Upcoming USGA Opens and Sacrosanct PAR

Everyone seems to be worried about the assaults on Par at Congressional ...

2012 O

2012 is to be at Olympic Club - a droll course capable of producing interesting winners. As a former member of the California Golf Club of San Francisco, whenever we had some silly little tournament, my roommate Mark and I used to go over and Play O Lake. It had the history but absolutely nothing on the Cal Club. Heck, we even had fairway bunkers that dictated play at Cal.

There was speculation already starting about "Winning Scores" at Olympic - maybe first from Johnny Miller - bragging on the broadcast that it doesn't rain in NorCal in June so the Greens will be "rock hard". Golf Channel Talkers this a.m. were discussing it, too (I didn't listen in) and on-line it's already starting because this was somehow not a proper USGA Open at CCC. Well, I for one don't worry about the set-up at the O nor the score as it will probably again produce a fluke or yet another unintended bystander winner at around a few over to a few under par. But ...

2013 Merion

It's 2013 at Merion's Historic (and historically over-rated) East Course. It is being Frankensteinized with absurd Orphan tees [Fazio warmed up at Saucon Valley, I can tell you] disturbing the "famous routing". There is one going in on the Par 5 Fourth that will be excised after the Open, it is reported to lengthen the hole to 745 yards (Who knows or cares?).

Look for absurdly narrowed fairways, silly rough (necessitating waves of middle-schoolers to search for tee shots and place little red plastic flags), the first Astro-Turf Greens in the USGA Open and complete irrelevance to the game of golf before the Modern courses get into the rota.

2014 Pinehurst #2

Those silly greens will take care of themselves

2015 Chambers Bay

Will it be a chamber of Horrors? The Open in Seattle?

2016 Oakmont

There, that's better ... [sarcasm intended]

Rory as USGA Open Champ

People are whining on about Congressional not hosting a REAL USGA Open (That's the way it goes) but it was the same for everyone. It was dominant for Rory.

What's nice about Rory is

-Simultaneous presence of self-assurance and humility
-Tons of skills
-No apparent weaknesses
-A really solid human being - mature yet still a kid
-He appears to be enjoying himself whilst he plays and wins

And perhaps he can pass on to the Masses

He Plays Quickly.

May his reign be long and benevolent, it's too early to crown him the new Special One, but he is very easy to embrace with all his positive qualities.