Video: Lee Westwood's Caddie Emerges Safely From Rough

Certainly a lighter way of highlighting the dense natives just off the fairways.

The rough is really thick this week just off the edge of the fairway! 😂😂😂#usopen

A post shared by Lee Westwood (@westwood_lee) on Jun 12, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT

Comments

[Center Cut]

Said it before, say it again, The recovery shot is the most exciting shot in golf.

This course is sent up to be utterly devoid of those shots.

[Convert]

All this bitching moaning and complaining from players media and fans. Yet come Sunday, this tournament usually spits out a worthy champion who has played his fanny off for 4 days. As tough and supposedly "unfair" as it is, 99.9% of us would love to be there

The US Open and its setup is great theater one time a year. With a bonus of ending on Fathers Day ensuring that dads can watch as much as they want and probably pop that first merican made beer earlier that normal.

[Easingwold]

No one likes to see the best players in the world look like a hacker trying to get back to the fairway. Great tournament, but the set ups choke the life out of the game.

[Bob]

Convert.... I wholeheartedly agree...

[Saltwater Golfer]

God bless English humor.

Love to see Westwood nab this one.

[crodad]

Look, I know some are saying "Keep it in the fairway and you won't have to worry", and "Quit complaining....just do your job" and "The prima donnas who are crying already we can take them off the potential winner list" or "Well if they're scared of their driver, why don't they hit an iron off the tee"..

Horse shizzle. Most of the advice is coming from 20 handicappers who think they can relate to the pressure these guys are under because they once had a putt to win a carryover $12 skin.

In the middle of Wisconsin, guess what happens? The wind can freaking HOWL. I mean HOOOWWWLLLL. That, along with the pressure of a Major, brings up the probability is losing one in the jungle grass.

With respect to complaining, these guys are Independent Contractors. They have every right to complain about the setup (particularly the US Open, but I digress) of the courses they play. Using your theory, slave labor or their advocates should never complain because, well, at least they're keeping busy!

And yeah, those players that get pissed off at the system and institutions never contend in tournaments. Why am I getting a vision of Seve in my head at the moment?

And regarding the idiots preaching about hitting irons off the tees....not all of these guys carry their drives 290. And this course is playing close to 7800 yards!!! Throw in some wind and, well, I'll leave it to the "experts" on here to figure out what that does to a course.

[chico]

I only ever played in 1 major and I would have given anything to play in some more-but I do think that wall of rough looks ridiculous. I would be so busy smiling you wouldnt hear me complain though!

[BrianS]

If balls that are hit into that grass are essentially unplayable for the most part, can they/should they designate that as a hazard ? Swamps and other such areas get that designation, which enables the player to drop outside the hazard vs. taking an unplayable potentially still in the stuff. Not an expert...

[Jupiter]

@Crodad... Wisconsin isn't the only place that gets heavy wind. I live in FL and we get plenty.

It's a tough course and it's set up tough for our country's major. That's how it should be. Let the whiners whine and the players play.

[Don]

I played it in the wind and it wasn't like I was in the tall grass all day. It's pretty fair. Tons of opportunity for neat pitch shots around the greens.

[chico]

McI lroy has just tweeted that the fairways are 60 yds wide plus 10 yds first cut and that if the top 156 players in the world cant hit that they should pack in and go home! Apparently they are cutting back fescue as we speak!

[Howie]

Aren't there hundreds or even thousands of courses around the country with high, ball losing fescue? In fact it is a huge design feature for many courses. I live in western NJ and almost all of the courses I play at have "lost ball" fescue 5-10 yards off the fairways, which are usually 30-40 yards wide. Are these courses only playable for the average player but not the tour pros??? I guess tour players need courses where they can't lose balls on a bad shot, while the rest of us play them on a regular basis.

Also, how did we not hear all of this moaning about the same exact course for the US amateur a few years back? Were players losing balls on a regular basis? I watched a lot of it on TV and don't recall many players with shots from the fescue and when they did, they were able to play them.

Pine Valley has lost ball or unplayable rough just off the fairways on many holes. I guess some of the tour pros won't ever want to play there either!

[ol Harv]

"It's a tough course and it's set up tough for our country's major. That's how it should be."

Absolutely Jupiter. In fact most pros want it set up tough, what they don't want is USGA manipulation to force a desired winning score.

[crodad]

@Howie....good question but you are making the wrong assumption that the fescue was in the exact condition that it was as of this morning. And it wasn't.

@ol Harv....We have a BINGO!!! Nobody is suggesting to turn the US Open into an event where -28 under wins, although that's really just a number. But with the USGA, in their infinite wisdom, growing jungle grass and baking out greens to run at 15 on the stimp, all in the name of "protecting par", it's turned into a caricature of itself, with the emphasis being on the USGA's inability to both run a proper event and a set up that cries out "BORING!!!"

Somebody suggested earlier that "fans" like watching these guys hit it out sideways from the gunch after not finding a fairway. I'll stipulate to that but add that there are some folks who find the Family Kardashian to be the pinnacle of the American Dream, as well as some folks who really want to see televised executions. Is playing to the lowest common denominator what we're shooting for (pun intended)?

