U.S. Open Golf Championship - The Year’s 3rd Major
To me the idea of crowning a national champion of golf should be on a course that is setup much the other championship courses. Why attempt to determine the best golfer of the year on a course that requires almost as much luck as it does skill?
These crazy US Open setups are clearly intended to make the players look foolish and get frustrated. Sure, make the course a little tougher. That makes sense. But don’t change the US Open into something that hardly resembles the kind of golf that most people (including the players) hardly recognize. Don’t take the skill factor out of the formula to determine the best golfer in the field.
What the USGA is doing is changing the game for one week. It would be like NASCAR having one big championship race but the drivers have to compete on a track that is covered with a film of grease. Such a change would make it an entirely different sport. You would think that the USGA, the governing body of golf, would understand that they’re making these guys play a different version of the game.
How does that promote the game? :shrug:
I agree Dan.Typical USGA US Open setups. This is my least favorite major of the 4. Too much goofy golf. Penalties for shots just outside of excessively small "sweet spots" are excessively punitive.
In typical USGA fashion, they shave par down by two strokes by converting two par 5s to par 4s on a course that has played at par 72 for forever except for the 2014 & 2024 US Opens. Why? The winner will still be the player with the lowest number of strokes. It's just window dressing to make the "under-par" scores look worse.
The USGA often says our setups are "not designed to embarrass the golfers". That pegs my BS meter.
At Shinnecock in 2002, the USGA had to scramble to avoid a last-round disaster. On Sunday, the first two twosomes to play the par 3 7th hole (~180 yds.) combined for 3 triple bogeys and one bogey. They decided to delay play mid-round and wet down the 7th green. They then decided to wet the green between twosomes. Later, they changed that to every other twosome. This caused a lot of controversy because the USGA essentially continued to modify the playing conditions of that hole for the entire round. This is probably the USGA's most obvious CYA moment.
In the future, I expect the USGA to try to find a way to incorporate windmills and clown mouths into their tournament.
To me the idea of crowning a national champion of golf should be on a course that is setup much the other championship courses. Why attempt to determine the best golfer of the year on a course that requires almost as much luck as it does skill?
These crazy US Open setups are clearly intended to make the players look foolish and get frustrated. Sure, make the course a little tougher. That makes sense. But don’t change the US Open into something that hardly resembles the kind of golf that most people (including the players) hardly recognize. Don’t take the skill factor out of the formula to determine the best golfer in the field.
What the USGA is doing is changing the game for one week. It would be like NASCAR having one big championship race but the drivers have to compete on a track that is covered with a film of grease. Such a change would make it an entirely different sport. You would think that the USGA, the governing body of golf, would understand that they’re making these guys play a different version of the game.
How does that promote the game? :shrug: