Subtitled: Is Mike Davis due for a raise?
Listening to Curtis Strange prattle on yesterday on the necessesity, and benefits, of driving the ball accurately at the US Open led me to a place Curtis probably doesn't visit: US Open course statistics.
Looking at driving accuracy stats, it appears through the first two days of the Open that putting the ball in the fairway bears little resemblance to the leaderboard. Only Els stands out as among the leaders in both categories. Although it's hard to tell, and I couldn't find a cumulative total, it looks like the midpoint of driving accuracy percentage was 70-75 percent for the field -- and McDowell, Mickelson, and DeJonge among others are below that. Casey, a real contender at E par so far, is at 43 percent. Olgivy, at 82 percent, missed the cut.
Last year I suggested (and was summarily taken to the woodshed) that Mike Davis' set-up at BBlack was too weather-dependent, and that soft conditions combined with his set-up produced record-low scores during the first two days of that Open. Has Davis figured out a way to truly test players, and make par a meaningful score, while not succumbing to the notion to what has long been viewed as the USGA Open set-up of "hit in here and nowhere else?" Or is Pebble simply a better Open course than BBlack? I think it might be both.