Wednesday At The 2023 U.S. Open
Final practice and the USGA press conference. Plus, does Rickie's have 15's number, Morales leads off, weather, merch and a surprise visitor to LACC.
Let’s light this candle!
The 2023 United States Open has arrived on a peaking course. Even better, the early week answered two questions I had going in and which came up in this nice table setter by Paul Sullivan of the New York Times: would the players embrace some of the challenges and would they play more practice rounds than normal?
Based on Wednesday’s much busier-than-normal practice round, it’s a resounding Yes and Yes.
A very nice gallery turned out on a cloudy day where only rays of light were seen over two hours of the evening. But any bit more was welcomed on a course deceptively firm. The course may look green but it’s much drier than it looks. That said, one top player coach told me it would have been “gettable” today and with a similar forecast Thursday, expect excellent first round scoring.
Meanwhile, as the players pinned down final details and debated how to play the sixth—there still seems to be no consensus and hallelujah for that!—the USGA held its annual press conference. I’ve got some highlights, plus a thought on Rickie Fowler’s planned approach to the 15th
USGA Press Conference
Fred Perpall, Mike Whan and John Bodenhamer presided over a nearly hour-long session covering a wide range of topics, including state of the game issues, L.A. North, community outreach and what to expect this week.
President Perpall opened by acknowledging pride in “the impact that we will have this week beyond the golf course,” discussing various USGA initiatives and setting the table for CEO Mike Whan whose most newsworthy line may have been a declaration that any course reversal on distance is “highly unlikely.”
After opening with a shout out to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, Whan explained how the week here is making history, with the largest “build out” in USGA History and highest purse ever ($20 million). Here are some highlights from the session.
Bodenhamer on the pace of play concerns. “We know we've done the study with our colleagues in the equipment standards department, the scientists and the engineers in the USGA, those really smart folks that figure out things like where pinch points are on golf courses that host the U.S. Open. We know it's going to be around 6 and 7 and 11. But what we've done, we've done over 520 simulations. We know where those pinch points are. We know what we need to mitigate, and we've got the best referees in the world to do that. We're on top of it, proactively addressing it.”
Bodenhamer on pace. “It's like being out on the 405. With 156 players, you can only get so many folks on the highway, and when something happens there's nowhere for them to go, but we'll manage it. We're on top of it.”
Bodenhamer on the course setup. “Make no mistake, we've made modifications here. There's a lot of rough. It's going to be tough. Just buckle up because there are going to be some lies where it'll be a good ol' fashioned U.S. Open. So make no mistake about it, we haven't thrown in the towel, that's for sure. It's going to be tough. That is what we do.”
Whan on the bifurcation element to distance regulation tightening. “A model local rule approach, to be perfectly honest, allowed us to be a little bit more aggressive because you could be more aggressive with distance at the highest level of distance and therefore not have an impact.”
Whan on the difficulty of making a new “MLR” ball for elite players. “We've received product against a model local rule proposal already asking us to equipment test it, so we've received balls from multiple manufacturers, so I know they can make product. It may not be their finished version, but in months they were presenting us versions that they wanted to test.”
Whan on the notion of pausing implementation of a Model Local Rule on distance because of the LIV/PGA TOUR saga. “We started this in 2018. It's 2023 and we're talking about implementing something not earlier than 2026. I was talking to a friend the other day who's like, why are you rushing this through? I'm like, how slow do we have to go? Started in '18, talking about a '26 implementation. He said to me, can't you just slow this down? I'm like, slower than an eight-year process?”
Whan on charges the governing bodies have rushed the distance study. “If anybody feels like this is in a hurry I don't think they're really paying attention. We're talking about we've been back and forth in a listening process and we are now again, and we've told everybody recently that no earlier than 2026. We're not talking about this season. We're not talking about next season. We're not talking about the season after that. I think if people feel rushed by this, I worry for them because this is a pretty slow process.”
Perpall on diversity in the game. “We know golf is better when all of us are included, and so we hope, like the results of what we're doing will show up. It is disappointing, but I think it also is exciting because that's the opportunity. When you see the balancing between how much we spend on purse versus how much we can invest in a community like south Los Angeles to restore a golf course, where these are the kind of golf courses like a Tiger Woods grew up playing on, that accessibility is part of our issue, and if we're going to have elite golfers of all backgrounds, we've got to improve the accessibility.”
