76 gd | us open 2019
without hitting a bad shot. And
on top of that, on awful greens,
you might three-putt.
former u.s. open champion:
It’s pin positions that you look
at and think, Is this over the
edge? And when you do that,
it’s over the edge. And they
have 12 every day like that.
COURSE SELECTION
AND SETUPS
teacher of multiple major
champions: I said this a long
time ago and was ridiculed:
I would prefer for the USGA to
buy land on the East Coast of
the U.S. and on the West Coast
of the U.S., then build two fa-
cilities for the U.S. Open. Each
would have four courses. And
each one would be designed to
present the examination they
wish to present to the players.
If they want tight fairways and
long rough, so be it. They’re
entitled to conduct their cham-
pionships any way they want.
So build courses to fit that ideal,
whatever it might be. If they did
that, they would stop ruining
the classic courses by trying to
jerry-rig them.
course designer: I’d love to
see what players could do on an
8,500-yard course where they
had to hit long irons. I wouldn’t
want to build it or play it, but
for them? OK.
teacher of multiple major
champions: There isn’t a
course that fits the USGA’s
perfect mold.
course architect and
multiple tour winner:
Either they do something
about the ball, or they build
their own courses around the
country. It would stop them
from wrecking courses like
Merion.
multiple major winner,
including the u.s. open:
At Merion, they moved bun-
kers. They moved fairways.
They had some terrible pin
positions. That wasn’t Merion
they were playing that week.
All of the best, strategic spots
were covered in rough.
multiple pga tour winner:
Merion was a 7,000-yard
course, but you had all these
par 4s where you had to hit
2-iron off them because you
had rough a foot deep and 18-
yard wide fairways. It played
like a 7,800-yard course.
coach of major champions:
At Merion, one of their long-
time members said to me, “Boy,
our course has held up really
well.” Your course? You never
see a course like this. It will
never be like this ever again.
architect and multiple
tour winner: The U.S. Open
managed to identify Hogan,
Nicklaus and Woods. But
among them, Palmer, Snead
and Mickelson won only one,
total [Palmer in 1960]. Is that
bad luck, or something else?
former u.s. open champion:
Chambers Bay, the greens were
so bad, everyone knew it was
going to end the way it did,
with someone [Dustin Johnson]
missing a short putt.
multiple pga tour winner:
We’re so good now that we can
hit shots and do these things to
where you’re going to make the
penalties too severe if we barely
miss it.former u.s. open champion:
The fairways at Chambers Bay
were running at the same speed
as the greens. Miss some greens
by a foot, and the ball finished
100 yards away.
teacher of multiple major
champions: They don’t seem
to have a coherent plan. It’s
meant to be the toughest test,
but at the last two or three, you
could have landed a 747 on the
fairways. So what is it now?
Only a small number of players
can win if you give length a dis-
proportionate advantage.
broadcaster: When Mike
Davis first got involved with the
courses, I was hopeful. Before,
if you missed the fairway by a
yard or 20 yards, the punish-
ment was the same, and every-
one was reduced to the same
hack-out level. He talked about
punishments fitting crimes
[with rough getting gradually
longer to correspond with biggermisses]. And that carried on for
three or four years. It was chal-
lenging, but it was also really
good. But the past few years, I
don’t know what they’re up to.
teacher of multiple major
champions: Mike Davis over-
over-reacted to the criticism of
the U.S. Open, the pitch-outs
and the narrow fairways. So
he tried to make the U.S. Open
more democratic but went
overboard the other way.
broadcaster: It’s gone from
being too severe, to a really
good and appropriate test, to
something that makes no sense.
teacher of multiple major
champions: Rather than pre-
senting a complete examination
of all phases of the game—driv-
ing, approach shots, pitching,
chipping, bunker play, putting,
recovery shots—we have what
we have. And that’s not what
golf is all about.
course designer: Let the su-
perintendent set up the course.
course architect and
multiple tour winner:I know a bunch of architects
who could do a great job set-
ting up a U.S. Open course. Ten
under par would win, though.
Geoff Ogilvy [2006 champion]
would do a great job.A REPEAT OF 2004
AT SHINNECOCK
major champion: I remem-
ber talking with USGA guys
during the practice rounds at
Shinnecock. They assured us
they were not going to make
the same mistakes [as in 2004].
Then they did.
winner of more than 10 pga
and european tour events:
You’ve got more and more
agronomists, more data, more
information than last time.
You had water fall on Wednes-
day afternoon. Friday morning,
everyone got caught in the rain
that wasn’t forecast. And Friday
night, you had one guy under
par, and that was the worldNo. 1 [Dustin Johnson]. They
couldn’t have had it any better,
but they went about their ar-
rogant selves and destroyed the
tournament.
multiple major winner,
including the u.s. open:
The speed and slope of the
greens is what created Satur-
day at Shinnecock. The course
setup was on the edge. But it
crossed the line when the wind
started blowing. That was their
excuse. But when you’re 60
miles out in the north Atlantic,
it’s going to blow. Every day.
teacher of multiple major
champions: I’ve played Shin-
necock many times. That piece
of land dries out quickly. An
afternoon round is played on a
course that is much bouncier
and firmer than the one you see
in the mornings. They should
know that. So they can’t take
the course to the edge, have
what happened on Saturday,
then claim to be shocked.
major champion: The greens
on Saturday afternoon werelike crusty glass, which was
not the case in the morning.
It was playable then. Guys went
from 45th to tied for the lead,
which is unheard of.
major champion: On the 15th
hole, it was outrageous what
was going on. These are the best
players in the world—you’re
going to tell me guys putted off
the green from 10 feet? What’s
going on?
broadcaster: I chatted with
Zach Johnson when he came
off on Saturday. He had played
in half-reasonable conditions.
He knew what was going to
happen. He said it was going to
be unplayable within an hour.
And it was.
caddie for multiple major
champions: Two people barely
made the cut, and by Sunday
they were in the last groups. You
can’t have that. [Daniel Berger
and Tony Finau, starting on
Saturday morning at 10:13 and