Not so much, as it turns out... But it's a Monday tradition here at Unplayable Lies. Just a couple of items from the weekend's play, and then we'll be looking forward....
All the Way from Memphis - I know there are guys that like playing with a pencil in their pocket the week before a major, but it's hard for me to see Memphis helping a guy prepare for Erin Hills.... For a high school commencement, sure.....
I did actually turn it on when I got home late yesterday, but this guy was already in the clubhouse:
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Daniel Berger shot a 4-under 66 to erase a three-shot deficit and win the St. Jude Classic for a second straight year.
The 24-year-old is the fourth back-to-back winner at St. Jude and the first since David Toms did it in 2003 and ’04.
Berger played a bogey-free round on Sunday, avoiding trouble on a fast, firm course at TPC Southwind. His 17-foot birdie putt on No. 15 put him ahead for good and he finished at 10-under 270. Now he’ll take quite a bit of momentum into next week’s U.S. Open.
Under that theory he must have taken quite a bit of momentum into Oakmont, where he finished T37.
It's a dead zone on the schedule, so there's nothing requiring us to pay attention. But it's telling that the most interesting thing to happen on the golf course all week involved a divot.... To be fair, that's not the optimal camera angle, but I'm reliably informed that it was his index finger that was extended....
This Story is a Week Old - The joke, of course, being that Ariya was supposed to have vaulted to the top of the world rankings last week, except when they ran the numbers she was fractions of a point behind Lydia:
Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand won the Manulife LPGA Classic on Sunday with a birdieon the first playoff hole to beat American Lexi Thompson and South Korea's In Gee Chun.Jutanugarn's drive found the long grass on the side of the par-4 No. 18, but she recovered with an approach shot that left her pin-high. She calmly made a 25-footer for the victory.
Jutanugarn finished with a 3-under 69 in the final round and was tied with Thompson (72) and Chun (70) at 17-under 271.
I know, but at least the girls will have lots of media covering their U.S. Open.... OK, not covering the golf so much, but beggars and all....
Erin Go Ahhhh - It's U.S. Open week, folks, so the Tour Confidential panel didn't waste any time looking into the rear-view mirror. They open strong, with a pair of mirror-image questions about the venue:
1. We're all U.S. Open this week as the game's national championship heads to the state of Wisconsin for the first time. Erin Hills, a relatively new public track ($280 green fee!) is the host. What excites you most about Erin Hills
Alan Shipnuck: That Dustin Johnson hasn't slipped on any stairs. (Yet.) Can't wait to watch him tangle with this brute.
That's not scheduled until Wednesday, Alan. But aren't you just a teensy bit worried about that MC at jack's place? But this is the most substantive take:
John Wood: I'm anxious to see if different types of golfers can compete on this track. After spending the last two days walking around Erin Hills, there is no question it’sbeautiful, it's interesting, and it's in absolutely wonderful shape. To me a great golf course can be attacked by highly skilled players of all types. I think it'll be a fantastic test, it’s just so different than what most have always held in their heads as what a U.S. Open is. Tight fairways, heavy rough, etc. These have to be the widest fairways to have ever hosted a U.S. Open, and around the greens, at first glance, it doesn’t seem very penal. So that leaves the defense as wind, length, and green speed. I hope at the end of the week, we can say that at Erin Hills, the Steve Strickers of the world can compete with the Dustin Johnsons.
Just a reminder that Mr. Wood is employed by Matt Kuchar, who on a scale of Steve Stricker to Dustin Johnson is very much closer to the local boy.
But let's also remember that the ability to accurately wield one's driver is an important test of skill, in our game, and the player that can do so should enjoy an advantage.
And the yang?
2. USGA executive director Mike Davis is ever the optimist, but even he has reservations about Erin Hills. "We're going in with a lot of unknowns," Davis said recently. What concerns you most about the course?
