave most events.


OT: One glimpse of Tony and Rory as tykes together is worth, to me, a thousand Bryson technology factoids.

[John Kirk]

Yes, luck in the rough is perfect. Nothing worse than a prescribed penalty for missing a fairway. That is dreadful and has no place in proper golf.

Ciao

Hi Sean,

I don't disagree, but it is a unique hazard in American professional golf.  It is not unlike the random nature of rough on British links courses, albeit a manufactured version.

Other random thoughts:

1.  Martin Kaymer won the Open in 2014 by using a putter off the green at virtually every opportunity.  They changed the grass to bermuda grass, didn't they?  It seems like the putter has been used off the green about 10-15% of the time in this year's contest.

2.  I don't want to start a conversation/argument about this comment.  It's just a wish.  I want to see DeChambeau back on the American tour.  A wonderful, compelling round by the big man today.  The most unconventional player of all time.


3.  Wouldn't it be great if we had three or four more big golf tournaments in the United States where the stakes were high and different courses were selected each year?  Maybe make them seasonal challenges where winter courses were featured in the winter, or western courses close to the Pacific coast were highlighted in the cooler summers here?  Something, anything to watch the greats play interesting, different places.

Greg Hohman,

Very amused to see your OT sentence after sharing a contrary sentiment.  I agree that both Tony and Rory are exceptionally likeable players.

[cary lichtenstein]

Survival of the fittest

[Greg Hohman]

John, you posted while I was writing. I am a recreational golfer, didn’t mean to diss Bryson’s methodology.

[John Kirk]

John, you posted while I was writing. I am a recreational golfer, didn’t mean to diss Bryson’s methodology.

Hi Greg,

I read your comment more carefully.  I get it now.  I was just trying to acknowledge your comment and be friendly.


It was a good day of watching golfers and the distinctive golf course.
   

[Michael Morandi]

Why are the fans chanting USA USA for Bryson when he left the USA Tour for LIV?  Aberg deserves better comportment. This isn’t the Ryder Cup.

This struck me as rather odd.

Expect more of it tomorrow. Bryson is paired with Pavon from France.

[Sean_A]

Yes, luck in the rough is perfect. Nothing worse than a prescribed penalty for missing a fairway. That is dreadful and has no place in proper golf.

Ciao

Hi Sean,

I don't disagree, but it is a unique hazard in American professional golf.  It is not unlike the random nature of rough on British links courses, albeit a manufactured version.

Other random thoughts:

1.  Martin Kaymer won the Open in 2014 by using a putter off the green at virtually every opportunity.  They changed the grass to bermuda grass, didn't they?  It seems like the putter has been used off the green about 10-15% of the time in this year's contest.

Well, Pinehurst is unique.

I think the bleeding of fairway into rough is done well, but I would like to see more of it. I like two grass height golf.

Seems to me that putter, running iron or flop shot, it takes excellent execution to save par. Pinehurst proves the short grass is a hazard theory in the US. I am just not sure many Americans are willing to accept this in a non links environment.

Ciao

[Matt MacIver]

Maybe someone can confirm or correct: with the 2014 redo I seem to remember the greenside bunkers were all or mostly native sand, i.e. what we see today next to the fairways.  I remember then around the greens there was native/hard packed sand with no rakes, making (for me) it impossible to wedge it high and stop on the green.


Today I see most of the greenside bunkers have fluffy sand with rakes; is this a change, and if so, why?  Sure seems a bit easier than hard packed. 


Sorry to co-opt the thread…: frenetic.   

[JohnVDB]

The bunkers look to be the same as in 2014.  The bunkers are packed on the faces and raked in the bottom, somewhat similar to what I’ve seen of the sand belt courses in Melbourne. The biggest concern our officials had in 2014 before the championship was how to tell bunkers from native areas.  We told them that should just make the call and they did with no issues being raised. 



There are both bunkers and native areas around the greens.  It is possible that they changed some from one to the other but the ones I’ve seen in my limited viewing here in Scotland look the same. I even pulled up some of the coverage from 2014 and compared a couple of holes.


I love the vagaries of the native areas at Pinehurst.  One thing I’ve always said is that it is called “rough” not “smooth” and the trend in today’s professional golf seems to be that the rough should be completely consistent from week-to-week.  That leads to a lack of creativity being required of the players. As someone who plays a lot of public golf in the US, I can assure you we never know what kind of a lie we’ll get when we miss the fairway and the pros shouldn’t either. At least it’s not all chip-out rough.


Finally, as someone who has known Bryson since he was 14 years old, I’m rooting for him. I think that a victory by him might do more to force some movement towards an agreement between LIV and the PGA Tour.  Looking back, the announcement from a year ago came shortly after Brooks’ win at the PGA. When the Tour sees that the major winners are going to be split, they have more incentive to negotiate.


It seems Bryson has become a man of the people and not having him out there hurts their product more than most of the other LIV players.

[Bruce Katona]

1. I watched more yesterday (Saturday) than the first two days.  I didn't think the putting urfaces would hol up well but there is only today to go and all seemed ok - though a bit stressed - late yesterday.


