Ethan
Money List Winner
A false dichotomy. The choice is not between +1 and -20. There is a bit of a range in between.
US Open......fair or not?
- Thread starter VinnyRM
- Start date
A false dichotomy. The choice is not between +1 and -20. There is a bit of a range in between.
Khamelion
Tour Winner
There was an interview with one of the USPGA bigwigs where he was basically saying he was controlling the scoring ability of the players, based upon the pin position, green hardness and shaved areas.
To me it doesn't matter if the green is like concrete or like a sponge, the parameters of the course remain the same for everyone and players have to adjust to the conditions they are presented with.
If the players are used to soft greens where they can control and spin the ball, then they are presented with the course at Olympic, it's the quickest to adapt that will succeed.
So they couldn't spin the ball back on the green, hey ho, play it short and let it run up to the flag, adapt.
To me it doesn't matter if the green is like concrete or like a sponge, the parameters of the course remain the same for everyone and players have to adjust to the conditions they are presented with.
If the players are used to soft greens where they can control and spin the ball, then they are presented with the course at Olympic, it's the quickest to adapt that will succeed.
So they couldn't spin the ball back on the green, hey ho, play it short and let it run up to the flag, adapt.
JustOne
Ryder Cup Winner
There was a 66 shot on day 1 and a 67 on the last day by the same player, if he hadn't gone a bit off the rails in between then there was a potential -14 score on the cards regardless.
I thought it was as fair a course as any.
I thought it was as fair a course as any.
Paul_Stewart
Tour Rookie
Most PGA tour events become the same sort of birdie fests and shootouts. Which makes the likes of a US Open different which it should be. I think it was Sandy Tatum from the USGA who once said that they were not trying to embarrass the best players in the world, simply identify them.
The four majors need to be different from the other events to make them unique.
The Masters - putting contest and tradition
US Open - toughest course where pars are king
Open - links golf subject to the vagarities of the weather
US PGA - err .... well it's not one of the other three.
The four majors need to be different from the other events to make them unique.
The Masters - putting contest and tradition
US Open - toughest course where pars are king
Open - links golf subject to the vagarities of the weather
US PGA - err .... well it's not one of the other three.
chrisd
Major Champion
Well I was just glad is was on late into the night so I didn't have to watch Pro golfers looking like 10 handicappers
upsidedown
Tour Winner
Enjoyed it immensely. Think risk and reward was mentioned earlier on and remember Tigers shot into 17th which landed short of the green then ran through and on down the bank, unfair? Well yes probably but a seasoned pro would know what going long would mean, he just over clubbed it and paid the penalty .
Ethan
Money List Winner
An admirable objective, but not always successfully achieved. Anyway, he retired 30 years ago, and his successors included David Fay adopted a more brutal regime in the 90s and 00s. Mike Davis appears to be more in the Tatum mould, but he was responsible for the par-3 at Shinnecock, a hole where the best players could not place the ball on the green and rely on it to stay still, let alone hit it to the right place.
jp5
Q-School Graduate
I enjoy anything which adds a bit of variety to professional golf (possibly with the exception of that awful powerplay).
Qwerty
Tour Winner
I look forward to watching the US open Because it's super tough, The same as the open on the occasions when it's pi$$ing down and blowing a gale.
I think tournament golf is very much a horses for courses kind of game, and when the organisers can toughen up a course to that extent and turn the screw on the players, you maybe see a different type of player rise to the top. Eg Paul Lawrie at Carnoustie.
Some of us pay good money to sometimes play top courses that are, lets be honest, sometimes too much of a test for our handicaps. But we still do it.
I think the pros should be tested more often, I'll certainly watch.
I think tournament golf is very much a horses for courses kind of game, and when the organisers can toughen up a course to that extent and turn the screw on the players, you maybe see a different type of player rise to the top. Eg Paul Lawrie at Carnoustie.
Some of us pay good money to sometimes play top courses that are, lets be honest, sometimes too much of a test for our handicaps. But we still do it.
I think the pros should be tested more often, I'll certainly watch.
chrisd
Major Champion
Why not set the course up as normal and ask the players to wear flippers - it'll make it tougher and seperate the golfers but it won't necessarily make the most talented one win!
jp5
Q-School Graduate
What place do flippers have in golf?
That theory is only good to the degree it resembles practice
D
Deleted member 1418
Guest
Iain Carter's blog on the BBC Sport website pretty much sums it up for me:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/iaincarter/2012/06/the_lottery_of_winning_a_major.html
Particularly agree with the comments on GMac and how he had literally no chance of engineering a birdie to force a play-off after only just missing the fairway. IMO there are only two majors worth watching - The Masters and The Open. I thought the US Open was a complete bore-fest from start to finish. As Murph put it so well on Friday afternoon at West Herts "If I want to see people hack it round a course all day, I'll come up here"!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/iaincarter/2012/06/the_lottery_of_winning_a_major.html
Particularly agree with the comments on GMac and how he had literally no chance of engineering a birdie to force a play-off after only just missing the fairway. IMO there are only two majors worth watching - The Masters and The Open. I thought the US Open was a complete bore-fest from start to finish. As Murph put it so well on Friday afternoon at West Herts "If I want to see people hack it round a course all day, I'll come up here"!!
chrisd
Major Champion
JustOne
Ryder Cup Winner
I thought he had a 20ft putt? Was he expecting a gimme?
Yerman
Journeyman Pro
A good round of golf always needs an element of luck but the USGA reduce it to a crap shoot, and reducing the best players in the world to hackers is not a spectator sport I want to see. US open is a Major begging to be stripped of the title.
I like the US Open. It is a challenge for the best players and gives them something unique to fathom out. They know poor shots will be punished, they need to be imaginitive with shot selection, especially around the greens and it is an event that can't be tamed by bombing it. Augusta is becoming a bombers course these days. The Open is similar to the US version as links courses don't need driver off every tee. Why should a amjor be won with a silly under par score? Is that really the pre-requisite of finding the true champion
D
Deleted member 1418
Guest
No, but from just over a 100 yards he would expect to be able to put it to under 20 feet! All weekend it looked like 20 feet and over was three putt territory rather than having a chance to knock it in.
