Monday, June 21, 2021

Weekend Wrap - Rahmbolicious Edition

I saw very little of the Open from Thursday through Saturday, but curtailed our family celebration of Fathers Day in order to pick up the final round with the last group on the fourth green.  Veddy interesting...

Rahmbo Resurgent - Quite the ball-striking clinic, though I'm not at all sure I get the reference to Beyonce's girl group:

Jon Rahm: Destiny's Child at the 121st U.S. Open

SAN DIEGO – Jon Rahm is a big believer in karma.

Fifteen days after he was informed that he had tested positive and had to withdraw from the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament despite holding a commanding six-stroke lead, the 26-year-old Spaniard sensed that the 121st U.S. Open at Torrey Pines belonged to him.

“It felt like such a fairy tale story that I knew it was going to have a happy ending. I could just tell, just going down the fairway after that first tee shot, that second shot, and that birdie, I knew there was something special in the air. I could just feel it. I just knew it,” he said. “It was like, man, this is my day; everything’s going to go right. I felt like that helped me become. I just knew that I could do it and believed it.”

One underappreciated challenge in these circumstances is managing the interminable period before weekend tee times.  The leaders go late, and there's just way too much time to fill without those dark thoughts creeping in.  You'd be excused if you thought he might spend the time with his infant son, but the reality was quite different:

Rahm woke up to crows on a cool overcast Father’s Day morning, his first time celebrating the occasion as a father, and poured himself a cup of coffee and pulled up a Call of Duty tournament from the night before featuring a team he follows, OpTic Chicago, and settled in to watch the 90-minute competition. Wife Kelley had noticed that he had been nervous the day before – which for Rahm means being quiet – but today she sensed a new-found calm on what would be a chaotic final round at the U.S. Open.

“I told my dad this is going to be really good or really bad,” Kelley said.

 These kids today.... But a first person shooting video game as relaxation therapy, who knew?

The Tour Confidential gang has some thoughts on the winner:

1. Jon Rahm won his first major in electric fashion, dropping hard-breaking birdie putts on the 71st and 72nd holes of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines to beat Louis Oosthuizen by one. Which part of Rahm’s game most powered him to this come-from-behind win?

The easy answer would be all of it... 

Zephyr Melton: His patience. Prior to his back-to-back birdie finish, Rahm made seven pars in a row to open the back nine. With Louis Oosthuizen opening a two-shot lead, Rahm could’ve pressed and made some sloppy bogeys. Instead, he waited until the time was right and pulled out some clutch putts down the stretch.

I think that's right.  As well as he was playing and was in control of his game, for most of the day he seemed a shot or two off where he needed to be, but never seemed to feel the need to force the issue. 

Josh Sens,: Rahm was a five-tool player today. Drove the ball beautifully. Spot-on irons. Unforgettably clutch putts. And some really deft chipping when it mattered (that up-and-down on the par-3 3rd kept his momentum going early). The capper was the patience Zephyr mentioned, which was maybe most evident on his second-to-last shot. Opting not to play aggressively on that bunker shot on 18 and choosing to trust his flat stick — that took a cool-minded maturity he hasn’t always shown.

I have a feeling that he was lucky to have no realistic play at the flag from that bunker.  And, having seen the demolition derby that broke out among the show ponies, better to post -5 and see if it might be good enough to get into a playoff, only to make the putt. 

Sean Zak: His ball-striking. Did he miss a shot Sunday? From the first wedge into 1, to the tight little nipped spinner into 2, to all the approaches to 20 feet on the back nine. The guy hit every shot well. Even the one on 18 that landed in the greenside bunker.

I didn't see the early round shots that Sean and Josh reference, but he had his ball on a string with his driver. 

Alan Bastable: Supreme ball-strking and shot-making are almost a given with this guy. What
really impressed me Sunday was his relative calm. Staying collected in the heat of battle has long been Rahm’s bugaboo, and while he showed some frustration after burning the edge on 14, he didn’t let it unravel him. Not much dropped for him through the first 54 holes and deep into the fourth round, but he stayed patient, because, he said, he knew the putts would come — and come they did, in the most critical moments of all.

Dylan Dethier: His putter. Without those two bombs on 17 and 18, we’re talking about King Louis, U.S. Open champion. Putt for dough and all that.

Those putts reminded me of Justin Rose's putter heater in the late stages of his match against Phil at the 2012 Ryder Cup... 

