[Kalen Braley]

Steve,

All the more reason why Augusta needs to adopt a tourney ball (which they almost hinted at this year).  No way in hell any of those guys are skipping a crack at the Green Jacket and the trappings that come with it...

[Tom_Doak]

Probably true that a lot of them would skip it.  Makes sense to me as it wouldn't be much fun.  Why risk being embarrassed for anything less than a top prize and prestige?   It's all about risk/reward.

Not everyone would skip it.  There are certain players who think their odds are better when the course is more difficult.  Koepka, for one.

[Ben Malach]

I think the biggest issue with the USGA and setups is not letting the local talent run the show. Anytime that the course has gotten weird or too hard it's always because the USGA decided they needed to do something. At Shinny they wouldn't let them run full night cycles so the greens dried out too much, at Chambers they killed the fescue because the USGA doesn't normally manage fescue, and so on a so forth.


 All of these key errors can all be traced back to not listening to the guy on the ground every day. I think that the USGA could learn a lot from the R&A's success at working with the teams on the ground to get the best product each year.  So no I don't think the US Open is too hard I think its fine, they just need to engage the local talent more to reduce the risk of it getting away from them. [size=78%] [/size]

[Bruce Katona]

I've likely said all of this before in various threads but will not attempt to combine this into one location.  The blue blazers of Far Hills are experts at wringing out the last dollar annually from each years venue; that's a compliment.  I don't buy that they need to make money off this annual event to subsidize all of their other annual events; that's a separate discussion.


Where the swill and spit crowd fails miserably is in the annul defense of par to "identify the best golfer".  While the Far Hills crowd has access the best resources; they continually exceed and micromanage their virtually unlimited resources to oblivion. 


I've long felt having the Men of The Masters ("MOTM"); who run a pretty good event each April; and the course super, set up the US Open venue. This would apply local knowledge to the set-up and add in the team who bring almost annual Sunday evening drama to their April event - you think CBS doesn't love it? 


I'm thinking if the blazers put aside their ego's (not likely to happen) and called Fred Ridley and said "Fred - we're going to experiment in 2023. We want you guys to give our show a go - lets combine forces for a year just to see what happens.  We know how to squeeze every last dollar out of every patron; you guys don't. You guys get the set-up correct and have on-course drama late on Sundays most years, not course set-up controversy. Lets work together see what happens."


Win-win for the Far Hills guys - if the set up is bad the local super and the MOTM are to blame; get it correct and its a new JV model where both sides get credit.


Just my $0.02.


   

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