2024 U.S. Open (Point) Missers
Odd moments, strange trends, the messy broadcast, and other First World matters requiring attention before Pinehurst hosts back-to-backs in 2029.
As wonderful as the week was, there were still bogeys, doubles and quads at the 2024 U.S. Open.
(Point) Missers
Drivers. USGA CEO Mike Whan left the door open to revisiting a squashed proposal that would reward more center strikes. Dropping this after five years of study, comments, whining and politicking looks even more silly to have abandoned after multiple players have said they can hit it anywhere on the face and get away with a huge drive. And in a world where we’ve been assured for over 20 years that performance limits have been reached, it’s all kind of silly at this point. Among the players admitting he can hit it anywhere on the driver face was U.S. Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau. That was a couple of months before he hit just 32 of 56 fairways (T66) and led the field with an all-drive average of 318.9. Following the win, DeChambeau told the Live From crew how he intends to keep mining technology to get better. Over twenty years ago the USGA and R&A said they were going to draw the line on technology circumventing human skill. Does the sport really need to wait five years and suffer through more groveling from companies merely looking to protect profit margins? Clubmaers who have zero interest in creating stuff to help the hack or beginner on a budget?
Brooks Koepka. The two-time U.S. Open champion declined to do in-person interviews but acknowledged the reason behind the silent protest. In a text exchange with Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch Koepka cited a lack of press creativity. “Same questions every week,” he said. “The lack of creativity with questions is kinda boring. I know I’m not a media favorite either, so it’s not like anyone will notice. LOL.” Yahoo’s Jay Busbee listed some fun ones here in case Brooks should be so inclined. I have a few questions: Why do you always opt out of the Olympics before blood testing begins? Is it, like, a trypanophobia thing where you have a fear of needles? Also, does Claude Harmon know he’s not listed on your team page while Chef Noel is?
Greens Donald Ross Would Not Recognize. Here’s one way to appraise whether a Pinehurst No. 2 green reflects the great designer’s philosophy: if there is no option or ability to run a ball up onto the green, it’s morphed into something he would not recognize. As we saw last week, green rebuilds since the Prime Minister of Pinehurst’s passing have stuck around too long. There are four greens blatantly unreceptive to a run-up. And all of the greens at Pinehurst must be kept soft enough to hold a long iron under tournament green speeds starting at 14 feet after mowings. But four are obviously silly: the 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 15th. They need deflating. They’ll still play tough. In the case of the sixth, someone must eliminate an unnatural left-side tie-in that would induce hissy fits from an artist like Donald Ross. And if all these artsy-fartsy observations fail to convince, the raw numbers should:
2nd green: 28.48% Green In Regulation cumulative total last week after 66% of the tee shots hitting the fairway with an average approach of 191 yards. 🧐
6th green: 40% GIR rate on a 228-yard par 3.
8th green: 44% GIR hit rate off a 72% fairway hit number and 176-yard average approach. 😬
15th green: 50% cumulative GIR rate on a 197-yard par 3.
With anchor site status meaning many more USGA events over the coming years—including the 2029 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open—there is time to bring back the consulting architects who know what the greens should look like. It’s time to let Coore and Crenshaw do one last bit of restoration to ensure Pinehurst shines for years to come.
Agents. The latest to forget his place is Brent Falkoff, twenty-percenter and salty ball tester to Bryson DeChambeau, who decided to get chippy with NBC’s interviewer for the week, Damon Hack. Speaking to a special level of the military-grade level of obtuseness as his client was making all the right PR moves without managerial assistance, multiple witnesses confirmed Saturday’s ugly exchange, first reported on by No Laying Up’s Kevin Van Valkenburg. Apparently, the agent's rage had to do with past statements about LIV and his client made on Golf Channel’s Golf Today. So Falkoff threatened to take his toys home and not make the tournament leader available for a live post-third-round interview in front of millions watching a national prime-time finish. Talk about not reading the room.
