LONG AND SHORT, KOEPKA RULED
Open victory wasn’t all about power on long Erin Hills course
ERIN, WIS. Brooks Koepka was crowned the 2017 U.S. Open champion Sunday at Erin Hills, a first-time course on the Open rota.
The winning score? That would be 16 under. Here are eight things we learned from an Open at a new venue with scores that were unusual for the year’s second major:
1. Erin Hills did favor a bomber after all. Koepka had a revelation after the third round that he did not hit less than a 7-iron into a par 4, and his 318.1-yard driving distance average helped him overpower Erin Hills. That sells other parts of Koepka’s performance short, however. He was the first player in history to hit more than 80% of the fairways and 80% of the greens in a ballstriking dismantling for the ages. “It was kind of bombs away,” Koepka said. “The fairways were generous enough you could miss it and still get away with it.”
2. The U.S. Golf Association listens. When Dustin Johnson’s ball moved last year at Oakmont, there was a sense that Stimpmeter speeds in the 14 range played a major role and also bogged down play. Fast-forward a year, and the pure Erin Hills A4 bents prepared by Zach Reineking ’s crew were the smoothest that most U.S. Open veterans could remember. But they were kept at a manageable pace. The greens maintained just enough speed to be interesting after rains but never became a story. Furthermore, predicted issues with pace of play never materialized.
3. Erin Hills could have been played from the tips. It turns out the maximum 8,348 yardage wouldn’t have been too silly. The field averaged 302.2 yards off the tee, and Cameron Champ led with a whopping 334.4 average. Through the first two rounds, 116 players averaged more than 300 yards off the tee. Fourteen players averaged more than 315 yards for the week, proving that when given the opportunity to hit a lot of drivers for most of the round, today’s players can hit the ball unfathomable distances.
4. The Harmons are really good instructors. That was Claude Harmon III, the son of instructor Butch, getting a bearhug from pupil Koepka just off the 18th green. What a special Father’s Day for dad to have student Rickie Fowler in contention while his son worked in the next range stall over with the eventual winner.
5. Erin Hills works better than Whistling Straits as a major venue. The Hurdzan-Fry-Whitten design features more standout holes. The players barely complained about anything, and the property is closer to Milwaukee and Chicago. The Wisconsin fans were troupers, too. They embraced the massively scaled property even if it took awhile to get here and it was tough to walk. It’s too bad the 2020 Ryder Cup will be played 80 minutes north.
6. Amateurs had a nice showing, as 14 qualified and two made the cut. Low amateur Scottie Schef- fler (69-74-71-73-287, T-27) and Champ (70-69-73-76-288, T-32) have undoubtedly vaulted onto the Walker Cup watch list.
7. We got to know Tommy Fleetwood just at the right time. After plummeting to 188th in the world last year, the 26-year-old Englishman won the Abu Dhabi HSBC in January and is on everyone’s radar heading into the British Open. He finished fourth at the U.S. Open, and Royal Birkdale — which hosts the British Open beginning July 20 — is just up the street from his childhood home.
8. The USGA needs to have more significant events before awarding tournaments to modern venues. It will be at least a decade before they visit an untested and newish design, so this point might be moot. Even though Chambers Bay and Erin Hills hosted U.S. Amateurs, match play golf just isn’t enough to survey a course. The Erin Hills setup erred on the conservative side out of concern for wind and firm conditions accentuating its many big design features. While the sadists didn’t get their annual fill of wrecks, the USGA needed a week where it was about the players, even if it meant producing a record-tying winning score. The setup was not perfect, but hindsight suggests Mike Davis and Jeff Hall would have done a few things differently with another tournament here under their belts.