James Colgan: His maturity. In what world is the Jon Rahm of the past few years resisting the urge to do something crazy as he toils away with pars while trailing down the back nine? He’s grown a lot, and his performance Sunday showed it.

 And specifically on that finish:

2. Put Rahm’s last two holes in perspective. Where do they rank among the clutch finishes in recent major history?

Melton: It’s the best since … December, when A Lim Kim made three straight birdies at Champions Golf Club to close out a similarly impressive U.S. Women’s Open win.

So, it's right up there with a Women's Open that know one will remember won by a player no one has heard of?  I got nothing here, though I'd love to ask his employer what exactly qualifies him for his current position? 

Sens: It was up there. On the cool-under-pressure front, it’s hard to forget Dustin Johnson, playing under the cloud of a potential penalty at Oakmont. And closing it out with some ridiculously macho ball-striking.

Zak: It’s extremely up there. It had been some time since the men’s game saw a clutch, major-winning putt of any length on 18. And somehow that followed a better putt on 17. Considering Louis’ finish, too … they’re connected.

Bastable: I’m not ready to put it up against Tiger’s Torrey Open finish in 2008 — partly because of Tiger’s physical condition and partly because Tiger knew he had to make that putt — but, gosh, it sure felt similar, from the length of the putt to Rahm’s dropped jaw and fist-pump. Also, the difficulty of Rahm’s putts should not be understated. Big left-to-right swingers for a righty are always a big ask. Add the unpredictability of poa and, well, color me impressed.

Dethier: It’s funny, Rahm’s putts were long enough that it almost feels beyond the realm of simple skill that they went in. There’s some luck involved there too, right? I’m not sure if that makes them more or less clutch, but they were damn impressive either way. I was especially impressed with Rahm’s decision to take his medicine at 18 — a decision that obviously paid off.

Yeah, hence my analogizing it to Rose at Medinah, where the putts dropping seemingly had to be the work of a higher authority. 

Colgan: They’re on the short list of putts I’ve stood up from my couch and yelled because of. That seems like it’s worth something to me.

Almost as interesting as his play was his activity after he finished, though perhaps another Call of Duty session might have helped.  In his notes on NBC's coverage, Shack had this:

NBC’s camera team did yeoman’s work trailing the amped-up Rahm off the 18th green. The eventual winner practically ran around the clubhouse area looking for a place to watch the conclusion, before going in a USGA trailer, then turning around and heading to the range after described as in “non-stop motion” by Hicks.

This was a nice moment as well:

After the putt clanged into the hole and Rahm did some gyrations on the green he repaired to the driving range to keep loose in the event of a playoff. But Oosthuizen gave up the ghost on 17, hooking his drive into the hazard and making a bogey that left yet another glittering trophy just beyond his reach. Rahm won the U.S. Open standing on the range and he fell into a teary embrace with his wife Kelley and their young son Kepa. Beaming nearby was Phil Mickelson himself, who had returned to the course to be there for his friend, just as Rahm had waited on the fringe of the 18th green to congratulate Lefty last month when he won the PGA Championship.

“We’ve played a lot of golf together,” Mickelson said, “and supported each other and it’s a unique dynamic where we want the best for each other as opposed to always trying to beat each other down.”

The NBC crew seemed to go out of their way to avoid the cruel irony, though this account touches upon it:

Yes, as Jon Rahm closed in on his first win at the U.S. Open, the pro in closest proximity to him was perhaps the greatest golfer ever not to win a U.S. Open.

As Rahm grinded away on the range, Phil sat comfortably next to Jon’s wife, Kelley, who held the couple’s months-old son, Kepa, in her arms. Mickelson seemed sanguine — wearing a light, Alo hoodie, joggers, and a relaxed smile.

Interestingly, also not noted by the Peacock gang, was that he did more than just lend moral support:

Geez, you make the old guys do the heavy lifting?

This win was certainly only a matter of time, but the events at Memorial, as well as Rahm's love of Torrey, made him the logical choice this week.  But I like this bit from a competitor:

Rahm came to the 17th hole one stroke off the lead and left himself with a 25-footer for birdie. “I stayed patient all day,” he says. “I hadn't made many long putts all week.” But the moment had arrived, and he drained the big breaking putt, unleashing a lusty fist-pump to celebrate. Rahm’s approach shot on 18 will not go down in U.S. Open lore alongside Hogan’s 1-iron but the ensuing bunker shot to a short-sided hole location was pure class. “That showed some magical hands,” said Paul Casey, who plays a lot of golf with Rahm at Whisper Rock in Scottsdale. “The British lads, we sometimes joke about Spanish hands. He’s got them. Seve had them, Olazabal had them, but Rahm does too, this touch and feel that just can’t be taught. But unlike the others, he combines that with so much brute force in his long game. It’s quite a combination, innit?”

