2018 U.S. Open Discussion Thread

sdandrea1 · 2018-06-14T13:05:34+00:00

Speeeeth is 4 over thru 3 holes, Rory is +2. Handful of players are under par. The wind is supposed to blow worse this afternoon. Game ON!

Spuzz

Two putts for the win.

Rickochet

Spuzz Two putts for the win.

Yep, nice 3rd shot by Koepka. Fat lady is ready.

darpar

Back to back!

Rickochet

Nice sweater Mrs. Koepka. 😍

Sneakylong

sdandrea1

Not according to Mike Davis. He admitted the course got away from them. And even the USGA apologists agreed that some of the hole locations on Saturday (and #13 was one of them) ended up being ridiculous. In the words of Davis too many good shots that weren't rewarded.

The USGA did redeem themselves today though, but goofy golf even on one day is too many. Saturday should've been just like today.

sdandrea1

Sneakylong

Mike Davis has his opinion and I have mine. That makes us both right.

darpar

DJ seemed to get out of his regular,fairly quick putting routine on the weekend.
Almost as slow as Furyk at times,like he over thought every putt and left most of them way short.
38 and 35 putts won't get 'er done in a Major and cost him BIG time!

PA-PLAYA

Brooks played great today and is a worthy champion. Congrats to him, winning back-to-back US Opens puts him in an elite class.

Kudos as well to Tommy Fleetwood, whose final round 63 likewise puts him in distinguished company. Could've just as easily been 62 or 61 for the same price. I like this kid's moxie. He shows up in the big events and is gaining a serious reputation as a world-class player deserving of a major championship.

It's unfortunate however that the conditions drastically changed from Friday to Saturday, then changed drastically again from Saturday to Sunday. As Sneaky said earlier, the USGA simply doesn't seem to learn from past mistakes and continue to make a circus out of this once-heralded event.

The US Open Championship used to carry a lot of significance. Today - not so much. They have over 4000 volunteers who give of their free time to come help out with the event... superintendents from all over the country to help with the conditioning and agronomy, at no cost to them. Course marshals, gallery marshals, local volunteers who man the hotdog stands, beverage stands, ticket stands, souvenir stands, gate entrances, security, etc... The members at these host courses give up their course for several months out of the year just so the greens staff can prepare and condition the grounds for tournament play. And despite all of these things, despite all of the many months of preparation and man-hours invested, they still find a way to screw up the most important aspect of the tournament.

To force players to make such extreme adjustments in the span of 18 hours, from the last group on Saturday to the first group on Sunday, is just unacceptable. We're now left wondering what the hell they'll f**k up next year at Pebble Beach.

It shouldn't eclipse Brook's incredible achievement of winning back-to-back Opens, but unfortunately it will in a lot of circles. Mike Davis should lose his job over this, but won't. It's the 4th consecutive Open that has yielded some sort of setup controversy and all because he wants the winning score to be north of par.

He needs to be shown the door.

johnnydoom

Koepka is a very worthy champion. He earned it with that magnificent 72 on Saturday afternoon. I was hoping Reed would pull it off just to piss off all his haters, but Koepka absolutely earned it. The USGA was lucky that the winner came from among the leaders going into Saturday rather than one of the early Saturday players

Sneakylong

I shot an 83 today. Would anyone be interested in seeing me shoot my 83? Didn't think so. And I have no interest in seeing great golfers like Rory and Rickie shooting an 80 and 84. Loved seeing Rickie's 65 yesterday and Fleetwood's shot at a 62. The USGA needs to stop obsessing with the score of par. Sunday showcased some great golf with some great scoring. Getting one day right out of four isn't good enough.

Also, if I were a Shinnecock member I'd be pissed at how crappy they showcased an iconic golf course.

PA-PLAYA

Sneakylong

Fowler shot 84 on Saturday, then shot 65 on Sunday.

This pretty much sums up the incompetence of the USGA and their inability to manage a major championship setup.

The US Open lost a lot of its prestige this weekend.

ZWExton

Sneakylong Would anyone be interested in seeing me shoot my 83?

I would. Driver-wedge driver-wedge driver-wedge gets old. Surely you had a little more variety in your game than most weeks on the PGA tour. I like watching the Golfholics on YouTube partly because they aren't pros.

sdandrea1

PA-PLAYA Fowler shot 84 on Saturday, then shot 65 on Sunday.