[DSP]

Rory seems to forget that drive he hit years ago on #10 at Augusta...

[KLG]

Funny, but he should check himself for ticks very carefully.

[Paul]

At least Westy can have a laugh at it whereas Kevin Na was ready to eat nails he was so po'd. Count Na out - he's beaten already.

[munihack]

This reminds me of Carnoustie in '99

[Colin MacGillivray]

Brian Good one. If the USA put red stakes along the edge of the high fescue time and shots would be saved

[D. maculata]

Na hasn't been the same since he chopped it around in the Texas underbrush to card a 16 at the Valero. Must have permanently damaged his psyche.

[Scott]

This seems much more fair than those fairway bunkers at the British Open where you're up against a vertical wall of sod with no chance of recovery. Hit a perfect drive down the middle, walk off with a 5 or 6. How does that reward shotmakers and recovery artists?

[JJBeck]

Why do some of you guys want this tournament to reflect the same challenges as a regular Tour event ? The Masters is played on the same risk / reward course every year. It's a beautiful golf course and the real start of the season for the best players. The Open is played on a Rota of incredible links courses , with all that entails when it comes to shot choice and weather , not to mention history. The PGA Championship is the most like a regular Tour event and it can be argued it is the least of the four Championships , yet it is set up much like a regular Tour event. Why the calls for the Tour to take over the U.S. Open ? Capricious weather and a few mistakes in setting up the course over the years have been a part of golf forever. Let there be a stark definition to the four Championships. It would be a boring game if they let the players make the call on setting up every damn tournament. I think they should have an extreme tournament every year. If the U.S. Open fills that bill , so be it !

[Easingwold]

Scott, fly over and play a few links courses and you'll begin to understand. Better than trying to explain it to you with your less than open mind.

[Scott]

Easingwold, rather than insult me (your standard move) why not answer the question. How do vertical walls of sod plopped down in the middle of a fairway reward shotmakers and recovery artists?

[Easingwold]

Scott a bunker is a hazard. It isn't supposed to be easy to escape from. That way the golfer has to think about the shot to avoid them.

[Scott]

I see. So as long as we call it a hazard and not through the green, anything goes apparently. Hey, worked for Greg Norman at Troon! Best driver in the game corks one down the middle and he loses. Yay for Troon.

[Easingwold]

Ahh Greg Norman. One of the best drivers of all time for sure. Didn't need it on the 18th though. 3 wood was enough but Greg was hot that day and went for it. Jack would never have it driver that day and that's what I mean by thinking about the shot.

[Chico]

Scotty boy. Firstly that bunker is not in th middle of the fairway and secondly it did not move between him striking his shot and it landing.The challenge of that tee shot is to avoid the bunkers all of which are visible from the tee. That requires shotmaking and a golfing brain- which may be an alien concept to you. Over here we like to see a bunker as a hazard not just another surface from which to hit an easy shot to the green. I believe you call them traps- I call them decoration.

[Scott]

Chica, congratulations on your super super tough bunkers. I know I enjoyed watching world No. 1 Greg Norman pick up his ball and take an 'X' after hitting a perfect drive. Who wouldn't? Golf should be ruthless. By the way, if you think Tillinghast bunkers are "decorations" you're even stupider than you sound.

[Tim in hoylake]

A drive is never perfect if it ends up in a bunker. Good maybe, if distance is your only measure. But Chico is right. With a brain, you can avoid hazards if you stay within yourself, but who really is themselves as a foreigner let loose on a great UK links course? No one i know.

[Easingwold]

"Stupider" just about sums it all up. Scott, you don't have to like anyone on this blog, but on golf topics you should at least respect views of a former touring pro and respected ref in the Ryder Cup and other events, even if you don't agree with them.

[Chico]

Thanks Ease- but I've been called worse!! I'm sure Tilly designed some beauties- and there are a few interesting ones this week but I don't go along with the theory that bunkers are a non hazard. Assuming you can see the bunker then driving into it is neither a triumph of shot making nor of strategy. Well struck shots that end up in trouble are not good shots.

[Scott]

Sorry Easy boy, when someone says all American bunkers are "decorations" he's marked himself as stupid, thick, ignorant, moronic, bigoted and clueless. That mark won't go away either. And what do I care that he was a ref in the Ryder Cup? Like you he's clearly anti-American to the core, so I'm sure our guys got a fair shake (snort snort).

[chico]

Scott getting more thin skinned than ever!Love it. Not anti American in the least-but I do think you are a twat!!

[Easingwold]

Chico- well said :)

[Scott]

What a sad little ex-referee you are Chica. And your waste of oxygen shadow Easingwald is a fitting caddie for you.

[Chico]

Yes Scott- I've given the European team several preferred lies, a multitude of free throws and a veritable plethora of mulligans. I was involved in a ruling which Tom Lehman thought was overtly biased until it was pointed out that the option under which the drop was being taken was actually in a document signed by him. Shocking behaviour!

[Scott]

And he calls himself a man of god (cue endless Scottish tears)

[Chico]

He called himself wrong that day!