2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay Discussion Thread

[Golfingdad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtogolf

I agree, never liked sore losers and lost some respect for DJ in his handling of the situation.  I know he was angry about the quality of the greens but they weren't the reason he missed the birdie putt, he was missing short putts all day.

I disagree with this.  Are you making an assumption that he's a sore loser and didn't stick around because he was angry about the greens, or did he say so?  The only quotes I heard were the ones @boogielicious posted earlier, which were quite nice.

Quote:

"I'm proud of the way I played and I'm most proud of my family," Johnson said outside the locker room. "So I did get to hold up my trophy at the end of the day, which is my son."

and

Quote:

"This is why I play the game of golf is to get a chance to win the U.S. Open on the last hole," he said. "I was trying. It just didn't work out.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtogolf

I think Day asked DJ twice because he realized if DJ missed the eagle putt his ball would be near where Day would take his stance to putt out and didn't want to trample the green.  I think Day also realized a lot of time had elapsed and that it could have been weighing on DJ.  IMO Day was being a good golf partner by asking.

However, I agree completely with this.  Day was doing his best to do whatever it was that DJ wanted - either finish up so he can have the green to himself or mark because perhaps he didn't want/need to wait any longer.  Day didn't do anything wrong there, IMO.

[No Mulligans]

I don't recall ever seeing so many three putts and missed putts inside of four feet at a pga tournament. Does anyone have stats on that? The fairways seemed to create pretty random results. Two drives that look perfect, one rolls to the other side of the fairway and into a bunker, the next one stops right near the edge for a perfect lie. The luck of the roll was a bigger factor in this tournament than any tournament I can recall seeing.

[sye46]

Something positive about Chambers? Impossible!

"I had a blast," said Snedeker. "I understand guys were complaining about the greens, whatever it might be. But I played on quite a few greens that were just as bad, if not worse, than this on the PGA Tour. I think we get kind of in the moment of the tournament and get wrapped up in everything, and everything at majors seems to be turned on overdose.

"Every little thing sets you off. I thought the ball rolled fine, and if you hit good putts they'll go in. You can't beat the venue. The vistas out there were gorgeous. I thought the golf course played great. And you're going to have a great champion. The guys on the top of the leaderboard are all quality players and are going to be great champions. I think it's a great venue."

[saevel25]

Something positive about Chambers? Impossible!

"I had a blast," said Snedeker. "I understand guys were complaining about the greens, whatever it might be. But I played on quite a few greens that were just as bad, if not worse, than this on the PGA Tour. I think we get kind of in the moment of the tournament and get wrapped up in everything, and everything at majors seems to be turned on overdose.

Snedeker slams the whining golfers of Sergio, Poulter and Horschel.

[MrDC]

It's very common for the runner up to attend the ceremony, as a matter of fact I think they said it's never been done, the runner up skipping it, could be wrong about that though.


Yeah I may be judging Day a bit harsh, the rules are the rules, but what if he just said- "I'll putt this out" and DJ agreed, would that be OK? seems like the right move to me, the back and forth looked bothersome for some reason.

[rehmwa]

Something positive about Chambers? Impossible!

"I had a blast," said Snedeker. "I understand guys were complaining about the greens, whatever it might be. But I played on quite a few greens that were just as bad, if not worse, than this on the PGA Tour. I think we get kind of in the moment of the tournament and get wrapped up in everything, and everything at majors seems to be turned on overdose.

"Every little thing sets you off. I thought the ball rolled fine, and if you hit good putts they'll go in. You can't beat the venue. The vistas out there were gorgeous. I thought the golf course played great. And you're going to have a great champion. The guys on the top of the leaderboard are all quality players and are going to be great champions. I think it's a great venue."

I'd like to see the results correlated:  Does being at the top of the leaderboard correlate to those players that whined (a lot) less about the course.

I bet it does - strongly.

[rehmwa]

It's very common for the runner up to attend the ceremony, as a matter of fact I think they said it's never been done, the runner up skipping it, could be wrong about that though.

Why?  Did Louis leave?

[saevel25]

I'd like to see the results correlated:  Does being at the top of the leaderboard correlate to those players that whined (a lot) less about the course.

I bet it does - strongly.

Sergio: +3

Horschel: +4

Poulter: +11

[Golfingdad]

I don't recall ever seeing so many three putts and missed putts inside of four feet at a pga tournament. Does anyone have stats on that?

I've been trying to find comprehensive stats on the putting this morning but to no avail.  I feel like if I did, it would go a long way towards DIS-proving that the guys had as much trouble as people are wanting to believe, but no way of proving that yet.  Everybody complaining about the greens mostly just wants to compile the short video of Darren Clarkes putt earlier in the week, the video of Sneds putt hitting a pitch mark, then the video of Horschel acting like a whiny douche, and the subsequent Twitter rants from Horschel and another perennial also-ran, everybody's favorite whiner, Ian Poulter.

After that, what is there?  Tough greens, tough pins, a tough course, OMG, say it ain't so!!!!  These guys have to play on something that won't allow them to produce -20???  It's not like this was the freaking US Open or any- oh wait ...

The fairways seemed to create pretty random results. Two drives that look perfect, one rolls to the other side of the fairway and into a bunker, the next one stops right near the edge for a perfect lie.

The luck of the roll was a bigger factor in this tournament than any tournament I can recall seeing.

