2017 US Open- Erin Hills

TFP

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Rahm's first 2 drives went into the fescue. Found both and he was able to advance the ball out of there but made bogey on both holes.
For what it's worth, it was his 2nd shot on 10 that went into the fescue. He airmailed an approach shot.

He lipped out both times for par from 6-7 feet.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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Incidentally, the next time the US Open will be played at a course not on the above list will be 2023, when Los Angeles CC will host its first major - and before then we get Shinny, Pebble, Winged Foot, Torrey and a return to Brookline. Good times.
It's basically a murderer's row of top tier established courses going forward (with the exception of Torrey Pines, which is a nice course, but it feels like a lesser wannabe Pebble Beach). I love it. The US Open doesn't feel right in these new course. Leave them to the PGA.

I'm surprised you have Chambers Bay so high on your ranking list. It was thoroughly unimpressive as a golf course. Great views but just a bunch of comically long indistinguishable holes with wide open fairways and lousy greens. It was like a focus group tried to come up with a great championship course. It's also everything that is wrong with golf right now--emphasizing the long ball over accuracy.

The contrast against Merion was striking. All the evidence you need that design rather than yardage can keep the long hitters in check and bring the best overall talent to the top.
 
I'm surprised you have Chambers Bay so high on your ranking list. It was thoroughly unimpressive as a golf course. Great views but just a bunch of comically long indistinguishable holes with wide open fairways and lousy greens. It was like a focus group tried to come up with a great championship course. It's also everything that is wrong with golf right now--emphasizing the long ball over accuracy.

The contrast against Merion was striking. All the evidence you need that design rather than yardage can keep the long hitters in check and bring the best overall talent to the top.
Merion is just an outstanding and distinctive golf course. I was blown away when I had the chance to see it in person, and I hope the USGA goes back there soon and often.

As for Chambers Bay, I liked it because it brought the ground game into play - and I disagree that the holes were indistinguishable. But I'll certainly grant your premise that the emphasis on length over accuracy, and the inability of the USGA and R&A to rein in equipment and specifically the golf ball, is a cancer on the game at present.
 
Meanwhile, I'm watching the featured group coverage of Rahm, Matsuyama and Fowler - Matsuyama just holed a full wedge at 15 for eagle to get back to -1, and Fowler has three birdies already through six holes to lead the tournament. But the commentators and the production values of the broadcast are pathetic; I'm really struggling to maintain my interest in the coverage.
 

BigMike

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Merion is just an outstanding and distinctive golf course. I was blown away when I had the chance to see it in person, and I hope the USGA goes back there soon and often.

As for Chambers Bay, I liked it because it brought the ground game into play - and I disagree that the holes were indistinguishable. But I'll certainly grant your premise that the emphasis on length over accuracy, and the inability of the USGA and R&A to rein in equipment and specifically the golf ball, is a cancer on the game at present.

I find it hard to hate a course more than I hate Chambers Bay. The silly carnival ride greens where have holes where the proper attack is 25 yards left and 20 feet behind the pin. Sure it is fine for a few holes to have backstops, but Chambers bay was just absolutely silly
 

Doug Beerabelli

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I was about the say the announcers are terrible - the southern accented dude is just painful to listen to. For some reason, IIRC, same complaints were made last year.

I like the traditional courses (WF and Merion were superb to attend), but this'll be fun to see what happens. Especially if they go "too" low day one, and the course is set up tougher in ensuing rounds.
 

TFP

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But the commentators and the production values of the broadcast are pathetic; I'm really struggling to maintain my interest in the coverage.
I was about the say the announcers are terrible - the southern accented dude is just painful to listen to. For some reason, IIRC, same complaints were made last year.
Was just coming to post this. They didn't have an on course person for the first 3 holes due to technical difficulties, the producer is switching cameras mid-swing, and the announcers sound like amateurs. This is a poor, poor showing for Fox so far.
 

ezemerson

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what do you expect its Fox......also i would love to play with spotters for when i hit it in the woods/fescue then maybe i wouldnt have to take as many "lost ball" penalty strokes
 
I find it hard to hate a course more than I hate Chambers Bay. The silly carnival ride greens where have holes where the proper attack is 25 yards left and 20 feet behind the pin. Sure it is fine for a few holes to have backstops, but Chambers bay was just absolutely silly
Chambers Bay was an interesting experiment in what happens when you apply a US Open course setup to a modern links-style design. I think the poor quality of the putting surfaces - and possibly the first-year teething problems that Fox had in broadcasting the event - made that experiment seem more like a failure than it should have. But I don't think it was wrong to have attempted the experiment in the first place, and in fact I liked many aspects of it. The "carnival rides" to which you refer are part of that; having to aim not directly at a hole to get as closest possible to it helps makes golf interesting and tests golfers' creativity as well as shotmaking skills.

If Chambers Bay were really a crapshoot of a golf course, one might have expected randomness to increase and lesser golfers to succeed. But the final top ten there included Spieth, DJ, Oosthuizen, Scott, Schwartzel, Day and McIlroy, all of whom have now won majors elsewhere. I don't expect to convince you that it's a great course - I don't really believe that myself - but the golf played that week was incredibly watchable. (And I remember enjoying watching the US Amateur when it was played there as well.)
 

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DJ now at +3.