Spanish hands?  As I understand the current regulatory environment, that has to be racist, no?

Shall we spend some time on the losers also-rans?   The obvious issue is how to make sense of the career of Louis Oosthuizen:

U.S. Open: Louis Oosthuizen 'frustrated' and 'disappointed' after yet another runner-up finish

Louis Oosthuizen was the bridesmaid yet again.

The South African, who began the final round as one of three co-leaders, shot even-par 71 at Torrey Pines’ South Course to finish at 5-under 279, one stroke behind winner Jon Rahm at the 121st U.S. Open. It was his sixth runner-up in a major since winning the 2010 British Open nearly 11 years ago, and second straight having finished two strokes behind Phil Mickelson last month at the PGA Championship.

“Look, it’s frustrating. It’s disappointing. I’m playing good golf, but it’s not – winning a major is not just going to happen. You need to go out and play good golf,” he said. “I played good today, but I didn’t play good enough.”

Fair enough, but that choice of photos seems a tad harsh...

It so happens that this topic was a subject of conversation at dinner Saturday night, when a friend suggest, "Don't you have to love Louis and Paul Casey?".  I certainly like them well enough, especially Casey just because he's an amusing sort, but love them?  I find that hard because their careers seem defined by the inability to win.  It's admittedly a harsh, Darwinian assessment, but the fact is that they have a long history of poor play on Sundays, which makes hard to get excited when they pop up on leaderboards on Saturdays.

Louis himself had this to say about that one fateful swing:

Louis Oosthuizen says he’d do it all again. He’d take that bold line on 17, shorten the par-4 and
give himself an easy wedge and chance at a birdie, a birdie he needed to catch Jon Rahm on Sunday. A birdie (or par) on 17 that he never got.

Oosthuizen was the 54-hole co-leader of the 2021 U.S. Open, but after Rahm’s birdie-birdie finish he was tasked with making a birdie of his own coming in. After pars on Nos. 12-16, Oosthuizen stepped to the 434-yard par-5 17th one shot back. Lots of room right. Hardly any left. He went left.

Oosthuizen was forced to take a drop from the hazard, and even though he recovered well and hit the green to give himself a chance at a 4, he couldn’t get the 11-footer to fall and made bogey.

“I took the tee shot on at 17, and I knew it was a crucial hole for me to take it on and give myself a birdie opportunity,” he told reporters afterwards. “I didn’t pull it off, but standing on that tee again, I’ll probably do the same thing, taking a driver and taking the shot on.”

Louis, you ignorant slut....

Joking aside, that just seems to me to be completely misguided.  This gets at part of it:

It was a critical error, especially since the par-5 18th had played as the easiest hole on the course all week, meaning a par-birdie finish would have been good enough for a playoff.

That certainly true, but also look at how others played that tee shot on No. 17, blowing their tee balls way right into an area of burned out grass.  The point is you could make birdie on No. 17 from a lot of places, just not from the hazard on the left ( Rahm himself made birdie from a fairway bunker) .  You can make the case that Rahm won this as much with his head (think of his bunker shot on the finishing hole) as with his putter.

 Given that he tossed the thing away on the prior hole, this seems a rather silly take:

3. Oosthuizen had the lead for much of the late stages of the final round until Rahm’s closing birdies and Oosty’s 17th-hole bogey dropped Oosthuizen two back and needing an eagle on the reachable par-5 18th to force a playoff. After Oosthuizen’s drive found the left rough, he decided to lay up from 227 yards and take his chances on holing a short wedge shot. What did you make of his decision to lay up?

Melton: I don’t hate the decision to lay up considering the lie he had, but I think he pushed it a little too close to the green. I would’ve much rather seen Oosthuizen leave himself a full wedge so he could put a little more zip on the ball and bring it in from through the backdoor.

Sens: I’d have to defer to Mark Broadie on the percentages, but given that lie, and all that trouble lurking, laying up sure seemed like his best chance of making eagle.

