2016 US Open- Oakmont

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
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Apr 12, 2005
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I'm assuming he went through qualifying. That is a huge accomplishment and a real hard process to go through. He had to be on at Sectional and Regional and obviously this week. Can't even have a bad nine and do what he did. Hope it moves him closer to getting a card.
Yeah, he went through qualifying. Shot -7 or -8 over two days to get one of like 5 spots where he was.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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Very glad to see DJ exorcise his demons, professionally today and seemingly personal to get back to this point. It's simply amazing to watch him hit a golf ball. I found one of the best things about the Fox coverage was the tech and stats they had with the trackman and his numbers, even compared to his peers, were mind boggling. That was an amazingly impressive close out today - Open demons from last year and others, penalty stroke hanging over his head and then the camera guy interrupts you as you stand over your final approach, but you nail it to five feet. Just a fantastic win.
It's easy to criticize the coverage (especially on Fox) but I liked the split screen tracker they were using on drives.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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That was fantastic. The commentary was terrible. Their choices of showing actual shots and who they were showing was awful.

"Hey, Jason Day is putting for eagle...should we switch?"
"Stay on DJ until he washes that PB&J down!"

They were better than last year and again, the tech was awesome. But otherwise yeah they weren't good.
 

cshea

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I hate Chamblee with the fire of a thousand burning suns, but boy did he do a good job mocking and lighting into the 2 USGA stooges on "Live From" trying to explain the whole fiasco.

Hell of a tournament by DJ. Those 2 shots on 18 were unbelievable. 2 amazing FU shots.
 

E5 Yaz

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I hate Chamblee with the fire of a thousand burning suns, but boy did he do a good job mocking and lighting into the 2 USGA stooges on "Live From" trying to explain the whole fiasco.
I was just coming in here to post about that. The older stooge seemed decent enough, a "just doing my job" type of guy.

The younger stooge, though -- the head of the rules committee or whatever he was -- that guy could have be the kid who got atomic wedgies at every high school in the country. And Canada.

They never answered Chamblee's question about what DJ did that convinced them he was responsible. And when the young stooge said they only had to be 51% certain, who could almost see Frank Nobilo making sure Chamblee didn't laugh in the guy's face.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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I saw some of the DJ press conference. One reporter asked him if he thinks he would have been given a stroke penalty if it was a PGA tour event. He said "probably not".

Also saw Chamblee, easily his best work.
 

Average Reds

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That was fantastic. The commentary was terrible. Their choices of showing actual shots and who they were showing was awful.

"Hey, Jason Day is putting for eagle...should we switch?"
"Stay on DJ until he washes that PB&J down!"

They were better than last year and again, the tech was awesome. But otherwise yeah they weren't good.
The biggest problem with Fox is/was the production decisions, which has nothing to do with on-air talent.

We've been spoiled by years of watching golf produced/directed by Frank Chirkinian and his disciples (who are all over CBS, NBC/golf channel and ABC/ESPN) and the move to Fox has deprived us of that sort of crisp direction. The most glaring mistakes Were staying too long on players who were doing nothing and lingering on interviews at a time when they should have been watching golf. (Don't bring in Nicklaus for a long, emotional retrospective interview right in the heart of the final round. Do that shit as the leaders are teeing off to begin the day.)

One would hope that Fox would poach some production talent from other networks, but if they're not going to be a big player in golf broadcasting beyond the US open, maybe they can't get the best to work for them.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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Totally agree. Loved the graphics to the point where DJ had one shot late in the day that wasn't tracked and I was freaking out while the ball was in the air. Doesn't take long to get me to forget broadcasts of the pasts. The production decisions need work. But I enjoyed the majority of the broadcast.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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One other point. When you think about it DJ played shots on the 18th two years in a row perfectly. The shit greens last year did him no favors where the greens this year rewarded his final shot with a hold and short putt. If Chambers Bay had any grass last year. He'd have a better putt at eagle and Spieth would have had a 30 footer. Either way he's got his major. But he striped it twice under pressure two years in a row. Pretty impressive.
 
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cshea

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They're still idiots. Fortunately, it doesn't make a difference, but I can't believe they still think the penalty was applied correctly. The 2 USGA stooges on "Live From" tried to contend that DJ soling the putter twice, NEXT TO THE BALL, was more likely than not the cause of the golf ball rolling back a dimple. Ridiculous! I've yet to see a single person outside of the USGA agree that the rule was applied correctly. Completely asinine. I can't imagine what would've happened that stroke had cost DJ the tournament.
 

Doug Beerabelli

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I'm not sure if this opens up a can of worms, but why not tweak the rule so that if the ball moves on the green prior to the player addressing the ball (soles putter), the ball is replaced in the original position without penalty? The player had gained no advantage from the ball moving, why should there be a penalty? As long as the ball is stopped when marked, whats the big deal?

And really, this issue seems to come to a head at places with really fast greens...uh, maybe that's the reason the ball moved, not the player approaching the ball and preparing to hit it?

Bigger issue - review of video replay should not be allowed in the calling of penalties after the player has made his or her next stroke. Not every other player is subject to this scrutiny, it's purely a function of TV coverage. So, put cameras everywhere and film em all, stop play to review video evidence and make a final ruling before the player hits the next shot, or let the rules official's decision on the spot at the time stand, and live with it. Umps/officials get calls wrong all the time in games - why should golf be any different? I bet they get things right at a very high level, in part because they are so infrequently used.

And I'm still not sure how there was 50+1% evidence DJ caused the ball to move, and still no explanation on that one, but that's the USGA being the USGA.
 

