Your Sunday U.S. Open Primer

You're lucky readers, as the Biblical rains have provided the opportunity for some rare Sunday morning blogging...  

Saturday is Moving Compression Day - Everything regresses to the mean, and the mean at a mean U.S. Open tends to be even par.  So, would you take 280 right now?  OK, I'm ahead of myself...for those in a bubble, here's where things stand:

Cinderella had a g’day at the 115th United States Open on a sunny Saturday afternoon. 

Australia’s Jason Day gamely overcame vertigo symptoms that felled him on the final green Friday and forced him to back off several shots Saturday while doggedly playing his way back into contention. He birdied three of the final four holes despite feeling nauseous and shot a two-under-par 68, the day’s lowest score next to Louis Oosthuizen’s 66.

The 68 left Day at 4-under par for 54 holes and in a four-way tie for first with long-hitter Dustin Johnson, South African Branden Grace and Masters champion Jordan Spieth. Cameron Smith, Oosthuizen, Shane Lowry and J.B. Holmes were tied for fifth at one under par.

Now, caveat emptor, I've been wrong about everything this week.  It started with my pick of Rickie "Don't Lose that Number" Fowler to win the damn thing, whereupon he proceeded to get his butt whipped the artist formerly known as Tiger Woods.  Then  at lunch yesterday I suggested that the winner would come from Saturday's final group.  And while that's still technically possible, it clearly didn't anticipate the Patrick Reed implosion.  Lastly, seeing DJ push a short putt, I threw out the trite "Stick a fork in him"...  

So, I'll have to nail a few just to get back within sight of the Mendoza Line...  But that said, with four guys three shots clear of the chase pack (and three guys with a fair amount of talent), you have to think that the winner comes from the last two groups.

And to take a quick dive into the history books, the last time there was a four-way tie after 54 holes at the U.S. Open was 1973 at Oakmont, won by some blonde guy that shot 63 on Sunday.  

All credit to Louis Oosthuizen for his comeback from that disastrous Thursday grouping.  King Louis was 9-over after 20 holes, and has played the next 34 holes in 10-under.  That's a wow, but the hole he dug was likely just a bit too deep.

Vertigo - The Sequel:  Dave Kindred thinks Jason Day is the man of the hour:

This has been a silent U.S. Open. No more. Now this is Jason Day’s Open. For three days, with galleries spread thin over Chambers Bay’s massive layout, the world’s best golfers have worked in library quiet. Not now. Not after Jason Day made a 6-foot putt at the 18th Saturday.

From the thousands in the bleachers, there came a waterfall’s roar, thunderous and rolling and promising to never end. Those fans knew what they had seen. They had seen a wonder. Jason Day may win this Open tomorrow.

He may at that, though none of us can know how bad it is...but there's a reason for the old adage, beware the injured golfer.  But the four birdies coming home was sure sweet and made for great drama.  Here's hoping he feels strong today, and the outcome is decided by anything but Vertigo...

Redemption Song - This Shane Ryan item requires a metaphor alert:

Late in Saturday's round, with a helping breeze blowing along the Puget Sound on the 394-yard 16th hole, Dustin Johnson pulled out his driver. He sauntered to the ball with a lazy swagger, sliced the air with a practice swing, and launched a missile toward the green. "Boom!" shouted four or five voices in unison -- another brilliant plan executed to perfection -- and nearby an impressed girl lost herself in hysterical laughter.

DJ's vast physical gifts have been well-chronicled, we're just all left with the sense that he should be getting more therefrom... But I did like this graph on the late day pressers:

The post-round interviews presented a series of personality contrasts that bordered on

absurd. Patrick Reed came first, seething after his 76, speaking like a boy whose mother was forcing him to apologize, against his will, to a kid he bullied at school. Spieth was last, and the more he appears, the more he blossoms into a personality that is effusive, biting, humorous, cynical, earnest, intelligent, and veering between stoic and manic. Between them, DJ held court with his unbroken monotone. Believe me when I tell you that none of his quotes are worth repeating, except for the time he said he was "excited" for Sunday -- a word that was funny only because of its aggressively dull intonation.