Zak: The only reason you actually go for the green is if you can clear the water and STAY on the green, giving yourself a putt. That wasn’t happening from that lie. He made a fine decision for his game.

Bastable: [whispers] I actually thought the lie looked … decent? But, yes, who are we to question King Louis? Clearly he felt had a better chance to hole-out a wedge than whatever bunker shot or rough-choked chip he likely would have faced had he gone for it. From the stress-free comfort of my couch, though, I would have loved to see him give it a go.

Dethier: I’d have probably hacked something down the right side instead, leaving some sort of tricky flop shot that probably wouldn’t have gone in but might have had a better chance. I also probably would have hit it in the water and made 8. No real second-guessing from me.

Colgan: Hard to question the move, but frustrating for Louis (and for all of us) that we couldn’t have seen him give it a run at his own 72nd-hole magic and another playoff at Torrey.

Your humble blogger actually loves this but for reasons that aren't especially admirable, to wit, the comparisons to J.B. Holmes' epic lay-up from the Farmers in 2018.   Of course, I'm also surprised to not see Chip Beck's name being thrown around in the aftermath...

I just don't love Louis' decision here, though it's the kind of decision that's a little unfair to second guess.  I think the guys are silly to argue about the water and the trouble around the green, as that should have been the last thing on his mind in that moment.  But if you need a miracle, why hit the shot that has a zero probability of a miraculous outcome?  

But what to make of the chase pack?  The seemingly simultaneous implosion of the biggest names in golf is something I don't remember seeing since the 2002 Masters:

At U.S. Open, chaos reigned as stars imploded down the stretch

There was a moment on Sunday afternoon where the U.S. Open leaderboard went platinum. Sixty-something holes at Torrey Pines had sifted out the pretenders and left San Diego’s eager spectators with the who’s who of the golf world atop the leaderboard. At one point, 10 players were within a shot of the lead — and a fantastic back-nine shootout was sure to determine the champion.

But then mayhem broke out instead. The tournament went mental. Bad breaks and bad shots and long rough and a long week and a looming $2.25 million check combined for a cocktail of consternation. After three-and-a-half rounds of relatively uneventful golf, the fellas packed in a week’s worth of weirdness into the final couple hours. If you watch golf only for the birdies, this wasn’t your afternoon. But if you’re into pain and chaos, well, you’d found the right channel.


Where to begin?  Yeah, this might as agood a place as any:

Let’s begin with Rory McIlroy, whose day was going swimmingly through 10 holes. He’d missed a couple short birdie tries but had stayed patient and sat four under through 10 holes, one shot out of the lead. He even succeeded in finding the middle of the 11th green, a lengthy par-3 into the wind, before things took a turn.

McIlroy’s first putt seemed to bobble off the face and came to a stop some four feet short. His next putt missed left. Bogey. No worries, though: McIlroy had birdied No. 12 each of the first three days.

But it would not be four in a row. McIlroy found a fairway bunker, then a gnarly lie in a greenside bunker, then a nasty lie in the rough, from which point he hacked out to eight feet and missed the putt. His hopes of ending a seven-year major drought vanished in just one commercial break.

 I'm always loathe to pile on, but add this to the litany of tweets that didn't age well:

As I've been saying for years, Rory has been playing his worst golf when he wants it the most.  here the stars aligned reasonably well and he even solved his Thursday problems, but all squandered in the blink of an eye.

This guy was never going to win, but it's a worthy addition to the litany of worst breaks ever:

Want more? We’ve got more. Mackenzie Hughes began the day tied for the lead and was still very much in the mix as he played No. 11, a lengthy par-3 into the wind. In the mix, that is, until
he pull-hooked a 5-iron that landed — and stayed — in a tree some 40 yards left of the hole. Fans chanted “climb that tree!” A swarm of rules officials descended. Hughes did not climb the tree. He took a drop. He made double bogey. That was that.

“I mean, it’s like one-in-a-million break,” Hughes said after his round. “I’ve played golf my entire life, I’ve never had a ball stuck in a tree,” he said.

A really God-awful shot, but off-the-cart path-into-the-tree is still pretty harsh...

But while Meltdown of the Day was a very competitive category, the title without doubt goes to Bryson DeChambeau:

One slip, one shirtless fan, one ball next to a Stella Artois box, one hosel rocket, two bogeys, a
double bogey and a quadruple bogey later, he tied for 26th. It was just golf. But a lot of it. DeChambeau played his last eight holes at eight over. Before the 11th, he hadn’t made a bogey since the 12th hole on Friday. Then he made four bogeys or worse.