This pretty much sums up the incompetence of the USGA and their inability to manage a major championship setup.

That sums up Fowler's lack of mental toughness. I would agree with all the ranting about the Saturday conditions if the course had been unplayable by the entire field. There were plenty of scores by Saturday afternoon players that were just a few strokes over par. This major is supposed to be difficult.

MidwayJ

ZWExton Driver-wedge driver-wedge driver-wedge gets old.

True, so bring on courses with narrow fairways, rough, and doglegs that make bombed drives riskier propositions. Tricked up greens and pin placements don't exactly motivate players to lay up and hit longer clubs into the greens.

sdandrea1

We see low scoring birdie fests every week. The US Open is the once per year USGA event that is set up to see if the best players in the world can shoot par. The USGA was successful, once again. I loved the drama of the whole thing, especially on Saturday. Rickie couldn't handle the pressure but Koepka, Rose and Johnson did on Saturday. Phil caved in mentally too. This is exactly what the event is supposed to be. We'll get right back to the -15 winning scores this week. Next June, man up!!!

johnnydoom

sdandrea1 I would not have had a problem with Saturday had it been equivalent for the entire field. That two players going into the day tied for 45th place were able to move ahead of all but two of those in front of them in one round testifies that the course was easier for the morning groups than it was for the leaders. Rose and Stenson played heroic golf under the conditions and yet gave up their positions on the leaderboard to players that started the day way behind them. What Koepka did in going only 2 over was a round for the ages. It can be stupid if that's the way the USGA wants it, but it should be stupid for everyone in the field and not just the leaders that rightfully earned the lead they had over days one and two. Because the weather waits for no one, sometimes it is very unfair for groups at random times of the day, but the disparity on Saturday (and I would argue that there was still a little late Sunday as the course dried also) wasn't due to changing weather conditions, it was due to the course being set up such that the outcome was predictable - particularly since it happened the same way the last time the tournament was played at Shinnecock. Koepka played the best golf and won, but if Berger or Finau would have shot 67 on Sunday and won, I wouldn't have felt that they played the best golf in the tournament. As it is, they probably took shares of the purse that the players enduring the Saturday afternoon conditions deserved.

Sneakylong

sdandrea1

Difficult is fine, tough is fine, but unfair and ridiculous not so good. Saturday's round had nothing to do with mental toughness or manning up. It had more to do with the USGA screwing up. Luckily for the USGA with Koepka winning it bailed them out. Like was said, if Finau or Berger coming from 40 plus positions back had won, it would've exposed their incompetence even more.

sdandrea1

johnnydoom

What would you suggest the superintendent do to guarantee that the afternoon conditions would match the morning conditions? I say it's impossible. The best they could have done was wet it down on Friday night or early Saturday but that still would have made it easier in the morning. The wind and temps dried it out. Koepka's round for the ages on Saturday afternoon is exactly what it should take to win our national championship......and we are STILL pussies compared to the Euros. These are just my opinions, and I realize I'm in the minority. I like this event to be extremely difficult. It's just one a year.

johnnydoom

sdandrea1 There's only three things they can realistically do if they want to keep having the tournament at places like Shinnecock or Pinehurst. They need to keep the grass on the greens longer so the speeds don't get ridiculous, or only place pins in areas of the greens that don't roll off within feet of the hole, or play two flights and prep the course the same way for the afternoon flight as they did for the morning flight. If they put water on greens two hours prior to the start of the first flight, do the same for the second flight. I would opt for keeping the grass longer on the greens and make up for it by changes in the setup of the rough or collections areas around the greens.

ode

sdandrea1 it got out of control on Sat, they just needed to spritz those greens where the pins were in diabolical spots. The usga is aneasy Target and they've made it that way.....but I also think we, the golfing public need to take some responsibility in it....as we are always seemingly asking for this, and we never learn the lesson either. I don't mind par being the winning score but if there is no way to stop a ball on the green on a good shot, then it's past the point of a true test. The usga does listen....they have changes rules based off Lexi, Dustin....they have started to simplify or make more user-friendly rules recently.....same goes for the conditions at a usga event, or where the venues are held....so I also blame the folks that need these guys to struggle and unnecessarily so!

sdandrea1

johnnydoom

Good points. Agree.

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