USGA/Pinehurst verdict: F as in failure

[Michael Morandi]

Bryson persevered in every situation in front of him. Well done. But his luck in the natives cannot be overlooked.  I doubt missing 9 fairways under normal US OPEN conditions would have yielded the same score on these green complexes. I’m not a fan of these USGA fabricated native areas. I prefer those that have been around for millennia at British Open courses.

[cary lichtenstein]

Wow, as much as I both hated and loved what the course gave and mostly took away, how about Bryon's par on the 18th hole. Crazy but wow, what a par and what a win and he is the deserving winner.


I literally cry for Rory as I see alot of myself in him but Bryon's deserved to win and it was a great win for him.

[Kalen Braley]

Don’t remember what hole it was and all anyone will remember about this Open and Rory will be the two missed short putts, but how about the great shot he hit into the par 5 that got to about 20 for eagle and the dribbled off the green into the crap and he walked off with bogey instead of a simple two putt birdie. I thought that was awful. That said it probably happened to most of the field at some point. There was a lot of luck involved in this Open.

I saw it Rob, that was on the 5th hole.  As I recall, the announcers said it only was 2-3 feet away from being perfect, with an easy two putt... 4 vs the 6 he took.  The winning margin right there.

Instead it rolls all the way off and ended up sitting down in a very crap lie in the Pinehurst crap, its not rough, not sure what to call it.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Says who?  Where have you been the last few decades. Do some research and look at the percentage of fairways hit in each major.

So what it once was it must always be? Again… says who? You?

The tournament was fantastic to watch. Sorry you had a bad time of it, Michael, but you can keep your takes on this one. I'm not buying.

[Michael Morandi]

Bryson finished 66th in driving accuracy. All previous winners were in the top 10. Rory was top 10. Yes, luck in the natives was a huge factor.

[jeffwarne]

Are you arguing that in the end the best player didn’t win? Thats ridiculous if so.


Bryson got luckier breaks than Rory when he got into the wiregrass, but he also doesn’t win if Rory makes a 2 footer and a 3 footer in the final 4 holes. Golf doesn’t afford equal consequences, that’s the beauty of it. The more you try to standardize the game the more sterile it becomes.


Also, saying he got lucky does a huge disservice to his genius around the greens. His ability to recover when he did get in trouble was beautiful to watch. The up and down for par on 8, the up and down for birdie on 10, the up and down for par on 11, and the incredible, incredible par on 18 were some of the best golf of the day.

Great post Blake.
Great skill was shown by Bryson in recovery.
And I fully agree luck is an essential element of the game,but perhaps not THE essential element,as it often was today.
I have mixed feelings about it.


I'm just not sold on wire grass though.
Not sure what is a better native ground cover for maintenance, good golf, championship golf, aesthetics and challenge.
I am pretty sure growing up in South Carolina and Georgia I never saw any wire grass anywhere in the wild, and it surely isn't attractive at Pinehurst.
We all groaned about Winged Foot's deep consistent rough favoring Bryson,but at least it was his skill and strength and skill that separated him from others, not consistent great breaks on his many temptations of fate.


As I said on Twitter I can see why Pinehurst let it morph to bermuda 60 plus years ago which isn't ideal either.


Open for discussion and/or low maintenance alternatives that also allow for aesthetics and recovery. etc.

[jeffwarne]

Entertainment yes, but my real take away is that there is no antidote for drives that go 330-370... and these contrived closely mown, run offs at 13+ on the stimp are now the only architecture that profiles.

He said the quiet part out loud....

[Michael Morandi]

Says who?  Where have you been the last few decades. Do some research and look at the percentage of fairways hit in each major.

So what it once was it must always be? Again… says who? You?

The tournament was fantastic to watch. Sorry you had a bad time of it, Michael, but you can keep your takes on this one. I'm not buying.

I didn’t have a bad time watching but I’m used to some penalty when fairways off the tee are missed. Is golf now just entertainment?  Is that the standard?  I’m a sailor and I’m seeing my sport influenced by the demands of entertainment. The Americas Cup features half a crew whose only job is to generate hydraulic power by riding a bicycle on deck. I’m serious. No more  spinnaker sets or sail changes. Pure speed. Just like the pure distance hit into a native area with no penalty.

[Dan_Callahan]

156 golfers were in the field. They all played the same course. Nobody played better than Bryson. Period. I’m not a fan of his, but when the pressure was on, he stepped up. Rory wilted. It made for great theater, and a great tournament.

[Michael Morandi]

Bryson finished 66th in driving accuracy. All previous winners were in the top 10. Rory was top 10. Yes, luck in the natives was a huge factor.

Did anyone see this post and the facts!

[jeffwarne]

The definition of playing the best is lowest score.
Bryson made the calculation that accuracy was a lower priority than distance, and that he would generally be able to get club on ball and recover if he just hit it far enough.
Deep rough at Winged Foit didn't stop him.
Yes he was lucky but that was part of his calculation if he strayed.
i.e. he solved the riddle presented.


Pretty ironic his 2 majors are US Opens!

[Wayne_Kozun]

Nobody is arguing that Rory didn’t  drop the ball. The question is should Bryson have been near the top with as many fairways that  he missed. It is the US OPEN after all.