Amusingly, as I try to get my thoughts together I'm listening to David Duval opine that if DJ can hit twelve fairways today there's no scenario under which he doesn't win...  I've got a few scenarios for you, David, including missed tee times, grounded clubs in bunkers and the like...

Now you might appropriately retort that Dustin is now sober and has settled into a new life as a family man, which I can only hope is as it appears.  Now it's time to see what the man can do with his God-given talent, must-see TV in my world.

The Jordan Rules -  It may be a unique U.S. Open venue, but my take is that Jordan Spieth's third round was a throwback kind of round, the type that can win you a U.S. Open.  He didn't do anything well, got a few breaks early in the day but what looked to this viewer like a 75 was posted as a 71.  

Everyone must be bored by Jordan, because all they can talk about are his rather eccentric plans for how to play No. 18 tonight (the assumption being that it will be a four-par):

Originally designed as a par 5 with a hillocky green meant for a short iron, the finisher was shortened to a two-shotter on Friday and players struggled to a 4.329 scoring average. All signs point to the USGA wanting to play the finishing hole as a par 4 Sunday despite misgivings by those who can't make the 300-yard carry over fairway bunkers that pinch the landing zone to an effective width of six yards.

The adjoining first hole will revert to par-5 status in the final round and Spieth said following his third round 71 that the opening hole may also offer up an alternative avenue to the last green.

Here's the visual:

This has Rich Lerner exhuming the name Ed Furgol from the history books (ring any bells?  not you, Mark, you have a home-field advantage), but that was reaction to a bad tee shot, not an alternative route off the tee.

I don't like the looks of the second shot on that alternative routing, and the implications if you miss your line with the tee shots are a tad scary...  Jordan hopes to play the hole with a 6-iron off the tee, but that will require some good stuff on the first 17.

Amazing Grace - I don't have much to say about the South African, except to note that you underestimate him at your peril.  He's won six times on the Euro Tour, including a bravura performance at the Dunhill Links.  

A Little Cheese With That Whine? - Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, you can set your watch by our Sergio and the injustices he's forced to endure

"Why do they do this to the course?" Garcia told USA TODAY Sports after shooting 70-75-70, adding that only the British Open carries more weight in his soul. "This is a great championship with great history. The U.S. Open deserves so much better than this. It hurts to see what they have done to the course. These greens, come on, let's be honest, you can't say they are good. It's just not right."

I suppose we should be grateful that he didn't leave a loogey in the cup as he's done in the past, but if he does I can only hope that Fox captures it with ProTracer.

Sergio had a further comment that I can't find on Google, comparing it to playing the Super Bowl (or something) in a mud-field....You can only shake your head and ask if Sergio is aware that it's an outdoor game played over hundreds of acres... maybe he's be more comfortable on a simulator?

But a raging dispute has arisen....which needs resolution.  First Henrik Stenson offered his professional analysis of the greens:

Henrik Stenson provided one of the more memorable sound bites of this U.S. Open on Friday by likening the greens at Chambers Bay to "putting on broccoli." 

And then just to prove he was serious -- or because broccoli is an excellent source of Vitamin K -- he decided to have some broccoli for lunch before his third round.

Employee No. 2 calls broccoli "Nature's whisk broom, so that has to be a good thing...  But hark, a dispute arises within the cohesive Euro golf world:

The heavily criticized putting surfaces, likened by Henrik Stenson to broccoli Friday, turned almost completely brown but noticeably less bumpy Saturday. 

McIlroy said the vegetable metaphor needed refinement. 

“More like cauliflower.” 

We'll see what sort of veggie analogy surfaces on Sunday.

C'mon, guys, which is it?  Michael Bamberger, who granted doesn't have to play the damn thing, has a more measured take:

But the course is the major character here, at least so far, and what is becoming painfully

obvious in these opening days is that the Chambers Bay Golf Course, site of this 115th U.S. Open, is not a golf course, not in the traditional sense of the phrase, and that this U.S. Open is not a sporting event, again, not in the traditional sense of the phrase. A fan cannot really watch and follow and get inside the action. She or he can have a good time, a great time. (I am, by the way.) But there’s no logical basis for this beautiful, gorgeous course. A golf course should be a downstream river, with a lot of interesting turns along the way. This ain’t that. 

