Anyone else more excited about this tournament than the last few US Opens? I love watching these guys hack it up on a tricked up course. Can't wait to hear all of the complaining.
Oakmont
- Thread starter BigEastBasketball
- Start date
I believe it's now called Copa del golf de los Estados Unidos.
By tricked, I mean "made impossibly hard."
I think its gonna be impossibly hard. todays golfers do not find many fairways, they bomb it off the tee and then can usually hit it close from anywhere. not this week, the rough is so thick anything off the fairway is basically a one or two shot penalty. I think its a joke what the USGA has done to the US Open. A course like Oakmont doesnt need to be tricked out and made incredibly tough, it already is.
wining score is +7
Justin Rose won at Merion at +1. this will be the hardest US Open since the last time it was at Oakmont in 07 where Cabrbera beat Tiger with a final score of +5, when Els won in 94 he was -4, Miller was -5 in 73 and Nelson was -4 in 83.
the USGA tricks out there courses to take length out of play. make the greens fast but make the rough tough but playable.
wining score is +7
Justin Rose won at Merion at +1. this will be the hardest US Open since the last time it was at Oakmont in 07 where Cabrbera beat Tiger with a final score of +5, when Els won in 94 he was -4, Miller was -5 in 73 and Nelson was -4 in 83.
the USGA tricks out there courses to take length out of play. make the greens fast but make the rough tough but playable.
I read that the last time they had the open at Oakmont (2007) there were something like 5 or 7 rounds under par. That seems a little over the top
If this is what the USGA needs to do in order to keep the tournament at these classic courses, then I'm all for it. I'd rather watch this than a bunch of Chambers Bay tournaments, or 8000 yard behemoths that are only good for tour pros.
of all the majors i like the Masters the best. players can go -5 over the last 9 to win the event. at the US Opens version of Oakmont if you play the back nine at +1 or +2 youll probably win. id rather see birdies.
See, I am the total opposite. I don't want to see someone play 4 rounds of golf in 20 under par. It makes me sick to know how much better these guys are than I am.
I want to see:
Flubs out of the rough (like me)
Landing the ball on the front of the green and rolling off the back (like me)
Long bogey putts (like me)
Cursing and frustration (like me)
Watching these guys get into (and out of) trouble is the best part of watching professional golf, in my opinion. If I want to see someone hit every fairway and knock it close to every pin, I'll go play a video game on easy.
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Yes, these guys were a bunch of scratch golfers and said the course was so hard they cheated and stopped keeping score. It was too tough for them.
NickleDimer
Post 'Til Your Fingers Bleed
The fairways at Merion are now probably twice as wide as they were for the Open. It's incredible. They took a fairway bunker out at 15 also. I like watching pros get frustrated.
Pro golfers can probably stop whining about tough play at the US Open. With the exception of the British Open (Or open championship, for those of you people who prefer the hoity toity version of that tournament), the conditions are perfect at every other event on tour.
I was at the 1953 Open at Oakmont, and we all know who won. The Open that was really jazzed up was Winged Foot
in 1974 when Hale Irwin won at about nine over; that happened because the year before Miller shot something like
Foot. The USGA made When spectators asked at that tourney were asked if they were looking for golf balls they responded
that they were looking for players.
At Merion in 2013, three was unfair at 270 into the wind; the green at five at 530 was impossible; the tee ball at eighteen was simply too hard.
But they either rebuilt/ changed both twelve and 15 greens. In 2013 at Merion how many short second shots rolled sixty yards down hill.
NickleDimer
Post 'Til Your Fingers Bleed
18 at Merion was 521 yards. Uphill the entire way, green sloping hard from front to back. No birdies. #5 has a ridiculous right to left slope. I think there might have been one birdie there all week.
I saw on TV last night that the USGA has actually cut down the rough from normal member play. That said, I'm sure they narrowed the fairways a bit. What member would want to play a course that requires you to punch out of the rough?
The early forecasts are calling for rain so the greens /fairways will be more receptive but the rough may get wild.
The early forecasts are calling for rain so the greens /fairways will be more receptive but the rough may get wild.
play is suspended for now, scores are fairly low because of the rain.
What member would want to play a course that requires you to punch out of the rough?
you have to understand these types of golf club membership. they get off on hearing how hard their course is or how fast the greens are or thick the rough is. its like a badge of honor for them to carry. makes no sense to me. i like a challenge but not where I come off the course thinking that was not an enjoyable golf experience. golf is hard enough as is, i dont need unplayable rough , unplayable greens with severe slopes. give me wide fairways, playable rough and pure greens. the penalty should be way off the fairway not just off by a yard or two. id rather play my course than go over to Oakmont or Merion and shoot 100 because of the conditions while the snobby membership smiles with delight at my misery.
What member would want to play a course that requires you to punch out of the rough?
you have to understand these types of golf club membership. they get off on hearing how hard their course is or how fast the greens are or thick the rough is. its like a badge of honor for them to carry. makes no sense to me. i like a challenge but not where I come off the course thinking that was not an enjoyable golf experience. golf is hard enough as is, i dont need unplayable rough , unplayable greens with severe slopes. give me wide fairways, playable rough and pure greens. the penalty should be way off the fairway not just off by a yard or two. id rather play my course than go over to Oakmont or Merion and shoot 100 because of the conditions while the snobby membership smiles with delight at my misery.
I have admitted that the 5th green at Merion wasn't a good green when the hole played 430; it was nearly impossible at 510. Again when l2 and 15 greens
were redone, balls didn't hit short and roll sixty yards back down the fairway. None of the holes were unplayable as the short par 3 on the front at Shinnecock
and , I believe, the short 10th (?) there. . That par 4 with no penalty strokes was deemed unplayable by the USGA.. I caddied many times for Geoge Fazio
when he hit a high cut on 18 with a four wood that hit jut short of the hump on #18 and it trickled to the middle of the green.
As an old timer and a purist, I think greens should be slopped from a low front to a higher back. In the little that I saw today there were maybe five holes
that the greens slopped from a high front to a low back. Miss it short and the ball rolls back down hill while a miss long has a roll off or the green into a possible bad spot seventy feet from the
hole. that ain't golf.
that the greens slopped from a high front to a low back. Miss it short and the ball rolls back down hill while a miss long has a roll off or the green into a possible bad spot seventy feet from the
hole. that ain't golf.
I'm saying not sure it's really all that much on Buck - with the right team around him he could be good at it. He's talented enough to figure it out. I just think the entire setup on Fox feels off. For a sports company that puts so much exciting, high quality, fast action sports out there, having golf as a staple just doesn't work for me. UFC, NFL Football, Big East Basketball, etc., all match that brand.
NickleDimer
Post 'Til Your Fingers Bleed
Sorta, I guess I'm more saying if you threw Buck into a US Open and had ESPN or NBC cover it with the rest of their crews, he'd be pretty solid with some practice. Golf as a sport doesn't fit into the rest of Fox's portfolio.
I think that's a reasonable thing to say.
Buck has the reputation of being a no fun dweeb, so it's not like he's not comfortable with the tone a golf event needs. Fox as a whole just doesn't seem comfortable with golf. If they are going to cover a major like the US Open, they should've bought the rights to a bunch of the weekly tournaments to develop a crew and familiarity.