Drops. In the era of players seeking TIO relief whenever they choose, another funny form of cheating popped up a few times last week. Thankfully the rules team includes plenty of USGA officials who had to explain how, when taking a two-club-length drop, today’s jocks can’t treat the U.S. Open like a Tour event. Several have gotten used to a quick placing of their driver followed by a combo drag-flip move to get the most out of their two club lengths. Then, they almost always drop at the outer edge of where a tee was placed in hopes of the ball rolling out of position so they can eventually get their hands on it and tee the ball up. Remember, these are the people who regularly threaten to make their own rules whenever something doesn’t go their way, or someone wants to take 10 yards off drives. Such stewards of the game.
Hats. I know we were remembering Payne Stewart 25 years after his win. But that’s not an excuse to bring back the ugly hats of the 90s. How such a variety of hideous options made their way under one U.S. Open merch roof is beyond me. But the photos do not lie. And if any Quadrimerchshoppers bought one of these, as Al said, it looks good on you, though. Children, shield your eyes:
Olympic Golf. What should be a quaint subplot to the U.S. Open every four years has become cringey thanks a qualification system relying solely on the Official World Golf Rankings. Having the PGA runner-up and U.S. Open champion miss out is costing the Olympic golf movement’s credibility and what little juice it had left. Even tennis has ways of making sure major winners get to the Games. It’s wild to think there are golf executives running the International Golf Federation who could not foresee such stuff. Oh, right, President Sorenstam is busy on the pro-am circuit.
Course care. Just because it’s a practice round doesn’t mean you turn the course into your sandbox, boys. Let’s start with those little skeech marks you leave around the greens after hitting a small bucket to the green. Someone has to pat these down so mowers won’t scalp the turf and leave you with bad lies come tournament time. And then you and your bagmen—veterans of the Joe LaCava era, thankfully still excluded—leave bunkers unraked. Not classy. Even ball marks are back. Most are tees used to do the stock Tour player stab-flip job that leaves dead spots and announces that spoiled point-missers were just here. Thankfully, karma catches up and I have full faith that the Golf Gods are noticing.
PGA Tour Scheduling. The make-it-up as they go Global Home is somehow allowed to dictate global scheduling around its morbidly dull FedExCup. This time the revolving army of EVP’s and SVP’s put a pair of “signature” events around the U.S. Open. Brilliant. It is little wonder that the Tour’s top player and overwhelming pre-tournament favorite turned up gassed after playing in U.S. Open-like conditions in the Memorial. At what point do players step back and realize the organization’s disdain for majors and anything five minutes into the future is causing problems?
PGA Of America. Now that Pinehurst has proven its worth as an anchor site and reaffirmed “cradle of American golf” stats, the PGA Championship’s upcoming run looks really dreary. The organization takes the second major of the year to Quail Hollow (yawn), Aronimink (Philly in May…), Frisco (the purported Silicon Valley of golf), and Olympic (May grey if we’re lucky). The USGA counters with Oakmont, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach, Winged Foot, Merion, and then Course No. 2 again. A Pinehurst vs. Frisco match of organizational home bases is the golf equivalent of a carefully cultivated Napa wine taking on a canned red.
Water. The USGA is doing wonderful stuff by studying, educating, and pushing research into turf as part of its important water conservation efforts. But the U.S. Open water drinking situation needs work. Hydration stations were not plentiful enough and featured long lines in stark comparison to the PGA, where bottled water is included in the ticket price. At The Open stations easily handle fans despite needing much less hydration than North Carolina on 94-degree days. Then, there was the second straight year of the Dasani aluminum water bottle situation for players. Assuming they can get the thing open without caddie assistance, poor technique could lead to a cut a finger. How tough can it be to create a safe-to-open cap and prevent this headline: “U.S. Open Leader Withdraws After Freak Mishap With Planet-Saving Water Bottle.”