US Open

[Deleted member 15344]

That's not Sky's fault is it.

Wasn’t blaming Sky was more the host broadcaster ( just should have been host ), this is why they draw marquee groups just so they can follow one main group , just has 20 mins maybe more or three players on one hole, Rahm - Garcia and Rafa are the other group so right now watching the feed on the US Open website which allows others to be seen than just the three players. Tomorrow it’s going to be Rory , Spieth and Big Phil. There is live golf going on and Sky reliving 2008 and Torrey Pines once again !

 

[MadAdey]

People are missing the main pinpoint that is causing these scores. When you design a course, you design the holes, not just with the contours if the land, but the normal wind conditions in mind too. This is not a normal wind direction for this course, so the holes are playing a lot harder than they would in normal conditions.

At my course with the normal conditions there is a par 4 that is a driver followed by any thin from a 5i to an 8i depending on the wind. Sometimes an abnormal wind blows and can make you start hitting fairway woods and long irons into a green that is not meant for that type of club making the hole turn in a bogey hole.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

I agree with casuk, it looks easy, it’s nice and open with very short rough, no ponds or ditches, no pine straw like at Augusta. Easy!
Or, it’s very difficult, the rough is deep and thick, the greens are very fast, very slopey & not very big. The wind is pretty strong and not going in the prevailing direction.
Also these are the best in the world, they are struggling (which is what the USGA want) so we would all play like the bunch of duffers we are(but a bit worse).

 

[pendodave]

The greens were built when they used to stimp at about 8... Madness to have them at 12 or whatever. What does it prove exactly?

 

[larmen]

Just watching the featured group. If I had started with them as a 4ball I would likely still be stuck trying to put somewhere on the 5th or 6th hole.

 

[MendieGK]

Wasn’t blaming Sky was more the host broadcaster ( just should have been host ), this is why they draw marquee groups just so they can follow one main group , just has 20 mins maybe more or three players on one hole, Rahm - Garcia and Rafa are the other group so right now watching the feed on the US Open website which allows others to be seen than just the three players. Tomorrow it’s going to be Rory , Spieth and Big Phil. There is live golf going on and Sky reliving 2008 and Torrey Pines once again !

I like watching the marquee group as you know, but I will concede that right now we are watching them stand around waiting for the green to clear... that’s not acceptable

 

[Deleted member 1418]

People are missing the main pinpoint that is causing these scores. When you design a course, you design the holes, not just with the contours if the land, but the normal wind conditions in mind too. This is not a normal wind direction for this course, so the holes are playing a lot harder than they would in normal conditions.

At my course with the normal conditions there is a par 4 that is a driver followed by any thin from a 5i to an 8i depending on the wind. Sometimes an abnormal wind blows and can make you start hitting fairway woods and long irons into a green that is not meant for that type of club making the hole turn in a bogey hole.

Just because you actually live now in the U S of A, and therefore probably have more in depth knowledge of the course from the Yankee Doodle Doo perspective than those of us who live a few thousand miles away, doesn't give you the right to come on here and spout your views!!! 😉

Pipe down and wind your neck in!! 😉😂😂

By the way - do you still have the infamous hat from Woodhall?!!!

 

[MadAdey]

Just because you actually live now in the U S of A, and therefore probably have more in depth knowledge of the course from the Yankee Doodle Doo perspective than those of us who live a few thousand miles away, doesn't give you the right to come on here and spout your views!!! 😉

Pipe down and wind your neck in!! 😉😂😂

By the way - do you still have the infamous hat from Woodhall?!!!

Of course I have 😉

 

[Pin-seeker]

You could of course just switch it off
You don’t like the coverage ..... whinge
You don’t like the course set up ..... whinge

Don’t understand why you’re still watching it.....??

Some people just like a good old whinge I’m afraid,which is why the random irritation thread is so popular.

 

[dewsweeper]

Some people just like a good old whinge I’m afraid,which is why the random irritation thread is so popular.

True.
LP doesn't like that either .

 

[Orikoru]

Well, the quid I stuck on Tiger is down the drain. Poulter doing me proud though thus far. Not holding much hope for my 'Rose bogey free round' bet having seen how the course is playing, but you never know.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

The greens were built when they used to stimp at about 8... Madness to have them at 12 or whatever. What does it prove exactly?

commentators very critical of the 7th green - out of place and not clear why it hasn't been changed - though I haven't caught up with what the problem is with it...

 

[TheDiablo]

I'm a fan of the feature groups on Thursday/Friday but even I thought it was overkill yesterday (only watched from 7ish onwards)

It's the first time Tiger has been in the field since Fox secured the rights, and they just seemed to get it wrong. The first 12 or so holes were fine, but after his 4 putt and double up the next it was pointless showing him waiting around as much as they did.

My point from earlier in the week held up though - if you want coverage then play better golf. Great to see a lot of how Henley and Dufner put their rounds together.

The one thing that I really didnt understand though was that we saw a lot of Molinari, quite a bit of Fleetwood (good coverage) but Noren was invisible to the broadcaster - he was playing in the same group and shot the lowest of the 3! Baffling.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

I'd love to see these players play in some of the s**tholes iv played and see how they get on as the scores today are terrible with just a bit of wind that I play in all the time, Im sure some on here could give them a run for there money

One thing to consider is as you play the harder courses, is that the green complexes and even fairway areas generally become harder to land on, hold and hit in the right place that ignores the 1st cut or rough being very thick.

