U.S. Open Golf Championship - The Year’s 3rd Major (1 Viewer)

[Bill]

Well, tomorrow morning begins the 124th installment of this country’s national championship of golf. The course this year is Pinehurst No.2 and it is setup as a real firecracker this week. It appears that birdies will be few and far between in this elite field, which is a total of 156 players from the PGA Tour, LIV, DP Tour, and other pro tours from around the globe. Of the qualifiers in this year’s field, 16 of them are amateurs.

While the popular names head the list of favorites to take home the trophy this year, this tournament is known for having an unlikely hero come from out of the pack to win it all. If I have to pick a winner NOT named Scottie Scheffler, my pick would be (in no particular order) Brian Harman, Ludvig Åberg, or Hideki Matsuyama. All three seem to have the game that can tackle the test of Pinehurst No.2. Hopefully the championship will come down to some nerve-whacking final holes on Sunday afternoon.

 

[Madmarsha]

How I found this on the collegiate sports board is beyond me.

 

[Grumpy Old Manatee]

Picks are a little late, but I’ll hope for Finau or Morikawa to win w Zalatoris as an outlier.

PS, Maybe ask the mods to move this to EE?

 

[Bill]

How I found this on the collegiate sports board is beyond me.

I thought I was on the EE board when I posted it.
Another senior moment.
Hopefully the mods will slide it over there soon.

 

[Bill]

Picks are a little late, but I’ll hope for Finau or Morikawa to win w Zalatoris as an outlier.

PS, Maybe ask the mods to move this to EE?

I was actually going to pick Cantlay, but he’s been having some issues finishing strong lately. He claims that he selected a new putter for his round today and it has him at the top of the leaderboard. He certainly has the game to pull off the victory.

 

[Bill]

Well, Matsuyama doesn’t look like he has it this week. He just flubbed a chip shot worse than anything I’ve ever done. (I wish)
I made him one of my picks because he’s been leading the tour in scrambling. This course requires someone who can get up & down from just about anywhere. He’s going to need his short game to return if he’s going to stay legitimate this week.

 

[Bill]

Sadly this US Open Championship does not have Jon Rahm in the field. He’s dealing with an “inflamed lesion” on his foot in between his 4th & 5th toe. Ouch!

 

[Bill]

Why is the USGA forcing the public to watch the afternoon groups on a pay to view network? I didn’t want to buy a subscription package on Peacock, and the USA Network switched over to Peacock (exclusively) after 4pm CDT. So golf fans who did not pay additional money to watch the tournament didn’t get to see the featured group make their moves up the leaderboard. Frankly I didn’t think McIlroy had it in him to put himself in a two-way tie for the lead today.

Hey USGA, this is NOT the way to grow the game!

 

[DaveXA]

I thought I was on the EE board when I posted it.
Another senior moment.
Hopefully the mods will slide it over there soon.

Got your message. Happy to help.

 

[Bill]

For those interested in Tiger’s fate for this 124th edition of the US Open, it appears that he will have to card at least a 68 (2-under par) in his Friday round in order to make the cut and play the weekend. This is a really hard course to try and make up a big deficit.

 

[Bill]

Got your message. Happy to help.

Thanks Dave!

 

[Bill]

Pinehurst No.2 is taking its toll on players and patrons alike. The morning wave of players are struggling just to maintain their position without falling back and missing the cut. Even Scheffler has fallen back 4 strokes in today’s round and will very likely miss the cut.

But the area is now under an extreme heat advisory and patrons are being asked to stay hydrated. But the fans have shade trees along the viewing areas, while the ‘playing field’ is completely open to a cloudless sky.

If the conditions are this hard for the morning groups who had some of their round played in 80 degree temperatures, it’s going to be an real endurance test for the groups that start at noon and later.

The cut line may end up being +5.

 

[Dan in Lafayette]

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.

 

[Bill]

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.

I agree Dan.
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?

 

[Dan in Lafayette]

But wait... there's more!



There are two more days left. The "greens" are already "grayish-browns" and slicker than snot. They may have to design a new Stimp meter to measure the speed of the "greens" going forward (they are already at 13+). If the USGA wants to be fair (yeah right) they will give the greens some water tonight and not roll them.

I am also very disappointed with some of the anchor sites they are going to tie future US Opens to going forward including Pinehurst #2 and Shinnecock. Oakmont is okay. Torrey Pines & Pebble Beach are solid choices. They should have included Beth-Paige Black as well. Whistling Straits should be considered. I believe Merion is also on the list of anchor sites

By Sunday, the winds will probably kick up while swirling over beautiful golden-brown "greens". Backslaps all around for the USGA.

Once again...