I was overwhelmed by the brown beauty of the course when I first saw it in person. I was floored by the elevation changes, the wall-to-wall carpet of fescue, the shimmering sea beyond. The train tracks!

OK, you know there's a but coming....

But at Chambers Bay, it is impossible for a single fan to follow a single golfer through his 18-hole round and watch him endure his trials and tribulations. The course, built with a U.S. Open in mind, is the most fan-unfriendly course I have ever seen.

As for the course, it makes no physical sense. It is so complicated, as an engineering riddle, as a walk, as a living play field that must be maintained. I apologize in advance for the italics but I must: every good golf course in the world has this as a starting point: you play the hole, stumble off the green, play the next. You can see the shepherd’s path! And if not, the architect. The Old Course in St. Andrews. Colonial in Fort Worth. National Golf Links in Southampton, N.Y. Bethlehem Municipal in Bethlehem, Pa. This Chambers Bay course is a 10-mile hike, start to finish. I like hiking. But not while wearing Foot-Joys. The bunkers are so much work. If had to go to a Chambers Bay bunker to buy you a half-gallon of milk, baby would do without.

OK, it's a tad unfair to compare the The Old Course, created hundreds of years ago through the combined efforts of the Almighty and a bunch of sheep with a purpose-built course for a 21st century U.S. Open.   Bu we get Mike's point....

And don't miss this epic rant by Gary Player on Morning Drive.  And do remember, the question from Damon Hack was, "How are you?"  Funniest line, "The course must have been designed by a man with one leg shorter than the other."  

A couple of dissenting voices can be found, such as Ewan Murray from the Guradian:

Diego Maradona and Pelé weren’t prevented from being the finest football players in the world by the occasional poor pitch. If two golfers hit perfect drives, which have the misfortune to land in divots, the superior player will recover the better. The game need not always be an exact and perfect science; it would be more boring that way. On the PGA Tour, it commonly is.

The leading lights are regularly afforded pristine conditions, which heightens their objection to anything short of that standard. There is a legitimate argument that the best performers will prevail despite the obstacles placed in front of them. There is an undeniable one that wasting energy with complaint after complaint is counterproductive.

Take that, Sergio....and this guy, whose opinion actually deserves attention, likes it:

“Architecturally I think it’s really good,” Ogilvy said. “I’m not a big fan of massive elevation change, and I think it could have been avoided a couple of times, but obviously, they want the ‘wow’ factor of the view. Like the ninth hole [a par 3]. That’s why you build that tee up there is for the ‘wow factor.’ It’s architecturally very sound, which I wasn’t expecting actually. I really like it.”

John Paul Newport raises an interesting philosophical question in his weekly column:

No, the USGA has not lost its senses. Everything about bringing the 115th U.S. Open to Chambers Bay, an eight-year-old course in a part of the country that has never hosted an Open, was deeply considered. Still, this year’s Open is an experiment that begs a question: How far can a major stray from its traditions before it risks losing stature? 

Golf’s majors are odd institutions, in that no official body designates them as such. Their prestige accrues only over time and by general consensus. The U.S. Open, in addition to being the national championship of the country with the world’s biggest golf population, is respected as the game’s toughest challenge. Anything that threatens that history and reputation is serious business, which is why the untraditional choice of Chambers Bay has been so controversial.

I'd add to that the fact that it's a links in a country with no tradition of links...and it's our national Open.  But it is visually stunning:

You may or may not like Chambers Bay, and I find myself with decidedly mixed feelings about it.  But in allowing the technological changes that we've seen, plus the growth in the event and it's logistical requirements, we've created a dilemma as to where it can be held.  In the last three years we've seen two grand experiments (Merion and Chambers Bay), neither of which have played out as contemplated.

My recommendation is that we for now enjoy the golf, and return to the metaphysical questions at a later time.