There’s something magical about watching a group of professionals tearing into a golf course. If you ever have the chance to follow a world-class golfer around one of the planet’s great courses, take it. The way they go after fairways, attack greens, drop shots beside pins and then spin them back to within putting distance is a sight to behold. Watching a golfer make a mockery of a course’s supposed “par” score is one of the great experiences in sport.
That being said, there’s also something deliciously satisfying about seeing a group of professionals clambering their way around a course and being as baffled by it as the rest of us. If you enjoy your golf with a healthy dose of schadenfreude, you will have enjoyed the US Open this weekend.
Henrik Stenson likened playing the Chambers Bay course to “putting on broccoli”. Gary Player spoke with horror about the player who missed the green by a yard and end up “50 yards down in the valley”. Welcome to our world Gary; the harder we practise, the unluckier we get. For most of us, golf will always be a mournful ballad entitled “50 yards down in the valley”.
Gary Player:
“The worst golf course I might’ve ever seen in the 63 years as a professional golfer. The USGA, who I admire and have chosen great golf courses in this great United States of America — they’re preaching speed of play. Enjoyment. User-friendly. This golf course here, if you’re a 10-handicap, you couldn’t break 100 if you had the best day of your life. They’ve got pros putting from 20 feet and hitting the ball 20 foot to the right, a man misses the green by a yard and he’s 50 yards down in the valley. I mean I don’t understand it. It’s 7,900 yards long. The world is in dire straits with water. Can you imagine the costs to maintain this? And it’s a public course, but they’ll probably charge the public $200 to play it. I’d like to challenge anyone with a 16 handicap to do better than 40 over par. It’s basically unplayable.”
Sergio García:
“Why do they do this to the course? This is a great championship with great history. The US 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.”
Billy Horschel:
“I’ve been waiting for this moment all week. I think a lot of players, and I’m one of them, have lost some respect for the USGA and this championship this year for the greens. When you have a majority of the players commenting publicly, and some of them aren’t because they don’t want to get the pushback from it, then there’s an issue. I heard someone say that the TV is making the greens look worse than they are. That’s a complete lie.”
Ernie Els:
“We have to go out there in front of millions of people and putt on these things. The USGA, they have got to take a bit of responsibility.”
Justin Rose:
“I had a five-foot putt on the first and didn’t have the first idea what it was going to do. It felt like outdoor bingo at that point.”
Ian Poulter:
“What wasn’t playable were the green surfaces. If this was a regular PGA tour event lots of players would have withdrawn and gone home on Wednesday, but players won’t do that for a major. They were simply the worst most disgraceful surface I have ever seen on any tour in all the years I have played. The US Open deserves better than that.’’
Henrik Stenson:
“It is borderline laughable at some of the greens and some of the pin positions. When we’re actually almost better off plugged in a bunker than being on the top of a ridge, like on the fourth. And it’s pretty much like putting on broccoli, as well.”
Dustin Johnson, who led for most of the weekend but lost out to Jordan Speith at the last hole, was complimentary about the course. “From the first time I played it I liked it,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun and you need to use your imagination.” What do you think? Should courses as difficult, unpredictable and unpopular as Chambers Bay host the US Open?
