The Congressional Low Scoring Panic
I see Golf Digest readers are in a tizzy over the U.S. Open low scoring this year and I've seen some correspondences from the blue blazer world lamenting this year's setup and forgiving course conditions.
In this week's Golf World I explain what was going on with the course and why some of the conditions remained soft. But before you have the chance to read that story, let's consider a few things.
"Everybody knew those greens were going to be soft. My argument was, 'Why don't we have more rough? Why do we play the ladies' tees on half the holes?' Those were kind of things us angry old men were discussing," North said. "What has always set our championship apart from the other majors was the mental gymnastics you had to go through just to survive."
It's fascinating how the concept of varying tees with corresponding hole locations is blamed for the low scoring and the sense that the setup was not up to USGA standards. I'd put the fact that Congressional didn't play to its max yardage everyday a distant 9th on the list of reasons for the low scoring and simpler test. Here goes, in order:
;)
1. Congressional was in immaculate condition. Mike Giuffre and crew had the fairways absolutely perfect, the greens looked lousy early in the week but perked up after Thursday's rain, and you only saw putts hop in the evening hours. The greens could not have been more different than last year's bumpy poa at Pebble, nor could they have been more conducive to making putts.
2. The greens were receptive to all shots, including from the rough. Why? A variety of reasons, most likely attributable to their newness and the USGA's decision to not lower cuts and strain them to pick up a few inches of Stimpmeter reading speed. Sub-Air can not impact the turf on top, just moisture that reaches the bottom of the USGA green. Moisture stayed at the surface for whatever reason and kept them soft.
3. The greens have very little contour and slope, require little local knowledge and make putting quite easy for today's players.
4. Players today hit the ball ridiculous distances with equipment that allows them to swing freely. Just as the USGA and PGA of America stated in their Tee It Forward campaign (but noticeably absent from the NBC graphic during this year's telecast), a course at 7600-7900 yards is the distance you would put more mid and long irons into their hands. Congressional, even from the tips, is too short to test today's players in a manner comparable to Open's from eras when equipment was in sync with architecture.
5. After Thursday, there was almost no wind whatsoever. No wind and today's players have one less thing to worry about.
6. The temperatures were warm and today's players drive it a mile in hot weather. Scoring is always good in hot weather.
;)
7. The Blue Course design features almost no strategy, does little to make player uncomfortable and only posed significant danger in three places: the 10th, 11th and 18th holes. With little to think about and fear, today's players are quite proficient at scoring.
8. The bunkers had no bite. Mike Davis said that all spring, Congressional has struggled with the bunkers being too soft. With no rain 18 days prior to the event, steps were taken to firm them up enough. During the practice rounds they appeared just right, soft but balls were not plugging. But when the rains came, they firmed up and the lower cut around them went from sending balls to tough lies to more typical modern day manicured bunkers.
9. Congressional did not play to its maximum yardage. Had it been stretched to the max, I'm thinking the scoring average would have been impacted by at least .2 shots a day.
All of that said, the course produced a worthy champion who likely would have won had the conditions not gone so soft. I believe it would have been closer but ultimately, McIlroy was not going to be beat.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 08:16 PM
Reader Comments (53)
I don't really understand the strategy comment (number 7.) Is there ever much strategy at a US Open?
The course appeared to have quite a bit of water. 16th hole looked quite good in terms of enticing players to go for the green in two shots.
Also, it appeared a number of holes had pin positions where a shot could funnel down to the hole. Mind-boggling that they put the pins below the slopes. Why not at the top? The USGA has done that before.
Along the lines of your 1st comment, McIlroy was hitting a lot of approaches from inside 120 yards. It did not appear that the course was very long.
Unless they are going to do this every year and accept the scoring that wet weather will provide
Old features I missed: 1) US Open rough grown right to the edge of fairways and greens like previous/more traditional US Opens; 2) brown/dying greens on Sunday, and 3) remember the first year at Bethpage when some of the players couldn't reach the fairway from the tees?...LOL...I laffed pretty hard when I saw that :)
I was very annoyed (not used to it maybe?) when I saw players missing the fairway and not only being able to reach the green, but spin and stick their shots near the flag
No question he was one of the all-time greats.
1. This was alluded to, but the screaming heat here the week before the tourney stopped the rough from growing. So, the rough didn't grow the week before. No rough and soft conditions = green light
2. As for why the moisture stayed on the greens: this is a swamp. Moisture never drains off anything.
3. A partner of mine is a member and he kvetched repeatedly about how they weren't playing the full yardage. Source of pride by the members to torture the pros.
Your 9 point analysis is spot on. Any hand wringing over this event is completely unnecessary. I spent Friday at the event and I was stunned to see a number of players putt from the back of two green which is bisected by a 36 inch slope and stop the ball at the cup at the front of the green. But for the weather's impact on the course there would have been no stopping those putts. Summer in the transition zone is a beast especially when it comes as early as it did this year. Spring lasted two weeks before high heat and humidity set in in mid May. Give someone who tends to drive it as straight as McIlroy those conditions, especially on a course that does not involve many angles, and its lights out.
By the way, hopefully everyone wringing their hands stops to consider that he shot 61 at Portrush from the tips when he was 15. Portrush is vastly more complicated than Congressional.
I'm going to throw this one out there....How about planning and staging the US Open at different times of the year in order to get the best possible playing conditions. Congressional in the fall would be an even better test as would most mid-Atlantic areas.
