Players lack trust in USGA to make U.S. Open course fair

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The stage is set for what should be the ideal U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, perhaps the most popular of all Open courses with its magnificent Pacific coastline and small greens, with its history of high drama and great champions.

The fairways are roughly the same width as always. The rough is lush and penal. The forecast is good.

“I don’t think I’ve seen the golf course in better condition,” said John Bodenhamer, the senior managing director of championships for the USGA.

What could possibly go wrong? Based on the recent run of U.S. Open mishaps, that question lingers for some of golf’s best players. And the USGA can only hope it has the answer.

“I think the U.S. Open in the past (was) one of the most respected majors as far as the test you’re going to face — fair, hard, a good test of golf,” Rickie Fowler said. “I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of guys who say it’s been a true test. Not all that stuff is coming together like it used to.”

Fowler, 30, has never passed the test at any major. But he is not a lone voice on this. Phil Mickelson is playing his 28th U.S. Open, with a record six runner-up finishes, and he’s praying for rain.

“One hundred percent of the time, they have messed it up if it doesn’t rain,” said Mickelson, who was so bitter about a pin position at Shinnecock Hills last year that he swatted a ball with his putter as it was rolling off the green.

“The rain is the governor — that’s the only governor they have. And if they don’t have a governor, they don’t know how to control themselves.”

Three-time U.S. Open champion Tiger Woods recognizes the issue with the USGA’S setup.

“The Open has changed,” Woods said. “I thought it was just narrow fairways — hit it in the fairway or hack out, move on. Now there’s chipping areas around the greens. There’s less rough, graduated rough. (They’ve tried) to make the Open strategically different.

“I like it when there’s high rough and narrow fairways: ‘Go get it, boys.’”

Some of the recent issues have been out of the USGA’S control, such as the lack of wind at Erin Hills in 2017 on an open course designed for it. The fescue grass on the greens at Chambers Bay in 2015 was all but dead when the tournament started, and putting was severely difficult by Sunday. Jordan Spieth won when Dustin Johnson three-putted for par from 12 feet on the last hole.

And then last year, an ideal course at Shinnecock Hills changed on Saturday with a few new pin placements, a blue sky and wind. The last 45 players to tee off couldn’t break par.

“Golf course setup is not easy,” former champion Jim Furyk said. “We’re human. … Nothing is free of being able to screw it up. As critical as we are as players, it would be difficult to be on the other side and set it up.”

There are a few changes from the last time the Open was held at Pebble Beach, in 2010. Bodenhamer said the fairways are slightly narrower, and there are few instances of graduated rough, especially on the shorter par 4s.

So this should be a typical U.S. Open, right?

“It’s not lost on us, all that’s been said and written,” Bodenhamer said. “It’s incumbent upon us to have a great U.S. Open — not just this year (but) the next several years.”