Quite a number of those greens look like upturned saucers, turn alot and are raised up from the surrounding area/fairway.

The run offs around/on the greens are very noticeable and as a result of that the chip back on is very difficult, chuck in the wind and you have the perfect combination for bogey golf even for the pros, as you can not 'easily' hit that section in the green you need to hit in order to stay on the green and then getting up and down is far from certain.

Think the course has been great to watch, less impressed with the coverage hardly saw any of the players, never mind the people who are/did lead for periods.

 

[Imurg]

Well, of people are happy to have the field at 1011 over par for the first round then they're having a ball.
Personally, I don't like seeing good shots punished to the degree that some are at Shinnecock.
The USGA's obsession with par is becoming tiresome.
What's wrong with a winning score of 15 under?
Some like it - hey, no worries, not saying you're wrong.
Just not my bag.
It's akin to having the World Cup with all the players bootlaces tied together......making a spectacle into a sideshow.

 

[r0wly86]

Obviously crazy difficult out there, fascinating in a car crash kind of way watching players you see rip courses apart getting their arses handed to them.

I have seen this before on links courses, ones that are easy scoring when the weather is fine set themselves up with crazy rough, fast and firm greens as a form of protection. But then when the weather turns is creates a perfect storm of set up and condition that makes scoring so much more difficult.

Carnoustie did it from memory either late 90s or early 00s they grew the rough out then they had gales for The Open.

The post from twitter about the pro saying modern generation are rubbish is an idiot. 1995 US Open as Shinnecock Hills, Pavin won with a final score of E and the course was shorter. Think he just wanted to boost his own ego.

For the new guy who was asking why they can't play into the wind very well. It's not easy to play into the wind because the ball won't react uniformly, there may be gusts, thermals that mean the ball balloons more, or spins more than expected, or even sometimes the ball is unaffected by the wind. So if you hit right expecting the wind to bring it back it sometimes just goes straight.

Fine if you have some leeway from the fairway or the green but when you are severely penalised by thick rough it makes very very difficult.

I watched a bit of it yesterday but was out playing Bowood, what are the holes like infront of the greens, can you run it on from a mile away like traditional links golf?

 

[Beezerk]

I'm loving it and I couldn't care less about the scores, I enjoy watching the top players having to get creative with their shots rather than the usual driver wedge to 5ft fare.
If this was The Open on a tough links course it would be the best tournament ever, just saying

 

[patricks148]

i do love it when these guys get a bit of wind and firm greens and course.

not so long ago this was how golf was played.

I imagine many courses thought the Uk the last few months have been playing similar esp links.

Not seen too many post crying about it in the IPD tread, even the guy that played Muirfield in 50MPH wind loved it:rofl:

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I'm a fan of the feature groups on Thursday/Friday but even I thought it was overkill yesterday (only watched from 7ish onwards)

It's the first time Tiger has been in the field since Fox secured the rights, and they just seemed to get it wrong. The first 12 or so holes were fine, but after his 4 putt and double up the next it was pointless showing him waiting around as much as they did.

My point from earlier in the week held up though - if you want coverage then play better golf. Great to see a lot of how Henley and Dufner put their rounds together.

The one thing that I really didnt understand though was that we saw a lot of Molinari, quite a bit of Fleetwood (good coverage) but Noren was invisible to the broadcaster - he was playing in the same group and shot the lowest of the 3! Baffling.

It was baffling at times , you can see why they have marquee groups , it creates interest especially on the course and at the Masters etc you can have them on the red button and watch a couple of Marquee groups and then the main coverage will be mixed between a couple of marquee groups plus others that are playing well or people are interested in.

Yesterday though it was just a marquee group and then a few shots from others - remember seeing a few from the other marquee group of the Spaniards , recall one shot from Stenson and a few others but some got nothing. At one time they just showed the players walking to a tee and then waiting there ? I turned it off and watched a bit of the stuff on the website which had the two marquee streams.

It’s a major - there needs to be a balance and a mix , don’t need to show everyone but at least show more than they do , especially when they are playing decent golf, but to concentrate on three players is madness - today we will no doubt have the Rory group

Thankfully Sky don’t do this at the Open , it seems they were just looking for viewing figures and showing 5 hours of Woods does that

 

[Pin-seeker]

It was baffling at times , you can see why they have marquee groups , it creates interest especially on the course and at the Masters etc you can have them on the red button and watch a couple of Marquee groups and then the main coverage will be mixed between a couple of marquee groups plus others that are playing well or people are interested in.

Yesterday though it was just a marquee group and then a few shots from others - remember seeing a few from the other marquee group of the Spaniards , recall one shot from Stenson and a few others but some got nothing. At one time they just showed the players walking to a tee and then waiting there ? I turned it off and watched a bit of the stuff on the website which had the two marquee streams.

It’s a major - there needs to be a balance and a mix , don’t need to show everyone but at least show more than they do , especially when they are playing decent golf, but to concentrate on three players is madness - today we will no doubt have the Rory group

Thankfully Sky don’t do this at the Open , it seems they were just looking for viewing figures and showing 5 hours of Woods does that

Whinging about it isn’t going to change anything.
It’s EVERY major we hear the same stuff.