Koufax

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Of your many fine points, the most important I think is that the decision on the spot of a well-qualified rules official should be final. The players deserve to know where they stand and so does the audience.

As a second point, the rule is a bit silly. If the ball rolls backwards away from the hole, unless it is moving out of a depression (unlikely), it can't help the player, so why bother enforcing it under those circumstances absent clearly deliberate mischief?
 

Dehere

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I was able to attend all four days of this year's Open. If you ever get a chance to attend the Open and I could give you one piece of advice it would be to arrive late in the day on Thu, Fri or Sat. Maybe that's obvious if you have attended a lot of tournaments (I haven't). It's a long, long day of golf. Most people come early, do a lot of walking, absorb a lot of sun, get tired and go home early. Really, the USGA could/should sell "happy hour" tickets that don't allow you in until after 4pm because they could very easily accommodate a second wave of fans. By 6pm on Fri and Sat the grandstands were practically empty and we had the place to ourselves. We finished Saturday in the top row of the grandstand behind 18 green, from which we had a perfect view of 18 green, 9 green, 10 tee, and 12 tee. An absolute orgy of great players and hardly anybody else around.

The Open is a really impressive event just in terms of the manpower and coordination required to pull it off. Perhaps even moreso at Oakmont where the gargantuan layout means more marshals, more volunteers, more concessions. You could make a reasonable case that the Open is the most logistically challenging US sports event because of the massive physical footprint, the new location every year, the fact that you're wedging temporary grandstands and facilities into a place that wasn't designed for tens of thousands of fans, the need for hundreds of volunteers with little to no prior expertise with the course. The USGA is taking some well-deserved knocks for the way they handled the possible DJ penalty, but I came away from the weekend blown away by how well they manage the mechanics of the Open. First class event all the way.
 

WayBackVazquez

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You understand that the Thursday weather changed everything, and that the golf doesn't normally continue until it gets dark, or course. Especially when the tourney is on the west coast. If you showed up at 4pm on Sunday at Torrey Pimes in 2008, you might have seen the last 3 or 4 groups play the 18th hole. On a normal US Open weekend, it's about a 10 hour day, and there are more people at the end than there were in the morning. You got lucky.
 

Dehere

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It was lucky but remember that the planned TV window now ends at 8p local for eastern sites. Last year at Chambers they played til 7-7:30 local.
 

WayBackVazquez

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Yeah, and first tee time was at 8. I'm just saying, youre not normally going to be able to get a seat in the grandstands at 18 on Sunday by showing up at 4.
 

ernieshore

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I somewhat see where the USGA is coming from saying it is a penalty. While he doesn't address the ball, he appears to tap the toe of his putter on the ground in an area next to and behind the ball, and then the ball moves. It seems possible that doing that on undulating, bikini-waxed greens like these may cause a ball that close to move backwards.

Having said that, the USGA handled this in about the worst way possible. And the issue of them repeatedly turning the national championship into clown golf remains.

 

PaulinMyrBch

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But they just jumped on the fact that the putter touched the ground as the only cause and did that more probably than not analysis. I think there is enough of a time gap (although short) to just tack it up to really fast greens, wind, or the ball was sitting on a high spot of poa. Poa is notorious for growing fast and its not unusual for poa greens to be uneven late in the day as patches of poa grow faster than others.

They can clear this up just like the rule for a teed ball moving. It's not a shot if it falls off the tee until you've addressed the ball. Which he hadn't done yet. Or they can clear it up saying a ball on the putting green must move a full rotation (or half, or quarter) before it is deemed to have moved for purposed of a penalty stroke. Replace it and move on with no stroke.

And this rule is in place so you don't do something, make the ball move, and watch it roll toward the pin down a slope 20'. Or so you don't take practice swings and thin out grass near your lie in the rough. It's a pretty useless rule the way they applied it.

Does anyone understand the difference between a USGA rules official/committee and the PGA counterparts? Any crossover there. I'm guessing the PGA rules guys are pros and the USGA are less so. I'm basing that partly on the two idiots that got all the air time Sunday evening.
 

WayBackVazquez

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But they just jumped on the fact that the putter touched the ground as the only cause and did that more probably than not analysis. I think there is enough of a time gap (although short) to just tack it up to really fast greens, wind, or the ball was sitting on a high spot of poa. Poa is notorious for growing fast and its not unusual for poa greens to be uneven late in the day as patches of poa grow faster than others.

They can clear this up just like the rule for a teed ball moving. It's not a shot if it falls off the tee until you've addressed the ball. Which he hadn't done yet.
That's not a shot, either. It's not a shot on the tee if you don't make a stroke at the ball.
 

WayBackVazquez

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He said Saturday, not Sunday.
Yes, you're right. Though in my experience the crowds were not significantly different on Saturday and Sunday. The weather delay this year made the entire experience unusual if not unique. Most people plan to attend the us open months in advance and invest a good deal of money. There's not typically a lot of leaving early.
 

johnmd20

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Yes, you're right. Though in my experience the crowds were not significantly different on Saturday and Sunday. The weather delay this year made the entire experience unusual if not unique. Most people plan to attend the us open months in advance and invest a good deal of money. There's not typically a lot of leaving early.
Friday and Saturday were definitely unique. 7am to dark both days. That's a long day if you're on the course. That is probably why the stands were empty Saturday night. For one, the leaders weren't going to make it to the final holes. Two, play started before 6am. So it stands to reason things were emptying out on Saturday night.

There is no way you could stroll into a US Open at 4pm on Sunday and find a great seat on the 18th green, as you said.