Some of it was bad luck. Some of it was bad play. But, DeChambeau said, “I didn’t get off the rails at all.”

“People will say I did this or did that, and it’s just golf,” he said afterward. “I’ve had plenty of times where I hit it way worse than today and I won. It’s just one of those things where I didn’t have the right breaks happen at the right time. I could have easily gotten to seven, eight under today. I just wasn’t fully confident with the golf swing and just got a little unlucky in the rough and a couple other places.”

 Totally.  With an Open there for the taking, you posted a tidy 44 on the back nine, but it's just golf.  

That link above includes a detailed, hole-by-hole accounting of the implosion, of which the 13th hole is a classic of the genre:

Hole 13, 616-yard par-5:

 To put it mildly — you can’t.

On his tee shot, DeChambeau’s right foot slips backward, and his ball heads to the left rough. “Lucky to make contact with the ball,” analyst Gary Koch says on the NBC broadcast.

He hacks out of the rough on his second shot. Before his third, a shirtless fan ducks under the ropes, dances in the fairway and stunningly hits a shot before being tackled by officials — then DeChambeau hits into a bunker.

From there, he hits his fourth shot over the green, it lands next to an empty Stella Artois beer box, he takes a drop and eventually finishes with a double-bogey seven. He’s now one under and four shots back.

“I slipped twice on 13. I mean, that was really weird,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t know what happened. But that’s the game. I’ve got to be better at not slipping because I’ve done it before but never to that extent. Two times in a row on the same hole, it was kind of weird.

“Put myself in a bad place, and then I hit it up — we had a bad line, and hit it in the right rough, and you just can’t be there and you’re dead. Ultimately then there was a streaker that came around, and I had no idea what happened with that. I’m just glad an officer clotheslined him. That was fun. Then took him down and got him out like he should be.

“Unfortunately, had bad break after bad break happen. I played two little shots next to the green, both weird lies, both trying to get cute with them and messed up on 13.”

Definitely not off the rails at all...  Only a hater would suggest that.  Let's not forget that No. 13 was a birdie opportunity for the players.

The TC panel had this on the collective meltdown, offering an embarrassment of targets:

4. Many players had a chance on Sunday, from Bryson DeChambeau to Brooks Koepka to Rory McIlroy to the three players who started the day tied for the lead: Oosthuizen, Russell Henley and Mackenzie Hughes. No doubt they’ll all be thinking what could have been, but which non-winner’s Sunday most surprised you?

Melton: I was shocked by Brooks’ finish. He played so well all day and then crumbled down the stretch. For someone who prides himself on flexing his muscle at the biggest moments, seeing him falter late was a surprise.

I know Brooks is supposed to be the big-game hunter with those four majors, and here's another header that didn't age well:

Stop doubting Brooks Koepka at major championships. Stop it.

After his rinsed tee ball at Augusta in 2019 and his second hole blow-up at Kiawah, doubting Brooks at majors seems to be a reasonable default position. 

Sens: Bryson. When he seized the lead heading toward the turn, I figured he’d be off to the races. It was almost like he got body-snatched, and the bizarro-universe Bryson took control.

Zak: There was nothing more surprising than Bryson’s 44 on the back nine.

Yeah, there was a shocking suddenness to it all, as if his pack with the devil lapsed as he walked off the 8th green.

Bastable: Bryson might beg to differ. As he said on Sunday evening, that’s golf! Can’t help but think that Rory won’t toss and turn a bit tonight. He was cruising along, within one of the lead at one point, and then it all went south. Bogey on 11. Double on 12. Another golden major opportunity gone. When I look at the ’board, though, the biggest surprises might be Harris English and Guido Migliozzi grabbing top-5s. Didn’t see that coming on Saturday night.

Speaking of default positions, Rory seems like he's auditioning to be the PGA Tour's version of Lexi Thompson. 

Dethier: Bryson. Having played D3 college golf, I’ve seen plenty of players go 33-44 for a smooth 77, but it’s much more rare to see it from someone leading the U.S. Open.

Colgan: Ah Dyl, what I wouldn’t give for a “smooth 77.” … My biggest surprise was Xander. Entered the final round within striking distance of his first major, at his home course, and … whimpered his way to an even-par 71? Something doesn’t add up. The baffling armlock decision looms large.

