Wide us open fairways

Tinker It appears that the update to Shinnecock done by Coore and Crenshaw included much wider fairways. Although the USGA has narrowed them for the open they are still the wisest ever for an open at Shinnecock. With modern drivers bigger and more forgiving than ever why in the world would you widen fairways for an open. The US open has always been my favorite because of the ultimate test it used to be.

The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article on Shinnecock this morning and here is one excerpt:

The golf equivalent was on display last fall at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, the venerable host of this week’s U.S. Open. At the request of the USGA, which runs the tournament, the club removed thousands of yards of fairway grass and replaced it with fescue rough. The sudden makeover was intended to reestablish the value of driving accuracy, after wide fairways at Erin Hills last year allowed players to bomb away without much thought off the tee. More broadly, it showed the extent to which the USGA hopes this week will reassert the trademark toughness of its signature event.

The USGA doesn’t want to see -20 as the winner, but even +1 is bad for business, they would like to see a well earned, -4 or so. That requires tough conditions, but not obscene. Knowing that the weather can determine a lot of it, they have to be careful. If it’s going to be beautiful, cut those fairways tight and encourage a lot of roll into the rough and tighten the pins up on firm greens it can be just as miserable. If it’s wet, they need to have landing area, the ball cant get down in the rough and cost a stroke every single time a player misses. Finding a decent balance isn’t easy, especially when they have to plan it years in advance. I’m sure they added length to keep it from being over powered, but it needs to stay fair.

Tinker The US open has always been my favorite because of the ultimate test it used to be.

The 8 ESPN staff members that gave their predictions on which player would win this year, and their final score to par at the end of the day Sunday, averaged -4.125. I think we'll see an excrutiating test of golf this week, despite a mild forecast weather wise.

Hopefully the greens won't be a disaster like they were last time they played it there.

I don't think the USGA wants to overcorrect from last year's soft standard, but I suspect it'll be very firm, with the greens/fairways on the verge of death come Sunday afternoon.

7422 yards (on the card), playing to a par of 70.

I think there might be more complaining from the players about the traffic than the course conditions. Read somewhere on golf channel where Tiger said a couple of players told him that it took them over 2+ hours just to get to the course from where they were staying for the week.

mikeintopeka this what I heard as well, they were literally ripping out grass and bringing in fescue to deal with narrowing the fairways and having more rough. Seems so extreme to me and costly! And are they going to redo it back to pre US Open conditions after and rip out the fescue and put.the fwy grass back?

Last open at shinnecock was Retief at -4 winning, and I believe only one other golfer under par for the tournament. I think +10 was still in the top 10. those days are over as you'd have to really trick out the course to accomplish that. IMO just not worth it!
I'm good with -10 and several guys being under par and still considering it a tough test. It's all relative!

Links golf will always be King in my book as mother nature still plays the biggest role re: the score relative to par.

Looked like there was enough rain up that way this spring that the rough and greens should be whatever they want them to be. Here in Memphis last week they had to mow the Bermuda rough lower than normal since it grew in so thick. It was playable, but penal. Any longer and they wouldn’t have been able to do more than hack it back to the fairway like in normal U.S. Opens. Hoping for a good one.

Tinker - I know the Crenshaw-Coore renovation added a lot of distance to the pro tees so 7450+ yards played a part in it. If 4 days of par golf is going to be competitive, can you imagine the wailing we'd hear if narrower fairways took driver out of their hands on even more holes? Grass has been cut short in a larger area around the greens that will result in havoc for approaches that barely miss the putting surface. I think we are going to see some good old Open struggles where someone has the midas touch with his short game and rises to the top.

I believe this is going to be a great tournament to watch.

As of right now, only 4 players are hitting 70% or more fairways this season. So, I'd say width of fairways on the PGA tour is irrelevant. At any venue, any setup.