18 & Over: Open playoff now a 2-hole battle
Jordan Spieth found out when he was asked about it in the press conference room, and his buddy Justin Thomas found out when he heard people needling Spieth for his ignorance.
But if either them are tied for the lead at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills after 72 holes, they’ll quickly remember that the new USGA tie-breaker is for a two-hole aggregate playoff rather than the traditional 18-hole playoff the following day.
“It’s still 18 holes, right?” Spieth said before being corrected by a USGA official Tuesday. “Either way, I mean, I guess strategy changes a little from an entire round, but I honestly had no idea that it even changed.”
The USGA made a pretty simple assessment in changing the format, catering first to television and then to those who would have to be on-site for an extra day. But apparently they didn’t make it all that clear to the players.
“I just read about it at lunch. Two holes, right?” Thomas said. “I saw about three people say [Spieth] didn’t know. I’m like, well, I’m glad I read this because I didn’t know either.”
There has been a bit of backlash this week from the players, who obviously wouldn’t mind spending an extra day playing golf if the U.S. Open is on the line.
“I can understand why they want to finish with a two-hole [playoff ], obviously, with prime time and everyone’s eyeing that very moment on a Sunday,” Jason Day said. “I did like the old format as well. If there was a playoff, you come back and play 18 holes. It’s just you against the other person or whoever else was in the playoff. I feel like that suits better in my hands because it doesn’t matter if it takes another 36 holes. I’m just going to keep fighting.
“I understand why they did it, but if I’m in a playoff and I’ve got a two-hole playoff against someone, then I’m just as happy as if I had to play 18 the next day.”
There have been 33 playoffs in the first 117 playings of the U.S. Open, and the staunch tradi- tionalists will remember when the tournament was determined by a 36-hole playoff. That was most recently used in 1931 when Billy Burke and George Von Elm were tied after 72 holes, then tied after a 36-hole playoff and then another 36-hole playoff, Burke winning by a shot on the 144th hole.
The most recent 18-hole playoff was 10 years ago, when Tiger Woods beat Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines on what was actually the first sudden-death hole after they had played 18 in the Monday playoff.
As Woods pointed out, now the four majors have four different playoff formats. The Masters uses sudden death, the PGA Championship uses a three-hole aggregate and the Open Championship uses a four-hole aggregate. Now it’s just on the players to remember which is which.
“I was even looking at a weather forecast for Monday, thinking, you know, what’s it look like if you happen to work your way into a playoff ?” Spieth said. “So shows you what I know.”