The U.S. Open Is Here, A Few Final Thoughts

After three very dry, pleasant and perfect weather days, the U.S. Open kicks off at Congressional with an uncertain weather forecast and an even more uncertain future for the putting surfaces. Normally changes in color from Monday to Wednesday would not be of great concern except that these are not even two-year old greens and the most stressed areas appear to be in rapid decline. Exactly how the warmer temperatures and continued stress placed on the greens by traditional course preparation measures impacts play remains to be seen.

But the USGA made clear in Wednesday's press conference that the turfgrass will not be pushed at the expense of the greens.

More of interest to players and fans will be the impact this has had on firmness. Despite the mild temperatures, the crew kept the greens moist all day Wednesday and the lack of full fledged U.S. Open firmness, combined with the perfectly conditioned fairways, should make Congressional vulnerable to low scores. That's assuming someone can get on a roll over the course of a slow round caused by the reachable par-5s, several long back nine walks between tees and greens, and everything else that goes with a U.S. Open.

It's been called a wide-open Open and it's hard to disagree. And the softer the course gets, the more players it brings into the equation. That's great for fans, but not necessarily the way to crown the best possible winner.

Stay tuned all day for site updates and special Thursday open thread to comment on what you are seeing.

Comments

[Tom Ierubino]

Keep an eye on Chad Campbell, teeing off at 7 a.m. Thursday in the first group off No. 10.

[Mulligan]

Hope you get the live chat going again. That was fun on Masters Sunday.

[Goose]

Watch AK. He has someone new on the bag.

[Edmund]

Pls. provide a review of the USGA Open website. Does anybody else think it's probably the worst website for a major championship in history. Compared to the Masters website, it is amateur hour.

[Chris from DE]

"That's great for fans, but not necessarily the way to crown the best possible winner."

I think the best possible winner is the person who competes the best over the course of four days. It's the guy who deals with the unexpected, the distractions, the course conditions and his emotions the best. Golf tournaments, especially majors, are rarely won by the best golfer. They're won by the best competitor.

[JDF]

Agreed Edmond, the US Open and PGA are typically awful. The streaming video has improved the Masters out of sight in recent years, but why in 2011 we can get more on how a player is plotting his way around the course in Justin Timberlake's event than the majors I have no idea.

Fans are way overdue for the PGAT's Shot Tracker and all four majors to get around the table and negotiate a deal. Keen to know if any of the scribblers have ever done a story on why that's so hard, I would've thought the foreign press in particular could argue it's a tool that would greatly assist them in doing their job.

[JDF]

Sorry, Edmund.

[Jim]

Anyone surprised there aren't a few players going low (65 or 66) here given the conditions seem pretty ideal?