torture chambers
Hellish links- style course promises unique u. s. open / cannizzaro, willis:
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — The most important person at this U. S. Open will not hit a single shot. Not only is Mike Davis not in Thursday’s field, he is not even a professional golfer.
But the USGA’s executive director will have every player in the U. S. Open field on pins and needles before each round because he is the man who has final say on how the Chambers Bay golf course is set up.
It is Davis who will decide to make Chambers Bay long and impossible to play with pin placements so treacherous they will make grown men cry or make the course shorter with pins so accessible they will make players drool as they fire for birdies and eagles.
Davis holds the cards. Without making a single swing, he can decide whether this championship electrifies the huge crowds with a barrage of birdies and eagles, fascinates the fans who love to see the best players in the world struggle or bore them with a succession of pars and bogeys.
Davis is the czar of the U. S. Open. He is the X- factor. He is the mystery man behind the curtain with the autonomy to manipulate the competition in one of the sport’s four most important events.
You can make the argument that too much power given to an executive such as Davis can be a dangerous thing, a slippery slope, and fans want the players to decide who hoists the trophy at the end of the week, not a corporate suit.
After all, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell does not have the authority to narrow the width of the goalposts or to lengthen or shorten the field. Rob Manfred will not have the authority at the World Series to move the outfield fences in or out depending on whether he wants to see more or fewer home runs. Adam Silver did not manipulate the height of the basket or shut off the 24- second clock during The Finals between Warriors and Cavaliers.
Davis wields that kind of power to affect the big event, and despite the fact he has proven himself to be highly competent since he was elevated to this position in 2011, that is unsettling to many of the players.
“We don’t know — none of us, none of you guys [ reporters] in this room, none of the players — know what Mike is going to do on the setup,’’ ’’ Tiger Woods said. “It’s hard to predict that. [ It’s] going to be interesting to see the various options that Mike has, and what is he going to throwat us. He’s going to try to keep us, I’m sure, off balance.’’ The way Chambers Bay was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., it provides a litany of options on how to set the course up in terms of length, with various different tee complexes, and pin positions on the tricky greens. So this U. S. Open must resemble a tantalizing playground to Davis with all those options.
“Lots of flexibility to the setup this year,’’ Davis said Wednesday. “But I don’t think … I hope … we don’t overdo it. We want to make sure that it’s indeed a good test. One of the nice things about moving teeing grounds around, about mixing and matching with certain hole locations, with certain wind conditions, is that it ultimately does test the players’ course management.
“There may be one or two things that they encounter that they didn’t anticipate and that is part of the test. We want to see how they think on their feet, how their caddie thinks on their feet.’’
Woods, who sounded as if Davis is inside the players’ heads, said: “It’s going to be interesting to see what Mike does. I’m kind of happy that I’m playing actually in the afternoon the first day to get a chance to watch what some of the guys do in the morning to get a feel for it and see what’s going on.’’
Jason Day expressed confidence in how Davis will handle Chambers Bay.
“I think Mike and the team at the USGA are going to do a phenomenal job,’’ Day said. “They’re going to be able to set the course up to where it’s very challenging, but in away they’re going to try and find the best player that’s going to win around here. “It’s not their first rodeo.’’ Even though it might feel exactly like that to the players as they hang on for dear life over the course of the next four days.