Didn't Bryson win his previous US Open at Winged Foot in a similar manner - bomb the driver and then hope for the best and try to hit wedges onto greens?

[Wayne_Kozun]

Bryson finished 66th in driving accuracy. All previous winners were in the top 10. Rory was top 10. Yes, luck in the natives was a huge factor.

At Winged Foot in 2020 Bryson missed a lot of fairways as well: https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2021/06/13/us-open-bryson-dechambeau-winged-foot-bulk-usga/

Despite hitting just 23 of 56 fairways, DeChambeau was the lone player in the red at 6-under 274. With his first major triumph, DeChambeau joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win a U.S. Amateur, the NCAA individual title and a U.S. Open.

[Michael Morandi]

The green complexes were different. I made this point before.

[Mike_Clayton]

Bryson has won two US Opens hitting fewer than 50% of the fairways.
A few points.
If the ball didn't go as far he'd 1/ hit more fairways and 2/ he'd have to because instead of hitting primarily wedges he's be hitting more middle irons and that's a completely different proposition out of rough of sandy wasteland.


And, the US Open is in a 70 year battle to find another Ben Hogan - when in reality there hasn't been one since Ben Hogan.
Many times it turns the championship into a scrambling contest - which isn't something we see so often at Augusta or The Open.
(Memorable non-scrambling wins include Jack at Baltusrol in 1980, David Graham's 18 greens at Merion the year later - and, of course, Miller's last round in 1973)
And it was this week because it was so hard to hit the greens and getting up and down multiples of times was critical.
Bryson was brilliant at it this week and it's why he won.
And just because your'e 496 of 496 from 3 feet doesn't mean the 497th is a gimme.

[Ben Sims]

Wayne, thanks for bringing WF 2020 into this. Despite some posts to the contrary, most accurate driver doesn’t always win the US Open. Bryson’s brand of golf isn’t just about the driver. NBC talked over it several times, but his and his caddy’s conversations are gold. The dude has clock position yardages for every iron, wedge, and even his putter! It’s nuts. And more people will adopt that style I promise.


Outside of that, this thread doesn’t do a lot for me. It’s a twitter-style hot take.

[Michael Morandi]

I’m just saying the native areas were out of sync with the green complexes. Errant drives should not let one get the club to the back of the ball and onto the best places to miss around and on the green.

[Ben Sims]

I’m just saying the native areas were out of sync with the green complexes. Errant drives should not let one get the club to the back of the ball and onto the best places to miss around and on the green.

So you’re a Fownes guy? Poorly played = irrevocably lost?


I didn’t see Bryson’s misses as particularly well positioned today.

[Ben Sims]

Let’s also not forget that Rory made about 110ft of putts by the 12th hole. A few of them less than 15% make rate. If he doesn’t do that then we aren’t having this conversation.


Golf is super hard and the most unfair of games. That’s why we love it.

[Michael Morandi]

Yes, lost in the conversation about his short misses is his long makes. The misses were not easy putts, especially on those greens.

[astavrides]

Wow, as much as I both hated and loved what the course gave and mostly took away, how about Bryon's par on the 18th hole. Crazy but wow, what a par and what a win and he is the deserving winner.


I literally cry for Rory as I see alot of myself in him but Bryon's deserved to win and it was a great win for him.

Bryon Shampoo was a deserving winner indeed.

[Rob Marshall]

Yes, lost in the conversation about his short misses is his long makes. The misses were not easy putts, especially on those greens.

The first one looked to be a dead pull. The last looked like a miss read with a good stroke.

[Jerry Kluger]

I believe the course played exactly how Coore and Crenshaw envisioned it playing - when they played it back in 2014 right after the restoration work by C & C there was a drought and the wire grass, etc. never got going and there was no penalty for missing a fairway.  This year there wss a penalty but the degree of said penalty was random and this is what they were looking for.  It was kind of ironic that it was a tree and not the wire grass which Bryson had to deal with on 18 and his brilliant bunker shots was one of the greatest shots I have ever seen that gave a player the opportunity to win a major championship.  I found it refreshing that we didn't see the usual narrow fairways and deep rough that we almost always see in a US Open and will probably see at Oakmont. 

[Michael Morandi]

I believe the course played exactly how Coore and Crenshaw envisioned it playing - when they played it back in 2014 right after the restoration work by C & C there was a drought and the wire grass, etc. never got going and there was no penalty for missing a fairway.  This year there wss a penalty but the degree of said penalty was random and this is what they were looking for.  It was kind of ironic that it was a tree and not the wire grass which Bryson had to deal with on 18 and his brilliant bunker shots was one of the greatest shots I have ever seen that gave a player the opportunity to win a major championship.  I found it refreshing that we didn't see the usual narrow fairways and deep rough that we almost always see in a US Open and will probably see at Oakmont.

You like random penalties?  Let’s not rake bunkers then.

[Bill Gayne]

I thought it was light years ahead of last year's snooze fest at LACC. Incredible conditions and some phenomenal shot making while the full crowds brought real energy (although the USA chants were dopey but it seemed to be a minority).