Putting the best to a near-impossible test
Every October, Islington Golf Club in Etobicoke holds its annual Pumpkin Scramble event, and the hole locations are placed in all kinds of absurd, unreachable places. The groundskeeping crew has more fun than anyone. There are lots of six-putts, and it’s more about a good time than serious golf.
Watching the U.S. Open on the weekend made me think the United States Golf Association had sanctioned its own Pumpkin Scramble. It was that ridiculous at the par-70 Shinnecock Hills, so ridiculous that the USGA had to apologize after the third round Saturday, acknowledging that in an effort to make the course tough, they’d actually generated hole locations in places that punished good golf shots.
In other words, they’d tricked up the golf course a little too much. Turned it into “carnival golf,” in the words of some critics.
This was after the top 10 in the world had produced a collective 52-over par result on Thursday, and players like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and others had missed the cut on Friday.
It really was laughable, and Phil Mickelson made it more so on Saturday by swiping at an errant putt before the ball stopped rolling. That cost him a twostroke penalty, although he seemed to claim he’d done it intentionally, using the rules to improve his score on the hole.
“I just didn’t feel like going back and forth and hitting the shot over,” Mickelson explained. “I took the two-shot penalty and moved on. It’s my understanding of the rules. I’ve had multiple times when I’ve wanted to do that. I just finally did.”
He took a 10 on the hole, by the way. That day, the average score was 75. Eight players who had made the cut shot over 80 in the third round. The players who were scheduled to play in the afternoon faced dramatically more difficult conditions.
When the course dried up, what seemed reasonable in the morning turned into absurd.
“The outcome has been affected,” said TV commentator Frank Nobilo.
In the end, not a single golfer was able to break par over four rounds. The winner, Brooks Koepka, defended his 2017 title by finishing one over par, symbolically bogeying the 72nd hole to win by one stroke.
The golf world was left wondering, what in the world was that all about?
Some loved watching the world’s best brought to their knees. Koepka, for his part, sure wasn’t apologizing, and praised the USGA for creating such a tough test of golf. Many see this as U.S. Open tradition, to be much more difficult than any other major, with lightning-fast greens, nasty rough and all manner of obstacles for competitors to overcome.
At the same time, however, the weekend produced an event in which the USGA organizers were the stars. It became more about pin placements and whether the greens should be watered to slow things down than Tiger’s return to the tournament, Mickelson’s chances at age 48 or Patrick Reed’s attempt to win after capturing the Masters earlier this year.
“As a player and a golf fan myself, it’s sad to see how one of our biggest tournaments gets ripped apart because the USGA can’t figure out the right setup for the great golf courses we play,” tweeted 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia, who registered rounds of 75 and 79.
How tough is too tough? And what is the objective: to prove the best of the best aren’t as good as they think they are? Is that what people want to see?
To those who embrace the concept that a U.S. Open winner’s final score should be somewhere close to par in order to be legitimate, you do have to wonder whether the 15-under score registered by Reed at Augusta National was somehow illegitimate, or evidence of a competition that was too easy. Canada’s best golfers took a particularly nasty beating at Shinnecock, with all three missing the cut. MacKenzie Hughes was 11- over, while Adam Hadwin and NHL referee Garrett Rank were both 18-over in their two rounds.
At Shinnecock, the idea seemed to be to undermine the best golfers on the planet, rather than offer a rigorous test of their skills. It seems ridiculous that an approach shot could land 10 feet from the pin, then roll backward off a false front and 50 yards back down the fairway, but that type of thing was happening with regularity.
It created some drama by Sunday, with a four-way tie for the lead to start the day after world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, the leader after two rounds, shot a soul-crushing 77 Saturday. Englishman Tommy Fleetwood shot a final day 63 to go into the clubhouse two over par, still hoping the rest of the field would come back to him, and it almost did.
In the end, Johnson couldn’t regain his nerve or make a putt, while Koepka scrambled his way out of a few jams on the back nine to avoid blowing up and allowing Fleetwood to back into the U.S. Open title.
Did it produce great golf? Depends how you define great golf. On the final hole, Koepka bounced his second shot off the grandstand, then after a chip and two putts, finished with a bogey. That’s not great golf, but it was winning golf. Survival golf, really.
The U.S. Open is certainly unique, which is a good thing. Don’t need to watch that every week.