I was listening to some coverage on the radio, and Mark Lye said that he thinks this is a bad course for DJ. Most of the doglegs are right to left, and he likes to fade the ball. So if he plays his normal shot, he'll have to start a lot of balls over the fescue, and if they don't fade enough, he's in the shit. Just one guy's opinion, but an interesting take.
 

cshea

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He just gone one back, but it appears he's in the fescue again. He's been in there all day, even with irons.
 

johnmd20

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He just gone one back, but it appears he's in the fescue again. He's been in there all day, even with irons.
He was in the fescue, and he hit the shot after into the fescue. Once you're in that garbage, it's obviously tough to get out.

Fowler -5. Playing like nails.
 

ezemerson

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am i just missing it or can you not zoom in on the green when your are in a players scorecard...the black dot takes up like the whole area i cant see anything
 

Byrdbrain

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Wow a blimp, unaffiliated with the broadcast, crashed near the course.
Pilot is being treated for injuries.
 

TFP

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Wait - is Rickie dating Alison Stokke? God damn.

What a round from him too. He dominated that course.
 

Sliceboy

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Legit shocked that the scores are so low so early. The USGA must be quaking in their Foot-Joys that the winning score could be -20 like at the Whistling Straights PGA a few years ago. Course length alone is not a defense against elite golfers today. Best hope for the USGA is that the wind starts blowing...
 

E5 Yaz

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Off-topic, but this is the place to ask: Wasn't there an amateur last year who did really well in the Open who was going to turn pro immediately. There was something unusual about his mechanics, if I remember correctly. Anyone recall his name, and what's happened to him?
 

cshea

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Off-topic, but this is the place to ask: Wasn't there an amateur last year who did really well in the Open who was going to turn pro immediately. There was something unusual about his mechanics, if I remember correctly. Anyone recall his name, and what's happened to him?
Bryson DeChambeau. He's in the field. The story with him is that all his clubs are the same length under the idea that it is easier to repeat one single swing. He hasn't had too much success on tour.
 

E5 Yaz

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Bryson DeChambeau. He's in the field. The story with him is that all his clubs are the same length under the idea that it is easier to repeat one single swing. He hasn't had too much success on tour.
Thx
 

HoyaSoxa

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Off-topic, but this is the place to ask: Wasn't there an amateur last year who did really well in the Open who was going to turn pro immediately. There was something unusual about his mechanics, if I remember correctly. Anyone recall his name, and what's happened to him?
I think you must mean Bryson DeChambeau, he of the single-length shafts for all of his irons. He is a pro, but he has not lit the tour on fire and he continues to annoy many people by always trying to be smarter than everyone else and rejecting orthodoxy at every turn. He did get some commercials with IBM or Microsoft out of his notoriety. Recently, he was upset that his new putter, which he used facing the hole, was determined to be illegal.
 

gtg807y

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Danny Willett closes with the birdie to make it an 81, currently DFL. His post-2016 Masters career led me to try to figure out which placey has the smallest gap between (1) winning a major and (2) only qualifying for a future playing of the same major by virtue of that major win. The smallest one I've found is Michael Campbell, who won the 2005 US Open and his only exemption category in the 2007 edition was winners of the past 10 US Opens.

Willett had the lifetime Masters exemption this year, but his sole qualification otherwise was through top 50 OWGR. He's still in the top 50 now but rapidly falling.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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Danny Willett closes with the birdie to make it an 81, currently DFL. His post-2016 Masters career led me to try to figure out which placey has the smallest gap between (1) winning a major and (2) only qualifying for a future playing of the same major by virtue of that major win. The smallest one I've found is Michael Campbell, who won the 2005 US Open and his only exemption category in the 2007 edition was winners of the past 10 US Opens.

Willett had the lifetime Masters exemption this year, but his sole qualification otherwise was through top 50 OWGR. He's still in the top 50 now but rapidly falling.
Willett is not particularly talented compared to the other players out there.
 

Sliceboy

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Lo and behold, per live streaming as US Open.com, the wind is blowing. A. Scott just hit a driver a short 285 yards into the wind. Expect the scores to go way up this afternoon.

Hot take alert: Jordan Speith will not win another major; he is a short inaccurate driver of the ball (ranked 86th in distance and 123ed in accuracy) prone to big numbers. His 2 majors were due to the best-of-all-time putting for one season.
 

TFP

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Man would I love to see Stricker make a run this weekend. Rooting hard for him.
 

Comfortably Lomb

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Lo and behold, per live streaming as US Open.com, the wind is blowing. A. Scott just hit a driver a short 285 yards into the wind. Expect the scores to go way up this afternoon.

Hot take alert: Jordan Speith will not win another major; he is a short inaccurate driver of the ball (ranked 86th in distance and 123ed in accuracy) prone to big numbers. His 2 majors were due to the best-of-all-time putting for one season.
He's not short off the tee. He's middling power-wise. Certainly not a power player but he's a tier about the Kuchars and Johnsons (Zach... not DJ... obviously). His accuracy is where he needs to improve. 58% of fairways hit isn't very good considering he's not a plus power guy. Accuracy can be improved easier than distance though.
 

LogansDad

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That slow motion replay of Day's ball out of the fairway bunker catching grass on the front lip was pretty spectacular.
 

grsharky7

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Seems like the crowd is very lacking, feels like nobody is there. Maybe it's just the course layout and people can't get to certain areas.