I know this will never happen (TV and all those greed...err sports producers) but wasn't the PGA held in February in the past? When were the traditional dates and order for the Majors finalized? Anyone?
Get those old 2 inch Oakmont rakes and make em' pay for a poor shot. it was childs play last week.
I like Geoffs reason # 7- 15 generic, no stress holes.
There were an awful lot of guys who didn't find that course and setup easy this week. I think if it had been setup even harder, Rory would have won by more strokes.
As is evidenced by comments by hoselrocket and others, you will never get a setup that pleases everyone. The changes that were being praised by many just a short time ago, are now being criticized with a desire to return to more 'traditional' setups where the players need to hack it out from 3 feet off the fairway.
Until golf is played inside a building, it will always be subject to the whims of Mother Nature and it would be nice if people just got comfy with that.
What kind of set up would have produced a different champion?
Rory also hit 62 greens in reg! , which i think i read was a record, and didnt seem to have many 40 footers, which means he was hitting it close
congrats to him!
wasnt the 71 PGA moved to FL as a "favor" to Macarthur?
For once in a long while, the venue was free from crappy Poa greens and McIlroy holed putts.
Best player won - get over it.
Take away Rory, and scoring was lower than normal, but certainly not out of hand. That can easily be attributed to the rain. If the greens were typical rock-hard US Open condition, then we're looking at a completely different result, even with the rough not being as nasty as usual or the course playing at full yardage.
I really don't see how anyone needs to be "blamed" for the lower-than-normal scoring. If Rory had finished one ahead of the pack, would we even be talking about it? The fact is, he played the same course as everyone else and just completely embarrassed the field.
Sometimes I think that people like the see the US Open setups that get too close to the edge and fall over the cliff, because they want to see these guys get knocked down a peg. Having a ridiculously difficult setup doesn't sift out the undeserving and help to crown the best player in the field. It still just comes down to each man versus a strong field whether it's the Massacre at Winged Foot or whether it's played on a municipal pitch 'n putt with a winning score of -30. It's not that I don't think the setup should be challenging, but it's hardly the end of the world if it's not quite challenging enough.
I don't think the criticisms of the course set-up are intended as Rory hating. I'm glad he won.
2007 AT&T...K.J. Choi...271 (-9)
2008 AT&T...Anthony Kim...268 (-12)
2009 AT&T...Tiger Woods...267 (-13)
2011 U.S. Open...268 (-16)
I would say there were likely just as many mistakes made in the set-up leading up to and during the championship as there were circumstances that led to low scores. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Rory's performance, but it simply wasn't a real U.S. Open test and the comparable scores to the AT&T above prove it. You can't take the trophy away, nor would I want to, but I'm not sure Rory knows anything more about winning a U.S. Open than K.J. Choi or Anthony Kim. This sounds crazy, but I actually enjoyed Sunday at Shinnecock in 2004 more than Congressional in 2011. Sure, Retief is a bore, but that was a "masterful" display. Winning the U.S. Open is about embracing the conditions and overcoming everything- the pressure, the fear, the doubt, the demands, the enormity of the moment. And if Phil hadn't four-putted 17, which had everything to do with his head rather than the conditions, and won the thing, then the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock would probably be remembered as one of the best ever.
There were 20 players under par in this US Open. There were 30 in the 2009 AT&T National. It doesn't seem like much, but it's 50% more. So, the course was playing a little more difficult, than during AT&T, but more importantly, the field was stronger.
1997-2010 US Open - 21 players under par combined.
That's what happened at Congressional. Maybe the club shouldn't have followed the recommendation to have A1/A4 USGA spec greens put in too close to the championship, but there's nothing they could have done to alter the heat, humidity and rain. NOTHING. As a result, like the PGA at Medinah a couple years back, the pros had a bit of a field day, scoring wise, at Congressional. Soft course plus hot pros equals low numbers.
Maybe the course isn't tough enough because length alone isn't enough these days. Maybe the bunkers are a piece of cake for everybody, and especially for tour pros. Maybe there aren't enough double bogey holes out there. Doesn't matter. It's an historic course out east and the USGA will have another Open there. Had the same set of circumstances occurred in the Midwest, they'd never go back, but that's another story. Rory won fair and square, would've won if the weather had been different and the balls were bouncing into the rough and all over the place on the greens. No asterisk for this championship.
I understand the rationale in using graduated rough/setup of the greens, however, in this case they made this US Open closer to a normal tour stop, which is fine if that is the goal
Back in the day, when the leader drove in the rough, we used to check the entire leaderboard to see who was going to be brought into contention from the upcoming bogey...with Mike Davis' setups, that is no longer the case...
Rory's birdie from the rough on the number 1 handicap hole was just amazing/annoying...he should have been penalized one shot for missing that fairway, especially THE hole that the players feared all week. Instead he makes birdie spinning his "recovery" shot from the US Open rough....LOL
ahh well, I guess watching the US Open is very similar to watching the Phoenix Open now.
Bummer, cuz I used to look forward to the majors
On another note, complaining about the set up and ease of the course does not equal complaining about Rory as the champion, or suggesting that a tougher test would have brought a different result.
I think the opposite is true. You always hear them say " I am playing against the course and not paying attention to other scores etc."
Also, I had complete appreciation for Rory's performance and enjoyed every second of it. I do rank it up there with Tiger's 1997 Masters, 2000 & 2008 US Opens and Phil's 2004 Masters among recent significant victories. (If only we could add Tom Watson to that list!)