2. I love the native areas- its a roll of the dice on a good or bad lie, but that does occur on some of The Open courses as well.


3. What I don't like is properly struck short irons, chips or sand shots not staying on the green du to green speed or internal countours.  We get that 1x/year at ANGC and everyone knows wht ti expect.


4. What I did notice yesterday was the turf stress beginning to show at the fairway edges and on the tees.  Luckily almost no one will use these tees after today so hopefully that can heal.


5. I was hoping Rory & Bryson would play together today - frankly that should have been arranged somehow and would have made excellent TV.  Bruson is winning over patrons by engaging with thm as he plays; Rory, most fans enjoy & root for.


 

[cary lichtenstein]

While I'm watching every shot again today, the holes for the most part look very similiar to each other and without, I don't have much of a clue which hole is which, the lies in the rough are interesting to say the least and the twice triple bogied hole on the back nine, I do have the Big F word for that

[Michael Morandi]

NBC has done a poor job of laying  out the holes to the viewer

[cary lichtenstein]

NBC has done a poor job of laying  out the holes to the viewer

But, it was great TV regardless of whatever I said before

[astavrides]

Seems like it would be a nightmare of a golf course for me to play. (I played it once, before the wire grass replaced rough). Not so much because of the turtleback greens. That would surely be frustrating, but I could try to be zen about it.
The nightmare to me seems like it would be in trying to find your golf ball if it goes into the native/wire grass. For those that have played it, is that true? I guess if you have 4 caddies in your foursome, that might ease the pain somewhat, but I never take a caddy unless I'm forced to.

[Jeff Schley]

Frustrating I agree with others. It isn’t supposed to be easy, but the greens effective area seem as small as Pebble Beach almost.  With 540 yard par 4’s, both Bryson and Rory hit towering irons to hold the green and almost made birdie. GIR’s there aren’t easy, Bryson IIRC was only about 50% sand save until the last.


For the bogey golfer you have to play the right tee box and be able to putt onto the green. Leave your wedge in the bag I think.


BTW what are they charging now for #2?

[David Cronan]

It's a little overstated, David. No.2 isn't physically wounding anyone. Anything can be anyone's 13th Reason I suppose, but I don't think a course setup warrants that particular prosecutorial angle.

Good morning Jason. I meant that golfers seem to take pleasure in the carnage that pros endure while playing US Open courses as it reminds that of their (ams) frustrations on the course. I don't experience a similar satisfaction in seeing their failures. And I used tennis as an example because when I play tennis, my game suffers from several double faults, net balls and the inevitable groin/hamstring pull during a match. And it doesn't seem to me that the casual tennis player takes joy in seeing pros experience the same.


I still may not be articulating my thoughts as well as I should....

[John Kirk]

There are a few current threads talking about Pinehurst.  I returned to make a couple of last comments on this one thread that I commented on.

All that was needed was for Rory to make the putt on 18.  Yes, he was faced with one of the bad lies that can happen when a player is in the Pinehurst native; either in the wire grass, or left with a swing that will be impacted by the big bunch of grass.  In my opinion, Rory correctly assessed his options and hit the exact right shot.  His club closed shut as it hit the bunch grass, and his smothered shot bounded up to the front of the green.

He then followed with a very good chip to 3 feet, 9 inches.  After watching the chip replay, it appears that Rory hit it exactly where he wanted, but it did not break left to right as he expected.

I watched a replay of his putt a few times.  It's a 4-foot putt, and Rory is aiming at a spot about 2 inches left of the left edge of the hole.  It looks like the putter head went in the proper direction.  Whether he opened the blade a bit is debatable.  What is clear is that it started heading right almost immediately and then turned hard right about halfway there.  A 4 foot downhiller that starts left and breaks so hard that more than half of the ball is outside the right edge is some wicked putt.

Finally, one might look to DeChambeau's unusually upright swing as a clear advantage in the Pinehurst native.  He takes the club back so steeply and vertically, it minimizes the chances of a nearby bunch grass affecting the swing.

I played golf early yesterday and then watched the whole thing a few hours late.  I enjoyed the final day of the tournament very much, and thought the leaderboard reflected a fine cross section of the best players.  I thought the course required a limited assortment of shot types, and I think I'd prefer to play golf at a number of the best new modern designs.

[Stewart Abramson]

BTW what are they charging now for #2?

You have to stay at the Resort to play #2 so it's hard to determine a green fee for #2 as it gets bundled into the package with your lodging, food and other rounds. For packages that don't include #2 you have to pay a $250 surcharge to switch a round on another course to #2. To add another round on #2 to a package ala carte, the fee is $595 during peak season or $360 off season. Caddy or trolley is extra if you want one.

[Greg Hohman]

Two-for-one special in honor of the two men of the moment: Foto-Finish. (Any role in the making of this post played by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (such as film or an optical sensor) resulting in two tykes of some importance as likeable adults in the events in question is purely coincidental.)