2014 US Open Discussion

[Richie3Jack]

Interesting what they have done with Pinehurst #2. Crenshaw is a big fan of the Melbourne Sandbelt in Australia which many experts believe has the greatest area of golf courses in the world. So he has constructed his courses like the Sand Hills in Nebraska, Bandon Dunes, Streamsong and now Pinehurst #2 with that in mind.

I've only played 1 Crenshaw & Coore design, Sugarloaf Mountain in Florida (now closed). My dad and I enjoyed it quite a bit. But, in Florida you must take a cart at least 9 months of the year or you'll die of exhaustion. And Sugarloaf Mountain was extremely hilly by any standards. The 17th hole from the back tees was a 275 yard par-3 that went so far downhill that all I needed was a hybrid to land on the green.

The big thing they have been discussing with Pinehurst #2 and Crenshaw and Coore's design is 'brown is the new green.' With water becoming more and more expensive in some areas, they are trying to cut down on using it so much and letting the course brown out a little. However, I don't think this will be the be all, end all for golf courses. To many areas have grass and soil that need to be watered heavily because 'going brown' will kill the grass all together. And if you're going to 'go brown', that usually also means more bunkering and bunkering is expensive and very labor intensive.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the course plays out this week as they have replaced the rough for waste areas. I just hope we don't get another Dustin Johnson situation on our hands where the player thinks he is in a waste area and he's actually in a bunker.

I really, really like Phil this week. As I mentioned on Twitter, he's driving it statistically the best he has in a long, long, time. Here are his current rankings:

Driving Effectiveness: 64th

Green Zone (75-125 yards): 25th
Yellow Zone (125-175 yards): 27th
Red Zone (175-225 yards): 20th

What has hurt him is his Short Game and Putting this year.

I think one of the big stories for this championship is the contrast in strategies between Phil and Bubba/Webb (2 other players I like here). Phil has stated he plans on hitting a lot of drivers. Bubba and Webb plan on laying up a lot.

Generally, the more aggressive strategy wins with golf. But, with Pinehurst having all of these waste areas that may not be the case. I will say that Phil is probably the best fairway bunker player on earth so if he can manage a decent lie from the waste areas when he goes in them, he could have a sizeable advantage with his more aggressive strategy.

Players that I liked but did not pick are:

Matt Kuchar
Jason Dufner
Keegan Bradley
Kevin Stadler

From looking at the past 2 US Opens at Pinehurst, it seems to really stress good iron play and good short game play. Here's some of the 1999 top finishers:

Payne Stewart
Phil Mickelson
Vijay Singh
Tiger Woods
Steve Stricker
David Duval
Jeff Maggert
Hal Sutton
Billy Mayfair


Here are some of the 2005 top finishers:

Michael Campbell
Tiger Woods
Tim Clark
Sergio Garcia
Rocco Mediate
Vijay Singh
Nick Price

These players at that time were all very good iron players. Many of them were not good drivers and some were horrendous putters (you can't count on good putting 90% of the time anyway).

That's where I'm afraid Bubba may be making a mistake. He's historically not been a good iron player (has done it well in 2012 and this year though) and usually relies on his great driving to get him in good position. So if he's laying up 'with the commoners', he's now potentially losing strokes. And as I like to mention about laying up...if you lay-up and don't find the fairway, now you're royally screwed.








3JACK

[ericpaul2]

I would think the biggest problem with hitting out of waste bunkers is the difficultly in holding the greens. I assume that's why Watson and Webb are going in with a plan to layup..they want to be able to hit high shots into the green. I may be wrong, but although hitting out of a waste bunker is easier than a true bunker, it still requires a little extra "ball first contact" which means a tendency for a lower ball flight.

[Richie3Jack]

Round 1 thoughts:

Thought the course played fantastic. I don't like it when the USGA lets the greens bake and then good shots are still punished as they can't hold greens.

I like the 'browning' of the course, but it's incredibly difficult to accomplish that and make it still look good.

Big mistake by Bubba deciding to not hit driver. The Field Avg Fairway % was near 70%. Statistically, it depends on the course, but in general the higher the field average Fwy %, the more drivers should be hit. I usually find Bubba has some of the best strategy of any golfer on Tour, but he made a faux paus here.

Kaymer was one player I didn't consider. He's been driving it extremely well and hitting it well from 175-250 yards this year. But, he didn't qualify statistically over the past few weeks and I forgot about him. IIRC, his short game play has been a bit suspect over the years, so we'll see if he can continue to hit greens and not allow that to bite him in the back.

Thought it was interesting to see Baddeley play so well. Although he grew up playing golf in Australia and that is what the renovation of Pinehurst #2 is really about...making it more like a Melbourne Sandbelt course.

I liked guys like Graeme McDowell here. I looked at the performance of players in the 1999 Pinehurst and the previous US Open at Olympic Club and found that those that did well at Olympic did pretty well at Pinehurst (remember, Payne Stewart almost won at Olympic and then won at Pinehurst). But the problem I had is that McDowell is typically not a good Short Game player. I think it can put him into contention and possibly win, but it may come back to haunt him in the end.

I felt the same way about Hideki Matsuyama. His ballstriking metrics have been great all year. But, he's a poor Short Game player.

Really impressed with Matthew Fitzpatrick. Swing looks really nifty and he could fire at flags. And he looks like he's not a day over 12 years old.

One of my favorite Opens was the 92 Open at Pebble Beach. I don't know why, it was something I just happened to watch the entire telecast of. That was the one that Kite won while Gil Morgan was at one point, dominating the entire thing. But the big story for me was journeyman pro Andy Dillard going out and birdieing his first 6 holes at Pebble. Andy Dillard has been an inside joke with a few friends of mine ever since...and that was 22 years ago. Anyway, I think we may see another Andy Dillard in Fran Quinn.

Chris Berman should retire. His voice is completely unlistenable to at this stage.

The greens look....S-L-I-C-K.








3JACK