[David_Tepper]

Plenty of data on hitting/missing fairways here:

https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2020/9/19/any-way-you-cut-it-hitting-us-open-fairways-isnt-that-important

But never let the facts get in the way of your opinions.

[Carl Rogers]

1:55 Saturday. .... 7 under will win

I only missed by 1.

[Tim Leahy]

These guys are good,   -5.

Dechambeau is good. There will be a parade in Fresno! 

[Brent Carlson]

Despite lengthening the course the winning score was 11 strokes lower than in 2006!  Wow.  Props to Bryson.  Well deserved.

[Ian Mackenzie]

WOW...


My only comment: Let's see how Bryson's body feels in 10 years.

[John Emerson]

Is this another “case in point” that length only identifies the longest hitters, or is BD really that good?

[jeffwarne]

Is this another “case in point” that length only identifies the longest hitters, or is BD really that good?

He's good.(despite the fact I'm not a huge fan)
Leading putter inside 10 feet on tour last year.
Creative arsenal of shots that compliment his length, as well as a great short game.
Props to him on everything he has achieved.


It bothers me that there is now so much talk about the USGA "doing something"
They should've done it years ago before it becamse so normalized to hit it 300 plus on tour, and 10 handicaps are hitting it long and wrong everywhere, taking the game out of scale, resulting in the annual bastardization of our championship classic courses.
They should NOT be "doing something" because someone transformed their body while improving his skills in every area of his game.


Congrats  again on a historic final round.
Well deserved.


The most insightful comments on all of this came from Brandel Chamblee(who I'm generally not a huge fan of), in regard to Rory's curious post round comments,
Fairways hit is "relative to the rest of the field"(the field averaged only 40%)
In the 2011 US Open, Rory finished 26th in fairways hit while winning by 8.
Bryson finished 26th in fairways hit in this US Open, winning by 6
He's doing exactly the same thing!

[Wayne_Kozun]

1:55 Saturday. .... 7 under will win

I only missed by 1.

Or 6. -1 would have won.

[Tom_Doak]

Matthew W hit 14% of his fairways and shot -5 to take the lead. Bryson D hit 21% of the fairways on his way to an even par round and 2nd place. How do you predict winning scores when the US Open world has been turned upside down?

and Wolff's 65 Saturday, with 2 fairways hit, is the lowest score ever shot at Winged Foot in an Open(ties JT's Thursday round).
The field is averaging 40% fairways, which is less than 6 per round.


The scale of the elite game is gone, and the winners will become more random.
If drives are going to run 30-70 yards, and travel 380 yards in total everything should be enlarged.


It's not about "protecting par"
If par 4's are 500 yards and the fairways are 24 yards wide, that makes the width less than 5% of the length.
That's just an entirely different game than the Golden Age architcts envisioned and built, and absolutely mitigates the effect of angles, which are now only obtained randomly due to distance the ball travels,turf speeds and narrowed fairways .
Angles ARE often gained on pitch out shots.


Look at any old Golden age photo and the fairways about triple that 5% or nearly 15%(as a percentage of their length on a long par 4)


There are many bombers on tour, and occasionally one catches fire with the driver (Rory),
but when the fairways get this hard to hit, it becomes far more random(somebody's gotta win) as they all are in the rough.
Bombing driver(or 3 wood on hook tee shots) is absolutely the best strategy.
Hit it, Go find it.
The deep rough only encourages it as that Gap wedge from 160 is  easier than that 3 iron from 240(and infinitely easier than 240 from the rough) , and the odds are about even that either club off the tee will find the fairway, exponentially increasing the odds of a birdie chance for the player hitting driver.Another reason to hit driver is that the bunkers have been "modernized" to occur most often somewhere in the driver landing/rolling zone, which is a far better outcome than 5 inch rough.






Strategy as we know it is dead on classic courses.(not really dead, just different)
Equipment has a lot to do with this, but analytics, conditioning and skill sets do as well.


All that said, I'm enjoying this US Open a lot.
Also, it's great to see interesting greens with lots of slope and tilt, and "arcing putts" as Azinger keeps calling them.
Big difference in speed between uphill, downhill and sidehill putts.
The green design and hole placements are the challenge, not some USGA induced superfast bumpy, stressed plinko.
If these greens had less slope, Wolff would've shot in the 50's yesterday, as he missed multiple putts inside 10 feet(which were tough putts due to green design).

Agreed, as I said on the other tgread.

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