[Brad Swanson]

The green speed/hardness issues at Shinnecock have been discussed ad nauseum, but what about the narrowing of the fairways by the USGA.  Prior to last week, there were alot of complaints about this from forum members, but I haven't read much about this issue since.  

How much difference would somewhat wider fairways had in the overall score of the field?

Were the fairway widths appropriate considering how firm and fast the course was playing?

Cheers,
Brad Swanson


 

[John Foley]

Brad,

I actually found it odd that the fairways did not seem overly narrow while I was there. I expected much worse. It really didn't appear that much of the members fairways we're grown in. #6 and #1 did, but others didn't nott seem too narrow at all.

[TEPaul]

Brad:

On another thread about what would've been interesting at Shinnecock I said this about the subject of your question.

"This is all in retrospect, and not something I necessarily suggest they should've done---but given that the tournament had no real rain, and seeing as how extremely fast and firm that entire course was and became I would've found it truly interesting to see what the differences in scoring would've been if the course played with it's normal 35 acres of fairway (instead of the 22 acres used by the USGA)  or even it's orignal fairway acreage of 50+.

The only reason I say that is hardly any of those pros were really firing at any of the pins---they were much more often just trying to hold greens or get into position around them. With up to the original 50 acres of fairway I think it would've been very interesting under those extremely firm and fast conditions to see if real width of fairways would've tempted them to try to come closer to some of those pins and it would've been interesting to see if and how they could've pulled that off or not."

Perhaps that would've created an even more interesting Open!

[Mark_Fine]

More width would have most definitely made for a more interesting Open especially the way the rest of the course was set up and one day they will figure that out.  How many times did you hear comments about playing to the proper side of the fairway to attack a certain hole location, etc. ALMOST NEVER!  Anywhere in the fairway was deemed a great shot.  

It would have been fun to see what those guys could do (and how smart they could/would have played) if they had to think about anything more that just trying to find any part of the fairway or anywhere on the green.  

I venture to say many of them would have gotten in more trouble if that had less well defined targets to play to.  But for now, the U.S. Open set ups have almost always dictated play rather than allowing the golfers to think their way around the golf course.  

[Brad Swanson]

Tom,
   Sorry I missed your comment on the other thread.  My normal pathological level of reading the discussion group has been cut down to just obsessive lately, and I missed it.  I agree that a greater lattitude in approach angles, given the unpredictable nature of the prevailing wind, may have lead to some more aggressive play.  Now, whether or not that more aggressive play leading to lower scores, well, we'll never know.

Cheers,
Brad Swanson

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