Copyright USOPEN.com

Well here we are after the completion of the 115th playing of this year’s US Open Golf Championship. Interesting, dramatic, controversial, scenic, historical? All of the above. How will history remember this Open 30 years from now? Will it be Jordan’s second major on the way to the Grand Slam? TBD. Will it be the Open that Dustin Johnson gave away? Will it be the worst site ever awarded an Open Championship or the Open that changed the course of traditional Open venues?

I’m not sure I have a clue how this Open will in fact be viewed in golfs hallowed halls of history. That said here are my personal takes now that the dust has settled in the Pacific Northwest. Jordon Spieth is clearly an awesome talent. He came to Chambers Bay without anything close to his “A” game. He scratched and clawed all four days. Most of the time hitting his driver sideways on a course which didn’t exactly reward wayward tee balls.

He displayed some Seve-type heroics on more than one occasion. The kid can flat chip, pitch and roll his rock. He also has that little extra gear he can reach down and pull the proverbial rabbit out of his hat just when it seems like he is about to go over the edge of the cliff. He is a special talent no doubt, but I feel he still has some flaws that once corrected, and as his game and the player mature, his best golf is still well in front of him. Allow me to give you a casual example.

First keep in mind at Augusta no one ever pressed him at all and he had it on total cruise control. At Chambers Bay the pressure and pursuit was constant and intense and his game and his body language showed some cracks in the armor. After making a beautiful 20+ footer on number 16 the final round he got noticeably excited and basically ran to the 17th tee box. If you watch the replay of the event, he violated his normal pre shot routine and what I call “quick stepped” the shot leading to a huge miss to the right some 20 plus yards. That led to a near fatal double bogey when a par would have been game, set, and match. The great Jack Nicklaus had a pre shot routine that he NEVER EVER violated. It kept him grounded and always in complete control of his emotions.

If I were Spieth I would actually go to Jack and discuss that very topic.

Next we had Dustin Johnson. There is a great lesson here for all of us. This player drove his golf ball with pure perfection for four straight days. Crazy long and straight. He basically over-powered an extremely long, unforgiving and difficult golf course. There was only one problem….During the same four days he putted his ball from close range like Helen Keller. So while Spieth was wild and wooly he rolled his rock, putting was and always is the great equalizer. If Dustin had putted at just a flat “B” tour level he wins going away by a half dozen.

Then of course the final and most beaten to death topic of Open week, Chambers Bay itself. Was it beautiful, no doubt? Was it interesting, certainly that argument could be made? All that said there are two major topics that you simply can’t dance around. First the conditions of the putting surfaces. You simply can’t let our National Open come down to luck versus skill on the putting surfaces and that is basically what occurred. Yes I understand everyone plays the same golf course, putts the same greens. We saw players balls actually get air borne both off many putter faces and even on one occasion live during the final round we saw a ball half way to the hole suddenly bounce several inches into the air clearly altering both the speed and path of that particular putt. Our National Open can NOT be contested on putting surfaces that are sub championship standard!

Next the whole deal about holes changing pars back and forth is just plain goofy. Then add in multiple tee boxes (different locations / angles). A major championship set up in a somewhat remote location under normal circumstances is stressful enough and time consuming enough to prepare for.  When you start changing distances, tee boxes, and pars I think you are really pushing the envelope just a bit too much. Consider this factor as well, being our National Open, some players are pre-qualified for the event for a variety of reasons (world ranking, previous finishes in a major, etc.). Typically these type players have the resources (finances, private aircraft) to arrive in advance to play extra practice rounds before the actual Open week. This versus a lower ranked up and comer who has battled through local and regional qualifying and gets to the site the week of and gets the standard number of practice rounds. Therefore when you add that to the pressure of major championship preparation and obscure course set ups well beyond the norm are all players starting on a level playing field.
​
​The USGA in their effort to bring the championship to both a new and public venue (great ideas both) have just taken this whole deal a bit over the edge.

All this said I enjoyed watching this Open for the same reason the uneducated NASCAR fan goes to a major race. They are waiting to see a dramatic crash. Is that what we want our golf fans mentality to be when visiting future U.S. Opens?

Sincerely in golf, Tom Patri

YOU CAN GET A FREE VIDEO GOLF LESSON FROM TOM PATRI TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME!! Click Here.