Whan on the USGA’s efforts to help develop promising golfers. “At the risk of hitting play and me talking for 45 minutes because this is a topic that's close to the heart, is the diversity of the game at age 12 is amazing and the diversity sometimes at age 20 isn't nearly as amazing. I've said this for a lot of years, but now I'm sitting in a seat where we can do something about it. We are going to be all in on the U.S. National Development Team, and we're going to make sure that talented kids, no matter what they look like or where they come from or how wealthy their parents are in the States, have chance to go -- every other country in the world has a country program to foster and grow their youth pipeline.”
Rickie’s Approach To 15 May Fit With LACC Lore
Rickie Fowler has suggested he may intentionally avoid the 15th hole’s likely front pin placement when the USGA moves tees up to replicate the Walker Cup setup. Since it’s likely a weekend option given the potential issues of using it when the field stands at 156 players, Big Rick will first need to make the cut. But based on his recent form and what I saw in practice, he will be around.
Fowler told Golf Channel/NBC’s John Wood of his plan based on fear of balls burying in the back bunker. That would be a pretty big miss-hit but it’s possible. Even if the ball does not plug, the back bunker is a tough spot.
Is the strategy wise? Perhaps. Depending on conditions and if a player just isn’t comfortable aiming left of the hole and trying to feed the ball down to a cup cut in the front peninsula.
The key will be landing the ball in a spot that holds in a location to not be chipping over either of the bunker edges. Here is a side view to show the situation in question with the approach area he’d aim for:
As noted by GolfDigest.com’s Alex Myers, Fowler would not be the first player to lay up on a U.S. Open par 3 by recalling that Billy Casper employed at Winged Foot’s third hole.
That hole was nearly three times as long as LACC’s 15th.
But there is precedent for such a play at L.A. North.
As noted in yesterday’s write-up and also covered in this story by Tod Leonard about Little 17’s evolution, Macdonald Smith infamously played into the barranca while winning the 1924 California State Open. The issue then was much more difficult: a Santa Ana wind-baked green where players were putting from above the hole into the hazard.
Still, given how many words George Thomas devoted in Golf Architecture In America to what he saw as Smith’s ingenious solution to a difficult problem, here’s guessing he would not totally hate Rickie’s rationale.
Now On The First Tee, Omar Morales
The first tee shot duties will be handled by Omar Morales, a UCLA sophomore who qualified at nearby Hillcrest Country Club. A fine Quadrilateralius listener of SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio says the mid-morning team lamented Wednesday how a non-American was opening the national championship.
Besides the wildly questionable chatter that reportedly nearly turned fatal, from a pure logistics, storyline and tradition perspective, Morales was a nice pick.
Plus, the other locals are all featured group caliber players, so it’s a fantastic choice by the USGA to have a nearby college student and medalist at the southern California final qualifying site leading the way.
Weather!
According to on site forecaster Jake Swick, we have a very normal June L.A. forecast with slightly improving weekend. He says Saturday’s warm and sun may stay into Sunday now:
Temps managed to get into the middle 50s during the middle of the night when we had clear skies, but like a movie franchise that has had way too many sequels, the marine layer cloud cover is back again and has warmed us up to the upper 50s to begin our day. Overcast skies will have some holes in them at times this morning, with mostly cloudy conditions transitioning to partly sunny skies as we get closer and closer to lunchtime. The forecast for this afternoon calls for mostly sunny skies a good portion of the time and before the wind picks up is when we’ll have our best chance at climbing past 70 degrees. Then as southwest winds gust well into the teens early to mid afternoon, temps will back down a few degrees. Look for low clouds with patchy fog/mist to be possible tonight into Wednesday morning and the outlook for Wednesday into Thursday is pretty much the same. Morning clouds give way to some afternoon sunshine each afternoon with it looking like overall a little less sun than we’ll have today. Temps will try to get higher in the 70s for Friday and most likely will do so on Saturday before falling back towards average on Sunday.