Three More Pinehurst Postscripts: Resounding Success!
Now that the huge surge in U.S. Women's Open ratings would dispel Donald Trump's erroneous (surprise, surprise) assertion that viewers tuned out the U.S. Open because of the dried out Pinehurst, let's look to some more thoughtful takes on the week.
I'm not sure this will work, but Michael Bamberger files a super postscript in the SI/golf.com Digital thingy that's a pain to read (aren't they all...we must make it hard for readers to read and experience ads!). Essentially, Bamberger touches on Kaymer and Wie's fascinating wins and the huge sucess of back-to-back Opens.
Mercifully, Bill Fields' assessment at GolfDigest.com is easier to access and he makes an interesting point about the importance of Michelle Wie finishing off her win in such strong fashion.
But let's also be honest: We were fortunate to get the sublime performance of Martin Kaymer and the breakthough achievement by Michelle Wie. Had Wie's late blunder at the 16th hole -- What was she thinking not playing a conservative shot to the fairway from that bunker with a three-stroke lead? -- led to an ugly defeat, the mood would have been much different Sunday evening. As it was her strategic error provided only a scare, and golfers will now want to try to duplicate Wie's fantastic birdie putt on No. 17 like they do Payne Stewart's crucial par putt on the 18th in 1999. Forget a statue. Someone should be drawing a painting with a table on top of a turtle's back. That would immortalize Wie's going 72 holes without a three putt with her odd stance on those wacky greens.
Doug Ferguson wrote in his weekly column that "two weeks of U.S. Open golf at Pinehurst No. 2 could not have gone much better. It really was double the pleasure."
Perhaps the most telling statistic was the scoring average in the final round.
For the men it was 72.40. For the women it was 72.39.
Only three men finished 72 holes under par, led by Martin Kaymer and his majestic play. Michelle Wie was the only woman under par.
Don't underestimate the importance of weather. Each week featured one burst of showers overnight, but otherwise scorching weather allowed setup specialists Mike Davis and Ben Kimball confidence that the course would play relatively similarly.
"We got to control the situation," said Davis, the USGA's executive director.
I would also add that the combination of amazing maintenance work by Farren, Robinson, et. al. deserves as much credit as anything, especially for presenting greens with so much turf that two weeks of championship golf was never an issue. Throw in a superb bit of orchestration by the USGA's advance team to put on a fantastic Open operationally and it's hard to imagine things going any better.
The only thing missing? Water trucks to wet down dirt paths, spectator walkways and parking areas. But who would have expected so little rain? Besides, firm, fast and sandy doesn't come without a tiny price to pay.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014 at 11:59 PM
Reader Comments (19)
Back to the topic--i'd actually like to hear more about the retail golfer's objections. Guys i talked to thought the roughs were not rough enough. "too easy" according to one guy. "fairways were way too wide"
I was surprised at the reaction--and i'd like to hear more
My preference is to see the best players in the world show their entire skill set, and I don't consider hacking out of 5 inch rough 2 feet off of a green a skill.
Paul
Personally I loved the look of Pinehurst, and was happy to hear many around my club discussing it as "the way golf was meant to be." I'm partial to the links look to begin with, but I was glad to see many newbies exposed to a different type of golf being possible in the US.
And for women's golf, no question combining the two tourneys with a breakthrough win by Michelle Wie was a glimpse into the potential future of the sport that could match up in a similar way to how tennis was boosted by the Evert-Navratilova era combining with Connors-Borg-McEnroe to boost everything tennis up to a whole 'nother level.
Congrats to all involved.
My biggest disappointment was the first week at Pinehurst, with no one challenging the outstanding performance of Kaymer in that final round.
The Masters (my favorite major) this year produced a similar feeling. Less than riveting for me.
All that said, I still love watching the majors.
His interview and his commentary reveal how we connect to the game of golf.
@Johnson Squared Nice one. How long until she slaps a sponsor on one of those babies? The Nascar-ization is coming!
That SI digital thing(y) is about the ugliest layout I've seen since the halcyon days of geocities.
Fonts, graphics, colours, proportion…bleech.