Question:
A major championship is supposed to identify the best golfers in the world.
This year the USGA and R&A did not identify the best golfers in the world, they identified the luckiest golfer that week. Where were the windmill hole and the smiling clown? Jay Nielsen
Response:
This year the USGA and R&A did not identify the best golfers in the world, they identified the luckiest golfer that week. Where were the windmill hole and the smiling clown?
If you look at the British Open and US Open finishers this year, you will see that higher ranked players finished considerably better and more consistently in the US Open. That’s what "identifying the best players" is all about. It doesn’t bother me that a 100-something ranked player won the tournament, but it does seem odd that only four of the top 10 players finished 20th or better, whereas 7 out of the top 10 finished 20th or better at the US Open. -joseph British Open finishers and (current) World Rankings Lawrie Leonard 12 Van de Velde Cabrera Parry Norman 29 Frost Love 3 Woods 1 Dunlap Furyk 14 Goosen Parnevik 17 Sutton 15 Montgomerie 5 Verplank Yoneyama Coltart Langer Nobilo Rocca Sjoland Westwood 9 US Open finishers and (current) World Rankings Stewart 7 Mickelson 8 Singh 4 Woods 1 Stricker 22 Herron Sutton 15 Maggert 16 Duval 2 Clarke 20 Mayfair Azinger Love 3 Goydos Montgomerie 5 Leonard 12 Hart Furyk 14 Haas Parnevik 17 Verplank Huston 18
Response:
A major championship is supposed to identify the best golfers in the world. The problem is, if they make them any tougher, they’ll need dental records to identify them. There are three ways to set up a course. Make it so easy that anybody can play it. Make is so hard that only the best players playing their best golf can play it. Make it so difficult that nobody can play it. Obviously, if the idea is to identify the best golfers, you want to go with choice #2 but to do that you risk ending up with #3. When that happens, it becomes a crap shoot and anybody might sneak in there. The ruling bodies should understand that when you make the fairways too tight and the rough too long, you are taking one of the most fundamental skills of the game, driving the ball, out of the equation because most players end up hitting irons off the tees which tends to act like an equalizer which brings many more players into contention. Usually, this is what we see at the US Open which is why we see more journeymen winning it than any of the other majors. But this year, the USGA widened the fairways and shortened the rough and guess what. The cream rose to the top. Just look at names at the top of the leader board at the end. Not a lemon among them. So what happens. The R&A decides to out do the USGA and look at the result. Of the 3 players who made the playoff, only 1 was among the top 150 in the world rankings, Justin Leonard at #12. Hopefully both ruling bodies will learn a lesson from the respective championships and we will see course set ups in the future that will test every club in the bag, including the driver, and the players who take the top prize will be among the best in the world. Hopefully the PGA of America will learn from what has gone on this year as well.