Did the USGA "Nail It" this year?

[pittpanther]

The shortest US Open course in quite a while, yet each day only a dozen or fewer pro's managed to break par. And the winner was exactly at par! I think the USGA got it perfect this year - the right combination of difficulty and challenge.

The par-3 #7 was hilarious - did you hear Poulter complain "How are we supposed to play this hole?!" after he couldn't stop his tee shot from rolling off the back of the green? Gee, Ian, you're the pro. I know whining about it isn't going to help...

I really wish most/all of the PGA tournaments managed to setup so that near par would be the winner.

[CG031]

Yeah, they got what they wanted. Some awful golf, and one of the boringest Sunday U.S. open rounds of all-time!

[golfro]

no they didn't nail it. theres a fine line between good, challenging golf...and ridiculous golf thatd oes not reward good golfing.

theres something to be said when a great shot lands on green and trickles 30 ft off the green. that does not make for great golf...it makes for awful golf.

[iacas]

theres something to be said when a great shot lands on green and trickles 30 ft off the green. that does not make for great golf...it makes for awful golf.

Clearly that shot wasn't a great one.

I think a lot of people in and around the UK would disagree quite a bit with what you've said... The guys didn't hit good shots on Sunday. They were missing the green with wedges and short irons.

[goblue107501]

I still prefer to watch when guys are hitting one, two, or three great shots to have a chance at a birdie rather than watching two or three average shots with a chip and putt or two putts for par. It seemed like great shots were not rewarded enough and you had to almost be perfect to make up ground.

[Fourputt]

I still prefer to watch when guys are hitting one, two, or three great shots to have a chance at a birdie rather than watching two or three average shots with a chip and putt or two putts for par. It seemed like great shots were not rewarded enough and

Isn't that the whole idea of a major championship? If you like birdie fests, then watch the week in and week out boredom of the John Deere Classic type of tourney. To win a major you should be required to hit fairways and greens and have a stellar short game when you miss... or pay the price. It should also require near perfection to post an under par round. Otherwise, what's the point of calling it a major?

The USGA has never made any bones about seeking par as the score to shoot for in its Open Championship. I think that they succeeded admirably.

[DavidFehertysBike]

I dont think they did. Alot of the players complained about the greens being inconsistant and bumpy and alot of the changes they made were on the cheap side, IMO. Like shaving down the rough on the cliff edges and putting in that stupid wheat grass (or whatever it was) around the bunkers. So many good shots went unrewarded and thats not a test of golf, its just penal for the sake of being penal.

[jamo]

I think they did nail it. There were no surprises, no unfair circumstances. The players knew what they were going to face.

People (on ESPN, GC, etc.) have been saying that when Tiger hit is off the cliff on sunday (forget which hole) that is was unfair because they had moved the fairways so close to the cliffs. Well, the players knew it. They had to hit it to the left, nothing out of the ordinary there.

#7 is a tough hole. I know that and I've never even been to Pebble. There is wind and there is a slope, and it is hard to stop the ball. But it wasn't a surprise that a very windy hole (where the greens dried quickly) and a very downhill hole is going to be tricky. It requires a good shot, that's the US Open.

And for #14, it was only hard if you made it hard. The guys who ended up playing ping pong over the green never learned from their mistakes. They kept trying to hit flop shots and lower spinners, and they should have learned that no matter what it was very hard to stop the ball there. From the front they had to hit it short but with a low enough trajectory to get it up the slope. From the back they needed to hit it into the bank. And guys kept aiming for the pin. If you are lying 6 after hitting it across the green a few times, you need to take your medicine and get it on the green any way possible. DJ, Zach J, and YE (among others) took far too long to realize that. There was nothign unfair about that hole.

And come on Tiger, of course the greens were fast, it's a US Open! Quit blaming the USGA and make some putts! Funny, he didn't seem all to mad about the greens on saturday.

[senorchipotle]

Yeah, they got what they wanted. Some awful golf, and one of the boringest Sunday U.S. open rounds of all-time!