Franco Molinari hasn't been the same player since the 12th tee at Augusta in 2019, so perhaps the source of the X-man's troubles can be found on the 16th tee there as well.  Though I've been reliably informed that he flushed that shot....

One more bit from the TC gang, then a few thoughts on the venue:

6. For storylines, it’s tough to beat Rahm winning his first major on his first Father’s Day and just days after coming back from a Covid quarantine. But what other story from the week will stick with you?

Melton: Richard Bland! He might’ve faded on the weekend, but what a fun storyline that was to follow over the first couple of days.

Sens: Damn. Zephyr took the words from the tip of my keyboard. Bland was a heart-warmer, for sure. But I’ll also remember that weird glitch in the matrix late in the day on Sunday, when many of the world’s best players all imploded within a small window of each other. Rory’s double on 12. Both Morikawa and Bryson making double on the par-5 13th, to name just a few of the stumbles. That was very strange and compelling stuff.

Loved his 48 hours in the sun, though the regression to the mean was too harsh to watch. 

Zak: Matthew Wolff’s return! It was great seeing him back hitting golf shots, smiling all over, playing Wolff Golf. It’s exciting stuff, and it’s clear to see he’s in a better place now than he had been. A victory in its own right.

Bastable: Yeah, Sean nailed it. Seeing Wolff back in form was great fun, and listening to him was riveting. All week he spoke openly about the demons he’s been battling, including “managing the fear” of playing on a global stage. His honesty was as striking as it was refreshing. You can’t help but root hard for the guy.

Dethier: Guido Migliozzi! My man finished T4 with a fist-pumping Sunday 68 to shoot way the heck up the leaderboard. He probably had no idea when he finished, but he punched his ticket to the Masters in the process. Good week for Guido.

Colgan: Devastated that DD mentioned Guido — the man is an absolute fireball. Dylan Wu risked his Tour status to play in the event after making it through sectional qualifying, and I think that’s pretty jazzy. I hope he’s able to nab a card.

Is it time to start pimping Guido for the Ryder Cup?

So, what did everyone think of Torrey?  Alan Shipnuck tweaked the purists earlier in the proceedings:

U.S. Open 2021: Golf course snobs won't admit this, but Torrey Pines works

 Hey, I resemble that remark....

I have a deep, dark secret: I actually like Torrey Pines as a U.S. Open venue. To even think such a thing brings a rush of self-loathing. Saying it out loud is blasphemy. To put it in print is madness, risking the wrath of Golf Twitter, architecture wonks, the woke mobs and, perhaps, anyone not in the employ or immediate family of Rees Jones. ​

The run-up to the 121st U.S. Open consisted mostly of the golf cognoscenti wilding-out on Torrey Pines. Geoff Shackelford, a dyspeptic who has nonetheless done much to elevate the discourse of course architecture among the masses, wrote in the golf-hipster magazine McKellar, “Go ahead, you can say it out loud. We’re all friends of golf here. Torrey Pines sucks.” Not to be outdone, Andy Johnson of The Fried Egg typed, “The design of the South Course, as updated by Rees Jones, isn’t just bad. It’s offensive.” On Thursday, when Sean Zak tweeted a photo of the narrow, dead-straight, 623-yard 9th hole, Chris Solomon of No Laying Up responded, "The hardest I’ve laughed all day has been to that first image. Like…holy shit! The national championship!”

But No. 9 at Torrey Pines is actually the perfect hole for the U.S. Open—a living, breathing embodiment of what this tournament is supposed to be. The Masters rewards artistry, the Open championship demands shotmaking, the PGA Championship is won with aggression (or, occasionally, canny course management, as we saw at the Ocean Course). But since we already have those tournaments, and the venues that define them, the U.S. Open needs to be a different kind of test. It should ask the most straightforward question in championship golf: can you execute the right shot, over and over and over again? The 9th hole at Torrey might appear utterly boring but the challenge is breathtaking in its simplicity. There is no fancy math-based decision-making to be made, no corners (or doglegs) to be cut. Can you produce two or three really good shots, four days in a row? Now do it on the other 17 holes, too.

There's a lot to unpack here, and we won't necessarily exhaust the arguments today.  I think Alan does at least air an important issue, that the requirements for a U.S. Open may have evolved to the pint where architectural merit can be nothing more than a minor consideration.

