Walk into any golf club after a medal and you will hear players talking about “saved a par on 16” or “avoided a double on 13” rarely will you hear “had an Eagle on 12” or “my 5th birdie came on 15”.
Us poor mortals, the weekly hackers, the rank and file, we know the value of par, it still means something to us.
When you visit a new course you always look at the S.I. just to see were your shots might go.
We cant power it 300 yards to avoid trouble, unlike the pros.
If our ball heads towards a bunker we are praying it does not roll into it, unlike the pros.
Is that why we love the US Open ? Because all of a sudden a par means as much to a pro as it does to us ??
I loved Merion last week, a proper golf course, proper greens and proper bunkers.
With the exception of 18, which should have been a par 5 and the absolutely ridicules 3rd on Sunday, I though the USGA got the set up right.
Wayward driving was punished, just as it should be. Too often on pro tours you don’t get punished for bad driving, this is something the PGA and European Tour need to address.
Week after week bombers are in contention on courses which are basically hazardless, last week not so.
Was Merion unplayable ? Not even close to that.
Were wayward drives punished ? Yes, as it should be. That’s the whole idea of rough, isn’t it?
For my money the best player won last week, Justin Rose simply made less mistakes than everyone else, simple as that.
The course played the same for everyone, was it mentally draining on the players? Well it sounds like it was.
But is this not how it should be? As it was meant to be?
Would you rather watch what we watched last week or the bombers on a Mickey Mouse course when the cut comes at -8 and -25 wins the event?
I love that par means something, remember par is the pre-determined number of strokes that a scratch golfer should require to complete a hole, or in our case a target to achieve! Or at some holes a dream.
I would love to see more courses set up like Merion were bad shots are punished but maybe offering a wee bit more in terms of awards for good shots.
And when are we going to get rid of these stupid 200 yard + par 3’s ??
The Postage Stamp at Royal Troon is 1 of the best par 3’s in the world, its 123 yards long! The 7th at Pebble Beach 107 yards! The 13th at Merion is 113 yards and was one of the best holes to watch.
Watching the best players in the world hitting driver to a 266 yard par 3 was quite simply nuts. It was not entertaining in the slightest and was quite frankly a pathetic decision by the USGA to play it as such.
No golfer or golf fan want to see the best players in the world hitting drivers to a par 3.
But the USGA did have one major fail last week, the pace of play!
When are the authorities, any of them, going to realise that slow play is killing golf, to play and to watch.
Its going to be very interesting to see how the USGA tweek Sebonack for the women’s US Open on the 27th of this month.
Lets hope, like Merion, the best golfer that week wins.
Us poor mortals, the weekly hackers, the rank and file, we know the value of par, it still means something to us.
When you visit a new course you always look at the S.I. just to see were your shots might go.
We cant power it 300 yards to avoid trouble, unlike the pros.
If our ball heads towards a bunker we are praying it does not roll into it, unlike the pros.
Is that why we love the US Open ? Because all of a sudden a par means as much to a pro as it does to us ??
I loved Merion last week, a proper golf course, proper greens and proper bunkers.
With the exception of 18, which should have been a par 5 and the absolutely ridicules 3rd on Sunday, I though the USGA got the set up right.
Wayward driving was punished, just as it should be. Too often on pro tours you don’t get punished for bad driving, this is something the PGA and European Tour need to address.
Week after week bombers are in contention on courses which are basically hazardless, last week not so.
Was Merion unplayable ? Not even close to that.
Were wayward drives punished ? Yes, as it should be. That’s the whole idea of rough, isn’t it?
For my money the best player won last week, Justin Rose simply made less mistakes than everyone else, simple as that.
The course played the same for everyone, was it mentally draining on the players? Well it sounds like it was.
But is this not how it should be? As it was meant to be?
Would you rather watch what we watched last week or the bombers on a Mickey Mouse course when the cut comes at -8 and -25 wins the event?
I love that par means something, remember par is the pre-determined number of strokes that a scratch golfer should require to complete a hole, or in our case a target to achieve! Or at some holes a dream.
I would love to see more courses set up like Merion were bad shots are punished but maybe offering a wee bit more in terms of awards for good shots.
And when are we going to get rid of these stupid 200 yard + par 3’s ??
The Postage Stamp at Royal Troon is 1 of the best par 3’s in the world, its 123 yards long! The 7th at Pebble Beach 107 yards! The 13th at Merion is 113 yards and was one of the best holes to watch.
Watching the best players in the world hitting driver to a 266 yard par 3 was quite simply nuts. It was not entertaining in the slightest and was quite frankly a pathetic decision by the USGA to play it as such.
No golfer or golf fan want to see the best players in the world hitting drivers to a par 3.
But the USGA did have one major fail last week, the pace of play!
When are the authorities, any of them, going to realise that slow play is killing golf, to play and to watch.
Its going to be very interesting to see how the USGA tweek Sebonack for the women’s US Open on the 27th of this month.
Lets hope, like Merion, the best golfer that week wins.
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