I can't speak to your specific experiences because I don't know to which shots or holes you are referring, but what I saw was the COMPLETE opposite of this.  Take 16, for example; any drive hit hard enough to reach the green and left enough to land on the slope was ending up in the right bunker, consistently.  If you were a little short of the green and thus the steepest part of the slope, like Jordan or Grace (his 2nd tee ball) yesterday, then you stayed out of it.  Or if you went STRAIGHT at it like DJ did both Saturday and Sunday and avoided that slope altogether, you stayed out of the bunker.

And watching the balls roll in on 12, the same was true.  No unpredictable rolls at all.  You hit it too hard, it rolled to the back tier, not hard enough, it stayed short.  I saw very few "unlucky" bounces this week.

However, for arguments sake, let's say that there were many unpredictable bounces ... so what?  Think about it this way:  It's simply a different type of golf - playing on the ground versus playing in the air.  What's different between an unlucky bounce and an unlucky gust of wind?

[Aguirre]

Day was probably also concerned about standing in DJ's through line.

[newtogolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

I disagree with this.  Are you making an assumption that he's a sore loser and didn't stick around because he was angry about the greens, or did he say so?  The only quotes I heard were the ones @boogielicious posted earlier, which were quite nice.

This was in the LA Times

Quote:

So devastated by the loss was Johnson, who shot 70, that he declined to attend the awards ceremony to receive a second-place medal along with South African Louis Oosthuizen, who made an extraordinary charge with a six-birdie back nine of 29 to score 67.

[saevel25]

This was in the LA Times

So the LA Times knows the mentality of DJ to know that he was "devastated" or are they throwing around an adjective to sell papers?

[Golfingdad]

This was in the LA Times

OK, so I would pose the exact same question I posed to you ... to them.  I would also point out that "devastated" isn't the same as "sore loser."  Also, that quote doesn't mention any anger towards the greens.

[ChrisP]

Something positive about Chambers? Impossible!

"I had a blast," said Snedeker. "I understand guys were complaining about the greens, whatever it might be. But I played on quite a few greens that were just as bad, if not worse, than this on the PGA Tour. I think we get kind of in the moment of the tournament and get wrapped up in everything, and everything at majors seems to be turned on overdose.

"Every little thing sets you off. I thought the ball rolled fine, and if you hit good putts they'll go in. You can't beat the venue. The vistas out there were gorgeous. I thought the golf course played great. And you're going to have a great champion. The guys on the top of the leaderboard are all quality players and are going to be great champions. I think it's a great venue."

Exactly why I voted him as one of the nicest guys on Tour in the thread about that topic. Sneds is always positive about everything. Met him at Valspar a few years back and the guy is all class. He's one of my favorite players.

[MrDC]

Why?  Did Louis leave?

Nope, he was there.

[flopster]

When players complain about the greens in a tournament this size it really gets interpreted in only a negative tone and I don't think a lot of people truly understand why they are complaining, People need to understand that these are the worlds best players and only want a consistent test that will yield the best player that week and not the most fortunate one, when conditions make luck a near factor as much as skill then the true spirit of competition is lost and the USGA I think with it's intent of making the course the most severe test of golf skill sometimes cause conditions that reach beyond human skill. Fortunately I think the cream rose this week as expected but there were more unfortunate bounces and rolls at this US Open than I care to see.

[mvmac]

Pouty Poulter

No apologies for Poulter.

He should really take a page from Phil's book who said:

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/sports/other-sports/article25117714.html#storylink=cpy

Yep, Phil knows how to play the game.

How good a caddie is Stevie Williams? Adam Scott and Stevie part ways....Adam can't find the leaderboard all year.....Stevie returns to his bag and Adam finishes in 4th place. Still sad he and Tiger parted ways because I think he was a good shoulder for Tiger to lean on in tough times. Adam even said before the tourney that Stevie helps him find his way. Great tourney for Adam.

That's why Stevie gets 50%

It's very common for the runner up to attend the ceremony, as a matter of fact I think they said it's never been done, the runner up skipping it, could be wrong about that though.

Yeah I may be judging Day a bit harsh, the rules are the rules, but what if he just said- "I'll putt this out" and DJ agreed, would that be OK? seems like the right move to me, the back and forth looked bothersome for some reason.

I know it's a common for the runner up to be there at the Open Championship but is this something relatively new at the US Open? I can't remember them doing this pre-2010 but I could be mistaken.

DJ seemed fine after the round in his interview, disappointed but trying to take some positives from it. Didn't seem like he was in the "screw this" frame of mind. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was an honest mistake. He answered some questions and probably left right away before anyone could remind him about the ceremony. If he did know and skipped it, I think that's a little uncool.

[ccotenj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccotenj

the "problem" there is that while jordan has played some spectacular golf, he has the charisma of a turnip... and part of being a "superstar" is charisma...

and yes, he's a long way from "new tiger"... people are already forgetting how frigging dominant tiger was...

Not sure what you are meaning, or what you want - I think the kid has plenty of charisma. He is very animated on the course, he is well spoken, he has a very clean look (thanks to his Under Armor contract) and doesn't look like a walking billboard. Sure he is young, but he isn't going all Horshel or Bubba to the press when he has a bad day.

He played the interview circuit quite well after winning the Masters.

don't confuse "plenty of charisma" with "walking advertisement with why golf is still considered a white bread sport by many"...

bubba, as much as i dislike his "ugly american" antics, has charisma...

billy ho, while people may not like what he has to say and where he says it, has charisma...

jordan, sadly, does not...  i wish he did...   even rory has a certain "je ne sais quoi" that makes him interesting...

others may differ...

fwiw, that takes nothing away from his skill on the golf course...