Dear David,
After your diatribe on the imperfections of Bethpage Black when the leader at the time was twelve under par, have you had a twinge of regret knowing that a very respectable four under won all the marbles?
A great last round viewing for all and some emotional unertones to boot.
Your old Pal.
Bob
How in the world did I miss this thread until now?
Bob, no regrets. My diatribe was an apples to apples comparison of the 36-hole stories at BPB and Olympia Fields. I think I made my case with the New York Times's 36-hole stories. One compared Olympia Fields to En Joie and the B.C. Open. The other said that the mighty Black course had been rendered defenseless.
I expected the scores to come back. Frankly, most of the scoring increase in the last two rounds was attributable to the sorry condition of the greens - bumpy and slow and full of footprints. (Maybe that's part of the new Mike Davis set-up, too.)
Anyway, as I said, I think Bethpage Black is a terriffic course. I think the same of Olympia Fields North. I found it highly unfair to skewer the latter and but make excuses for the former after 36 holes as a result of the same set of circumstances - softness, low rough and no wind.
Anyway, everybody who knows me knows that devil's advocacy is my M.O. once groupthink sets in, so shame on anybody who actually believed that I meant anything I wrote.... 
I can tell you first-hand that the members at Olympia are still fuming. I was there over the weekend and the 73rd hole erupted when Johnny Miller dissed Olympia thusly: "That wasn't a US Open course. No rough." The absence of rough was a setup decision, not a problem with the golf course itself. The club and the USGA can't control the weather, but when it happens in New York, it's a heroic occasion, when it happens in Chicago, we are called a goat track.
The simple truth is that both courses are terrific. Both are Open worthy. But both are susceptible to the pros going low if the course is soft and the rough isn't very deep. The Bethpage supporters are lucky that they already had a successful Open with good weather; the media gave them a pass this time around, appropriately so, when the scores were well under par.