U.S. Open Rough

[Pat Howard]

The USGA has announced on it's website that this year's U.S. Open at the famed Winged Foot west course will feature varying rough lengths.

http://www.usga.org/news/2006/march/open_setup.html

The idea is that the penalty should fit the crime; a ball hit just slightly off the fairway will find a shorter cut of rough. One that is hit 15 yards or so into the rough will find the really thick, nasty stuff. Also, they say that shorter par 4's and reachable par 5's will likely have longer rough around the fairways and greens, whereas really long par 4's will feature the shorter rough.

An intermediate cut of rough is nothing new, so I'm curious to see how far they take this and how much the lengths will actually vary.

Any thoughts on this?

[Jordan Wall]

I am not sure how I feel about this special formula for the US Open rough.

Why make the easy holes harder and the hard holes easier??  If that happens, wouldnt the intent of the hole be lost??  For instance, there are certain holes that are supposed to play harder then others, such as long par 4's.  If you take away some of what makes the hole hard it is just a regular hole for the tournament.  The same can be said for the short holes, such as reachable par 4's or 5's.  Those are supposed to be the scoring holes, and if you make all the holes play equally challenging by mixing up the rough then that certainly does not add anything for the course, in my opinion.

Anywho, thanks for that though Pat, it is certainly interesting.

[Sean Leary]

I think one of the big issues with US Open rough is that the crowd often tramples down the rough where they walk, so the really big miss is penalized less than one just off the fairway.  This scenario will help with this a bit.....

[Jim Sweeney]

Mike Davis, the USGA staffer in charge of course set up (the new Tom Meeks) layed out this setup philosohy shortly after hee took the reins after last year's Open. He also suggested that he would be loking at moving the gallery ropes farther from play to reduce the likelyhood of an wayard ball getting a better lie than one only slightly off line.

[Matt_Ward]

Pat:

Scaling rough to the length of the hole makes sense but I would hasten to add this -- Winged Foot / West never suffers fools and the powers-that-be do not need to overdose with high grass and other heavy-handed actions. We have seen such past intrusions by USGA personnel and the result has never been forgotten (e.g. '98 Olympic's 18th, '04 7th at Shinnecock, to name just two).

Winged Foot / West is IMHO one of the most demanding second shot courses you can play anywhere. The greens sit on natural rock outcroppings and the fall-offs to either side will require a surgeon's touch to manage up'n down actions for par.

The last thing Winged Foot / West needs is a set-up akin to the '74 Open. The USGA overreacted to the 63 Miller shot the preceding year at Oakmont and the Open at Winged Foot / West suffered because of it.

The qualities Tillinghast gave to the course were indeed a man size course and I would truly hope that smarter minds understand that "helping" Winged Foot / West is far from what is needed.

[Phil_the_Author]

Matt,

I am surprised that you seem to have missed the most important change, something that you have championed for several years - multiple tees on 2 holes, #3 & #12.