... are providing a more diverse and entertaining viewing experience than the men.
Play has gone as most of us thought:
• The rough is more penal. On Thursday, I saw only two players hit a green from it and one of those stuffed it tight for birdie at the short 3rd. Stronger men with steeper descent angles and long irons are more effective out of it than a woman’s sweeping motion with a hybrid. To me, the rough is extracting the perfect toll, better so than last week.
• Low flight hitters of irons were out of luck here.
• Scores are as expected. Other than the 455 yard 10th on Thursday and the 229 yard 3rd on Friday, there are no obvious birdie holes for the women. It’s the prototypical beautiful US Open grind.
• The nightly rain’s impact this week is interesting (and it rained hard last night again). Take a look at Michele Wie’s stats: she averaged 263 yards off the tee on Thursday but that dropped to 237 yards on Friday, a 10 % decrease and a typical result for the six other players I checked. No wonder bombers like Wie and Thompson are at the top.
• Lots of different style shots around the greens, most unsuccessful. The women are slower to automatically reach for their 60 degree wedges than the men. More 7 and 8 iron shots have been witnessed this week. I suspected that more would putt after Kaymer’s exhibition but that was a wrong assumption so far.
• Have seen many more missed greens from ten yards out than the men. Gulbis hit a decent looking (but low) bunker shot from the right greenside bunker at the 6th and it rolled… and rolled … almost went in the hole … and rolled … and dropped into the left hand bunker. An easy, quick, yet painfully slow double.
• The 11 year old had one of the greatest up and downs of the event, from behind the 8th green. She’s a true talent. She was +3 for the 4 par 5s that she played. In fact, she didn't par a single one of them (she birdied the 5th one day and doubled the 10th as her first hole on Thursday).
• I had customers come in for Thursday and they both thought the course was a lot ‘prettier’ in person than it appeared during the men’s telecast. The rain brought back a range of colors.
• A walking rules official told me on Thursday that he thought the greens were firmer/faster for the women on Thursday than they were for the men on Sunday. Don’t know why or if that is true but it was an interesting observation from a man who had been studying the play.
The only disappointment is the 8th hole. As a par 4, it is awkward as the girls’ driving zone is to a sideslope. They aren’t laying lack because of the severity of the green. It would play better as a 480 yard par 5 for them rather than a 426 yard par 4 to a tight/tilted fairway. I would also have set up Ross’s superb 16th as a three shotter.
Otherwise, the course is doing what No. 2 does: produce a great leaderboard of form players! Can’t wait for the action over the next two afternoons when the mental aspect of dealing with this course starts to wear down the players.
Given that Castle Stuart won't
be on television this year, this event might join Hoylake as the best viewing experience left of the season.
Best,