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.

First, Andy North sums up the silly kvetching about Congressional's setup in these comments to Doug Ferguson.

"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. 

Comments

[Hawkeye]

RM, so I guess we are kind of on the same page after all! Well, except that I wouldn't go so far as calling it a sore thumb. I might have if Yang or Kevin Chappell had won it, though... I just feel that Rory's performance transcends any weakness that Congo might have had as a venue, that's all.

[Lindsay Addie]

Only got one thing to say about Congressional, it's totally underwhelming.

[Mike Gray]

Brad, I don't disagree that's the way players approach the game. Obviously all they can do is play the course the best way they know how and let the chips fall where they may. But as far as determining winners, all that matters is how someone did compared to the other guys.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

IIRC at Turnberry in 1977 the last two rounds were played in 65-65 by Watson and 65-66 by Nicklaus. Two champions playing stellar golf and lapping the field several times. Indeed, no talk of *asterisks* then and to hear of that now is ludicrous. As pointed out earlier, there was no such talk when Tiger annihilated the Old Course under benign conditions, either.

[OWGR Fan]

@Hawkeye....... -12 was shot in The Open (Arnold Palmer 1962, Weiskopf 1973) twice before the mighty Duel in the Sun as was -10 in four other Open championships prior to 1977. Had this type of blog existed in 1977 we would have rightly marveled at the duel and really talked about how much Tom & Jack separated themselves from the rest of the field. Their scores really do not seem not out of line.

Of course the reason for those scores was that the ball was going too far back then as well LOL! :)

[Jim S]

I know I'm a day late to this thread, but I've been wondering if it's time for Mike Davis to take the graduated rough in a different direction and vary the height of the rough in strategic patterns rather than in uniform bands. He could make "islands" of very deep rough next to particular spots in the fairway to punish certain kinds of shots, and then he could have wider bands of short rough in other areas. It seems like a natural, and simple, next step to take in increasing the difficulty of courses for the pros when they bomb and gouge their way around courses.

Surely this is a trick as old as golf, but the uniform bands of graduated rough around each fairway seem to be a rather dull means to the end of proportional punishment for wayward shots. Surely individual rough patterns can be cut for each hole to maximize strategy and interest.

[Del the Funk]

When players who are already multiple major winners, like Irwin-Nicklaus-Watson, obliterate a major course under
"benign" conditions....well, they are already multiple major winners so it's no big deal.

But when a guy basically equals a Brian Gay at Heritage like performance to capture his first major, and this after posting 80 on two separate occasions when entering a major round with the lead, well that's pretty important.

I'm sure Rory will win another major and remove the asterisk. Matter of fact, in a perverse way this might be the best thing that ever happened to him -- this might get him totally motivated to put doubters like me waaaaay back in the rear-view mirror!!!

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Brian Gay:Heritage
Shelly Long: Cheers

Rory McIlroy:US Open
Lauren Bacall:To Have and Have Not

[kenoneputt]

"Brian Gay:Heritage
Shelly Long: Cheers

Rory McIlroy:US Open
Lauren Bacall:To Have and Have Not'

Shelley Long AND Lauren Bacall.... Priceless...

K

[AK47]

I'm okay with Rory winning, I'm not okay with 111 years of records being demolished because Mike Davis got it wrong at Congressional. Tiger's -12 (versus +3 for the runners-up) to me stands as the greatest performance in majors history. No one can win by 15 in a major. He did. At a US Open where no one else was under par.

[Johhny]

Surely the rough was the big issue, don't mind graduated but saw not one player chop it out sideways when they were in the heavy stuff, everybody was getting it on or close to the greens. Bring back the kinda rough that had Mickleson thinking... 'Is this the shot that will end my career?'

[Mike T.]

Low scoring at Congressional was an aberration. The set-up practices that have been successful for the last several Opens were undone by the weather at a second-tier venue. Unlike Shinnnecock in 2004, when the Old School setup and weather combined to kill the course, Congressional members still have greens to putt on after the circus left town.

As for an "asterisk-win" by Rory, he walloped the field playing the same course they did. Nuff said.

[Del the Funk]

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