ROUGH GUFF
Players not pleased with tall grass at U.S. Open
ERIN, Wis. — Golfers complaining about unfair rough conditions at the U.S. Open is as common as 90-degree temperatures in the Midwest at this time of year.
So surprise, surprise: The players already are complaining about the rough they will be dealing with at this week’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills, where play will begin with Thursday’s opening round.
It started with a snarky video posted on Twitter by Kevin Na, which came with the text: “Erin Hills is a great design course but the fescue is almost unplayable. BTW never found the ball. So don’t hit it in there lol. straight hitters have a chance! #usopen #erinhills #mikedavis #lostball #usga”
The tweet was accompanied by a video that showed him searching for his ball in the waist-high fescue grass. “Every hole we’ve got this,” Na said. “Every hole,” he repeated. “Why can’t we have a lot of past U.S. Open champions get together and set up a major?” Na said. “I’d like to see that happen one day.”
Some players were in agreement with Na’s assessment, but others said Na failed to point out how wide the fairways at Erin Hills are — something that is not a usual U.S. Open staple.
“I think [Na’s complaint] is actually unfair because the fairways are 60 yards wide,” Graeme McDowell told The Post. “If you’re in that piece of rough [where Na was], you deserve what you get. Yes, there’s a lot of rough out here, but the golf course is smartly set up. They’re not going to punish good shots. They’re going to punish bad shots. The fairways are wide and the rough is merited.”
Jim Furyk, a former U.S. Open champion, was partially on board with Na’s comments about the severity of the rough.
“I would say it’s not consistent,” he said. “There are places where the heather is playable. I watched Jordan Spieth hit it to 10 feet on No. 8 from 180 yards out from the thick stuff. And I saw Steve Stricker on No. 4 from [the] right side not move the ball 5 feet. The grass was literally almost touching his rear end.”
When Jon Rahm was asked what he made of the rough, whether it was fair, he said: “You’re talking the rough that’s 4 inches or the actual fescue grass?”
“I didn’t step in it,” he said of the fescue. “I’m like, ‘There’s no need to injure my wrist this week before I tee off.’ It really looks very penalizing. Unless you get extremely lucky where you might be able to move it 120 yards, it looks like a 30yard chip out to the fairway.
“We’ve all seen the videos on social media that Kevin Na and Rickie Fowler and other players posted. It doesn’t look easy to move out of there. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone loses a ball or has to take an unplayable.”
Andy North, a Wisconsin native, former twotime U.S. Open winner and current ESPN analyst, said the unique nature of this week is that no one really knows what to expect out of Erin Hills because it’s so new to everyone.
“Will the winning score be 4-over? Will the winning score be about 20-under?” North said. “No one has an idea. That’s not just the players but the staff trying to set up the golf course. It’s a different type of Open setup. Is it right? Is it wrong? I don’t know.
“Yes, there’s a lot of fescue out there, but you’ve got basically an area of 50-plus yards wide to drive the ball to keep it out of the fescue. There are going to be some big scores. I could see some rounds where a player makes three birdies, 14 pars and a triple. You have one error, and you’ll see big numbers.”
McDowell spoke of the “pressure to produce a great product this week” the USGA is under after the widespread criticism it endured two years ago at Chambers Bay, which like Erin Hills was an unknown commodity.
“No doubt, the last couple of years have had a negative impact on them,” he said. “When they come to a new golf course like this, there always is that danger that they can get the setup wrong and they could be made to look silly. I think they’ll execute well.”