Berhow: My primary concern is a small child eluding their parents and getting lost in the fescue, because it's really that long in places, but no, I'm not concerned about much. Players will have their issues, because a few are bound to find something that irks them, but, as Jack used to say, when a player complained it just meant that was one less person he had to beat.
That very much depends upon which small child, no?
But, and I've heard this from a number of guys that have played the place, it'll resemble nothing so much as the Bataan Death March:
Bamberger: Well, this course basically was built to host a U.S. Open. The HUGE nature of it, in width and length, is on a scale that is of no value to everyday, $50 green-fee golf. But for this one purpose, it should be grand. The rounds will be ABSURDLY slow. I’m guessing six hours by Friday afternoon.
Wood: For those with a serious chance to contend, those that are playing very well, the fescue won't pose a problem. The fairways are very generous, and if a professional golfer in a U.S. Open is swinging well, he just won’t visit the fescue much. My main concern is with Michael. If the wind gets up to say, 20 mph, out of the west or southwest, which is prevailing and expected, I think the rounds could be absurdly long. If the green speeds get up to 13, 14 on the stimpmeter and we get wind, I’m not sure we can play golf with a 20-mph wind here with those green speeds. But yes, the rounds, especially the first two days, will be very very slow.
So let's tag along with the guys as they move to other issues:
3. Adam Scott pleaded for a kinder, gentler course setup. Will the blue blazers oblige?
Is that what he was saying? Because I'm still not sure....
Shipnuck: Four par-5s and wider than usual fairways should lead to lower scoring. Unless the USGA does something over the top. They wouldn't do that. Right?Wood: I definitely think it is an easier setup in terms of fairway width and lack of penal rough around the greens. It all depends on how fast the greens get, how much the wind blows, and how firm they let the golf course get. I think the USGA will get it right this time, and the story come next Monday will be about the golf course and the winner, nothing else.
Let's please bear in mind that neither of the last two fiascoes were set-up issues as that term is understood. yes, the greens at Oakmont were unconscionably fast, but that's Oakmont's DNA.... they actually played OK, the DJ issue just showed an organization unable to deal with their rule book and the implementation thereof.
But it's helpful in this case to think of Erin Hills as an inland links. Mike Davis is smart enough to know that if the forecasted rain comes and the wind is down, the guys are gonna go low....
Good, atmospheric pieces on Erin Hills can be found first from Mike Bamberger:
Jim Furyk stood on the 18th tee, about 650 yards, downhill and then uphill, from where
The photogenic Par-3 ninth. he was putting his peg."I've played some good 600-yard par-5s," he said. "I've never played a great one." This one looks great. Whether or not it will play great, time will tell. For many players, it will be plain stuff: driver, hybrid, wedge, a putt or two or three. But for a Dustin Johnson, a Jon Rahm, a Rory McIlroy, a Jason Day, the hole can be reached in two. That doesn't mean they should try. There's a crazy swale to the left of the green leaving the most awkward sort of pitch or chip up the hill.The course will reward length, for sure, and it will encourage players to hit a lot of drivers. "All courses reward length," Harman said. "But this one especially." That's because the fairways are wide—40 yards often and sometimes much more than that. They don't pinch in at the 300-yard mark. They don't particularly bend. You can hit driver, take a whack and breathe.
That's quite amusing from the guy that was so discombobulated when they moved the tee up on Olympic's 16th hole.... But he's not bitter.... This could be fun:
Mark Loomis, the producer of the Fox telecast, said the ball-in-the-air will be one of the pleasures of the telecast. Downwind, from the elevated tees? There will be Dustin Johnson drives that are in the air for five seconds or more. There will be Zach Johnson drives that are in the air for five seconds or more. And there will be ball searches in the long fescue rough that will go right to the five-minute limit. Enjoy the time while you can, fellas. When the new rulebook comes out in 2019, that limit will most likely be three.
I call downhill, elevated tee shots golf porn because... well, you know why.