I think Alan mangles his perceptions of events, as it's the PGA Championship that struggles for an identity, though they seem to have settled on U.S. Open - Lite as their MO, including the fact that most of their venues are U.S. Open cast-offs.  But Alan seems to be pining for those old-timey Tom Meeks U.S. Open set-ups, and I don't think he remembers how dreary those tourneys were.

Though I did like this bit:

Would we want to watch this every week? No. Is the golf required to prosper at Torrey Pines lacking a certain charm? Yes. Good. This is the United States Muthahfuckin’ Open. It’s supposed to be a grind and a pain in the ass. If you want fancy green contours and breathless talk about some long dead architect who would barely recognize the course today, watch the Masters. If you really need to obsess about angles of play and precious ground-game options, cue up the Open Championship. At Torrey Pines, all that matters is execution and precision. May the best man win.

I would certainly prefer USMO as an advertising tag line to From Many, One....  Of course, that's an awfully low bar...

Though I think Alan misstates the nature of this Open.  For all the discussion of the kikuyu rough, the key was that that they didn't overdo it.  The lies in the rough were a crapshoot, and in many cases allowed for exciting recovery shots.  Of course, in attempting those great recovery shots, they brought all sorts of numbers into play, as per the blow-by-blow of Bryson on No. 13 above.

 The TC panel had some thoughts here as well:

5. The players by and large loved Torrey Pines — Phil Mickelson called it the best U.S. setup he’d ever played — but if social media is any indication, certain corners of golf fandom were less than enamored by the 2021 U.S. Open host site. What say you? Did Torrey’s South Course earn itself another Open this week?

Melton: I think it was a worthy test, if not the most exciting layout. I don’t know that it deserves a spot in the rumored “U.S. Open rota,” but I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a championship held there once every 20 years or so.

Sens: It was an interesting week of architectural chatter, with design aficionados bashing Torrey for its lack of artistry and others calling those aficionados out-of-touch snobs. See any parallels to other conversations in our culture? But anyway. I think both sides were right in a sense. The architecture buffs were not wrong in many of their critiques of Torrey. And yet Torrey once again produced a riveting Sunday. So the design buffs were in the very small minority in being disappointed. Like it or not, the U.S. Open will be back at Torrey at some point in our lifetimes, assuming we all stick to high-fiber diets. And we’ll start the same debate all over again.

Zak: Torrey does not deserve another U.S. Open. The Tour visited this course five months ago. They’ll be back in another seven months. The setup, as many players noted, was not much different besides firmer greens. That kills the course intrigue that can carry excitement of its own throughout the week. The fact that good players played well at a Tour course does not mean it was major-championship worthy.

Bastable: Agree it feels way less special when a major visits a regular Tour stop. Part of the intrigue of majors is seeing a course you haven’t seen in years, if ever. That said, my sense is the vast majority of fans at home don’t care about venues. If 50-year-old Phil in the mix, or Brooks and Bryson duking it out, or Jon Rahm is winning his first major with two closing birdies, the fact that those moments are happening is way more meaningful to viewers than the course on which they’re happening.

Dethier: What a smart panel. These answers are all terrific. I love the fact that Torrey Pines is a muni hosting a major. I also don’t think it should, so long as the Farmers also stays at Torrey. Send this event to Chambers Bay instead!

Colgan: Does Torrey deserve another Open? Probably not. Do I still feel *incredibly* strongly that public-access courses should feature prominently among major championship hosts? Absolutely. Golf is elitist enough. Give the championships back to the people. (Bethpage, anyone?)

Torrey can be a sufficiently challenging test, but its greatest value to the USGA might be in the non-golfy boxes it checks off.  Having abandoned Bethpage to the PGA, the muni aspect is certainly a factor.  But so is the fact that its 36-holes affords the necessary space for the logistical needs, but also the West Coast location affording a prime-time finish.   

I suspect that the USGA is pleased with the two Opens it's held there.  I think Tiger-Rahm easily trumps Tiger-Lucas Glover in the mud, so it'll stay on their short list, though I also have a speculative thought.  Whether or not the USGA returns to Torrey might well be driven by that 2023 Open to be held at LA Country Club's restored North Course, a venue with far greater architectural merit but without the eye-candy Pacific Ocean views.  My guessing is that two California venues might be an effective cap, and we know Pebble's spot in the rota is secure.  Just an educated guess.

Tat's all for today, but we'll have more for you tomorrow, including news from Augusta National.


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