+1... thank goodness it was father's day and i was hanging out at my dad's, cause had i stayed at home and watched instead of playing golf myself i'd have been pretty pissed.

[kennay92]

Isn't that the whole idea of a major championship? If you like birdie fests, then watch the week in and week out boredom of the John Deere Classic type of tourney. To win a major you should be required to hit fairways and greens and have a stellar short game when you miss... or pay the price. It should also require near perfection to post an under par round. Otherwise, what's the point of calling it a major?

i totally agree with him.

[Tiger Spuds]

It was a tough setup, yes, but not as tough as the players made it.Sunday was mostly boring and non-eventful (blowups aside), but for me that was moreso down to the players than the course.I'm disappointed cetain players performed so badly but I'm not gonna blame the course for it like a lot of people seem to be doing.The likes of Ernie and Phil have no excuse, putting was pathetic.A 3 foot putt is a 3 foot putt regardless of the green, and a Pro golfer should be making those every time.

[CG031]

Yeah, I was stuck at work watching it all unravel on TV. It was so boring. I watched from about 5 ET to 9 ET (the finish) and it was just some really awful, and non-eventful golf being played.

Part of it was the course.

Part of it was U.S. Open pressure.

Part of it was just guys didn't play their best.

And it all equaled some really boring stuff for spectators.

[Ocookie]

In my opinion I want to see a player win by making great shots. Not watching the top players struggle and the winner being the guy who falls the least.
I don't agree with the comment that the course wasn't that tough. And the players made it that way. Tv is two diminetional. Unless your there looking over the shots and putting the ball I dont think we can judge. One or two guys falling maybe. But when the entire leaderboard falls backwards something is wrong.

[clubchamp]

If they thought those greens were tough wait till they play at merion because the greens and rough will be the only defense for the course. I play merion every year with a member and they don't have much room to move tee's back so they plan on making the rough and greens as hard as possible. I'm betting congressional will give up some birdies and be a little more exciting but I thought pebble was perfect just poor golf. I mean Miller said it best about 14 it's not a tough hole if you hit a good 3rd shot I would have liked to to see some dramatics but poor golf didn't allow it.

[Chilli Dipper]

I think the USGA set the course up very well. The two problem holes during the tournament (14 and 17) stemmed from design flaws more than poor groundskeeping. I think we'll see the 14th green recontoured and the 17th green enlarged before the Open comes back here in 2019.

None of the contenders played particularly well during the final round, but that's not Mike Davis' and the USGA's fault. There were four 68s carded on Sunday (one of them belonging to a player who teed off in the first pairing of the day [as in, third from last]), so it can't be said that the course was unplayable.

[Elvisliveson]

This is what Pebble Beach is all about. The USGA doesn't have to do much to make it tough, but heck, there were still low scores out there to be had as evidenced by the 66s shot by Phil. Tiger and Dustin. Some also ran had a chance top shoot 65 yesterday. In the 1972 US Open at Pebble, only one player (Arnold Palmer - 68) among the top 10 finishers had a round in the 60s over the course of the entire tournament! That's right, no one else among the top ten broke 70.

[laconic517]

Im amazed no one has brought up how unfair 17 was the whole week. I though I heard that 7 out of 80 or so golfers hit the green in regulation on sunday. I bet they were all in the morning too.


17 was a really bad hole with conditions that firm. You had to land the ball in the rough and hope it jumped on when the pin was in the back.


I didnt like this US open enough because I felt like good shots and mediocre shots ended up in the same spot on a lot of the holes.

[jamo]

Im amazed no one has brought up how unfair 17 was the whole week. I though I heard that 7 out of 80 or so golfers hit the green in regulation on sunday. I bet they were all in the morning too.

17 is always a tough hole. A long irons shot with wind swirling to an angled green, it is just really hard to stop the ball when the green gets firm. I don't see how it's unfair, just hard. They all had to play the same hole. We also saw some really bad tee shots on that hole. McDowell and Ernie each missed about 30 yards short and left.