And from Travelin' Joe:
Erin Hills is an improbable monument to minimalism. Carved into wildly heaving Wisconsin farmland, the course is spread across a gargantuan 652 acres, three times the size of a typical 18-hole canvas. Founder Bob Lang and his three handpicked architects—Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten—initially intended Erin Hills to be the nation's greatest $50 public course. To keep costs down, little earth was moved in creating its holes. The routing is draped atop the southern end of Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine, where, with the coaxing of Lang and company, undulating vestiges of eons-ago glacier activity yielded chaotically rumpled fairways and dramatically contoured greens complexes. Minimalist, yes—but with a maximally thrilling variety of holes, lies and stances.
Nobody that's walked it will agree that it's minimalist, though originally very little earth was moved. But there was there was a phase in it's development where Bob Lang ignored his architects and added more than 100 bunkers.... Even the definitions get tough:
Ridges, dunes, tawny fescue grasses, penal bunkers and 20 mph gusts lend an Irish links feel to Erin Hills, especially with almost no trees and with fairways that run firm and
The raised green at the 370-yard 15th. fast. Of course, no Emerald Isle track plays to 7,693 yards. As with four-time U.S. Open venue Shinnecock Hills, Erin Hills looks and plays like a links without being a links.
So what is it? The architects call it a "heartland" course. It's an upper-Midwest, prairie-style layout with traits of both seaside links and parkland tracks. "We want to make that distinction," Hurdzan says. "It's not a links course."
It probably most resembles a heathland course, think of the Melbourne sand belt or Walton Heath and Sunningdale outside London. the key is the sandy substrate, which allows for firm conditions in the absence of rain. I'll let one of the architects have the last say:
Hurdzan sums up the vexing virtues of the full 18. "There's no O.B., no water, no true forced carries," he says. "The three elements that provide the challenge are, one, understanding what the slope of the land is going to do to your ball; two, coping with the most penal bunkers many of the pros will have ever seen; and three, dealing with the wind, which can and will change everything."
Sounds like a tough test. Sounds like a U.S. Open.
Errr....not the type of tough test we're used to at a U.S. Open, and if the wind is down it won't look like a U.S. Open leaderboard. Way too much red for that....
Shack takes a crack at the venue as well, both in written form:
I’ve heard much consternation about these non-traditional U.S. Open venues and the awarding of this championship to such relatively untested layouts for a variety of reasons. They all have some merit but also ignore the need to work in new venues too. Whether it’s their lack of history, architectural scale or minimalist brand name cache, the concern is understandable. But as we know, so many venues that once hosted U.S. Open's can no longer do so because today's players are linebackers, tri-athletes and overall mega-jocks armed with equipment that the USGA and R&A say hasn't done a thing for them over the last decade!
I digress.
There is also the legitimate concern that within the Grand Slam scheme of things, an Erin Hills or Chambers Bay skews things toward the creative links-lover and away from the U.S. Open’s test as one of supreme patience and precision.
I've made that last point as well in 2015, that it's a bit odd to play the U.S. national open on such an atypical U.S. golf course.... But it's also interesting that those venues that can no longer host an Open, Oak Hill, Southern Hills and the like, seem able to host a PGA.
And in video form as well:
Pebble Beach a links but not a links? There is nothing remotely linksy about Pebble, except for it's seaside location.
Had enough on Phil yet? As always, Phil has a plan:
After his round on Sunday, CBS Sports' Amanda Balionis asked Mickelson what needsto happen for him to make his tee time on Thursday, which is 3:20 p.m. EST.
"I need a four-hour delay," Mickelson said. "I need a minimum four-hour delay most likely. That's the way I kind of mapped it out. I should get into the air right around my tee time or just prior, it's about a three-hour-and-twenty-minute flight, and by the time I get to the course I would need a four-hour delay. Last night there was a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms on Thursday; right now it's 20 percent. Who knows. … It's not looking good, but it's totally fine."Mickelson, who hasn't seen or played Erin Hills, added that he plans to keep his game sharp the next few days just in case.
