historically, the winner of the US Open is almost always within 4 after the first round. so basically the 20 guys under par is your field, most likely.
Curious as to why you say this? It appears that if you controlled your ball, you could shoot a number. If not, you were appropriately penalized.
won't speak for him, but most people upset with the scores seem to be saying that if it's going to be that soft then you have to tuck the pins. and also it shouldn't be that soft. I do think they wanted to get the round in, and if it gets super hard today they are finishing first round tomorrow.
I just wish they had peaked to these conditions for Sunday, rather than increase the difficulty. Would have loved a Thursday-Saturday slaughter, then allow for elite shotmaking at favorable pins (but still punish poor driving) on Sunday.
I don't disagree about the softness or pin positions. I prefer it getting progressively tougher and saving the carnage for the weekend. If the forecast included rain and benign conditions, by all means, make it brutal from the jump. This weekend will be hell on these guys.
I agree. Overall great round and leaderboard. I wish the pins were a little more tucked today knowing they weren't getting wind. a couple of them (ahem #7) were just really easy for how good these guys are. tomorrow the wind isn't supposed to get under 14 mph, if there's even a little tucking of pins that should bring back most of the field.
Bitching how the USGA sets up the US Open is now a tradition like baseball people bitching about their "unwritten rules". The leaderboard is full of the who's who with no big gaps between any of the top 10. It'll be just fine.
It was imminently fair, I agree. But this golf course can be set up multiple orders of magnitude tougher while remaining fair, so it’s disappointing seeing the USGA’s marketing for the event not match their actions. The firmness of the greens was an issue. Seeing guys spin back short irons and stop mid irons (on flat portions) is not what we should see in US Opens. Beyond that, the USGA advised Winged Foot to put in sub air systems so they can push firmness to the limits without possibly going overboard. Did they use them? No. Instead, they watered the greens substantially in the morning, and only single cut and rolled. This is a reminiscent of a normal Tour stop, not a US Open. Beyond that, some of the pins were incredibly easy. On 15, they created a funnel pin where if you placed a wedge between two slopes, everything would funnel straight to the hole. If you didn’t, sure you got punished. Fair? Sure. But I don’t expect to see funnel pins when the expected shot into it is a wedge in a US Open. It was far too easy today. 18 is one of the most interesting greens in golf, with outrageous shoulders that the USGA lauded in the restoration for reclaiming handfuls of more interesting pin positions. They put the pin in the dead center of the green, in the most flat portion, with a backstop to bring long shots back toward the flag. Too easy for this tournament. The pin on 3 was the easiest that green offers. Etc. This course got marketed heavily for years for an amazing restoration that brought back pin positions on crazy slopes that were supposed to test the worlds best. Today they decided to not use any of those pins and instead put many toward the middle of greens, or on super flat areas. The apparent reason for making the course easy was because they wanted to get all groups to finish with a shortened day in the fall. That’s fine. But there’s a better way to achieve that than making the course considerably easier. The solution is actually enforcing your pace of play rules. This is the US Open. You market it as the toughest test in golf. Allow the golf course to play that way and stop bowing to the players, which they’ve obviously done since the complaints at Shinnecock. Last years Open had easier conditions and scoring than the PGA Pro Am. For reference, this same thing happened to the East Course at Winged Foot a few years back for the USGA 4 ball. In qualifying they had greens rolling slower than 9 because they were worried about not finishing rounds due to possible afternoon thunderstorms. It didn’t rain, and scores were comically low. Then they used ladies tees on a bunch of holes in the match play portion to create driveable par 4s. The course got destroyed scoring wise. And then the USGA wonders why the members don’t want tournaments held there anymore... Let the golf course be the golf course. You have the most advanced technology in the world to make sure it doesn’t go over the line.
Winds are supposed to be a minimum 10-15 mph the rest of the way, and they basically used most of the easy pins. So things will inevitably be tougher. But I also wonder how fair it is if the players receive wildly different course conditions every day (not including weather, of course). I just want the US Open to be what they market it as for four straight days. How hard of an ask is that? There was a really good take/tweet someone posted after the event at Olympia Fields. Maybe we should let the Western Golf Association set these things up going forward. They figured it out.
IrishLAX2 with identical takes to Tron and Big Randy on the live show earlier tonight. (not saying he's wrong just funny to me).
I certainly took the pace of play rule take from them. Not gonna lie there. The rest is pretty obvious though. If you’ve watched any of the USGA’s videos about Winged Foot’s restoration, you’d know how much they talked about all the new pin placements and the sub-air system. Why not use them?
y'all make good points man, I don't dismiss it. I don't go that far on the carnage, but there's room for everybody. I bet we end up with a proper ass champion with a score near (irrelevant) par, though.
The leaderboard is shaping up nicely, and for that I’m quite happy. I just want guys to be pushed to the limit to earn it, which is becoming rarer and rarer nowadays. As I said in the other thread, today felt more like a risk/reward day you’d see in The Masters, not a risk/survive day you’d expect in the US Open. This was the 2nd lowest round average in US Open history. So for those folks that claim “this happens every year, and so does the complaining”...well the complaining does, but this scoring is historically different. Not a great look after Pebble last year.
I was afraid to go in the other thread for fear of what happens in all big sporting events when the unwashed masses flood the super-fans of a sport. Didn't know that about scoring average, good pull.
He needs a new coach more than anything. I thought the pandemic would give him time for a full mental reset but it appears to not have been enough. His game is suited for the US Open because he pound(ed) fairways and can putt. It’s mind boggling to see him lose it so fast.
Jesus fucking Christ. We live in a world where everybody wants the tournament to be exactly what they think it should be. Fact of the matter is, the course is out there and the best player this week is going to win. He’s going to win a major, he’s going to make big shots when it counts, he’s going to make 6 foot putts under pressure. It doesn’t matter what the conditions are. Every player on that course knows that this tournament counts for their legacy. That alone, ramps up the pressure. Those who can handle it, will be identified. It will get tougher, every day.
I may have told this story here before but Mickey Andrews lived on the golf course I grew up playing and when he retired he would volunteer on the maintenance crew for fun. One day my dad called and said "holy shit, Mickey Andrews is out mowing on 17." Apparently he was always interested in it so when he retired he figured he'd learn more and volunteered to be a part time turf maintenance guy.
Now we’re starting to look like a US Open out there...and there’s still some levers on the table to make it tougher.
Was yelling at and berating his caddy after a bad chip up on to the green. After he was finished yelling, he grabbed his putter and smashed it on the ground. He is unraveling now.
Been able to listen to him “mic’d up” a few times. He’s definitely a douche. Bryson and Patrick Reed are cooler than him.