That's where the venue hurts his cause, built as it is on sand. He needs water to pool on greens and in bunkers for a long enough delay, so it's likely that his plane never gets airborne.
This from the TC panel was a silly ask:
4. Six-time Open runner-up Phil Mickelson, who briefly had a share of the lead at FedEx St. Jude Classic before finishing ninth, has a Thursday afternoon tee time but has announced that he plans to attend his daughter's graduation. Will Phil, who needs an Open title to complete the career grand slam, have a last-minute change of heart?
Not after saying it out loud....
This is the cutest story of the day:
ERIN, Wis. - Davis Love III is making his 24th appearance in the U.S. Open, with one big difference.
He'll only have clubs in his hand to clean them, not hit any shots. And for the first time, he'll be wearing shorts at a major championship.
Role reversal... Love is caddieing for his son.
Davis Love IV, who just finished at Alabama and turned pro, qualified for his first U.S. Open as an alternate from the Georgia sectional qualifier.
''I'm excited for him,'' Love said Sunday afternoon as he watched from some 300 yards away as his son, who goes by ''Dru,'' teed off during a practice round with Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk. ''I've played with a bunch of 19- and 20-year-olds. But it makes me feel old that he's playing.''
Dru Love won't officially be in the U.S. Open field until the world ranking is published. The USGA held back six spots for anyone who moved into the top 60 in the world ranking after this week. Chris Wood of England finished right at No. 60, meaning the other five spots are distributed to alternates. The Georgia section, where Love was first alternate, was No. 5 on the list.
The son will have plenty of experience on the bag.
Not winning experience, of course.... Am I the only one old enough to remember Dad's God-awful 3-jack at Oakland Hills? But why be uncharitable, as it would be a special Father's Day should they have a Sunday tee time.
Lastly, lots of discussion of the long fescue at Erin Hills, including this from Kevin Na:
Fescue is an often misused term, which Americans tend to call any long grass. The geek in me wonder is it is actually a strain of fescue. The good news is that it's far easier to get a club through fescue than Maram... But, of course, first you have to find it.
OK, I lied.... The money bit from the TC panel, as they're asked for their win-place-show bets:
Shipnuck: Dustin four under, Day two under, Kuchar one under.
Ritter: Spieth wins at eight under. Fowler and DJ two back.
Sens: Rose five under, Spieth four under, Rahm even.
Berhow: Dustin Johnson wins at five under, Justin Rose is the runner-up for the second straight major and Mr. Lee Westwood is third.
Bamberger: Jon Rahm, Pat Perez, Paul Casey.
I've ignored Travelin' Joe, because he wrote a friggin' book.... Yanno, you just don't expect Pat Perez' name to come up in a U.S. Open....
I want to see a better weather forecast for the week before I give you my ill-considered thoughts, but you'd have to have the better drivers of the ball in the mix, no?
As an aside, Rickie was their overwhelming candidate for sentimental winner, though nobody specifically cited this suck-up to the home town crowd.
We'll Always Have Paris - Big news for our game from the IOC:
In another decision regarding the Olympic programme, the Executive Board approved the overall composition of the sports programme for the Olympic Games 2024 to include all 28 sports on the programme of the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
2024 comes down to Paris v. Los Angeles, but the loser seems likely to get 2028 as a consolation prize. Shack with this on venues:
The race is between Paris and Los Angeles, with Paris the frontrunner for 2024. Le Golf National will host in France while Riviera Country Club is scheduled to host the golf in Los Angeles.
We'll get a look at the former at next year's Ryder Cup. The bigger issue to me is how to increase the size of the field, which at it's current sixty player limit, with no more than thirty of those being worthy. is not a genuine test for 72 holes and makes it difficult to come up with a viable team concept.
Tory, Tory, Tory - Politics is risky business these days, but British politics is safe I think. Theresa May called a snap election because it was "in the bag", but then campaigned like wanted to spend more time with her family.... This tweet from the grand old man of golf tickled my funny bone:
Heh. Do we think the kids will understand either of those references?
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