Mike Davis and the USGA

Hawk said:

Well the Players isn't a major.

The last three holes were badass golf. Quit being a grump. It was full of ups and downs.

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rtparty said:

A guy 3 putting from 12 feet because of garbage greens is one of the best endings?

The Players was FAR better of an ending.

I am enjoying shooting under par golf right now for the first time ever so I'll take that over watching pros struggle

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drp3434 said:

The greens were rough, but I don't think he three putted because of them. He just straight up choked. The finish was phenomenal. Not just the last 3 putts.

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drp3434 said:

The greens were rough, but I don't think he three putted because of them. He just straight up choked. The finish was phenomenal. Not just the last 3 putts.

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McRock said:

What he said.

Maybe they should have the US Open at TPC Deere Run. I'm predicting now that -28 wins it.

I don't really care about Davis. There are other things that bother me about the USGA than this course. I actually kind of liked the way this course was set up. At least there were birdies. I don't remember where it was maybe 2-4 years ago, but if someone got a birdie, it was just a miracle. I do not like seeing people grind out pars for 4 rounds. I do like seeing an appropriate mix of birdies, bogeys, and pars, and don't mind if that person shoots even par with that mix.

For everyone complaining about the greens, it makes me wonder, should I complain to my golf course? Because my greens have clover in spots, and currently a boat load of something they call silver dollar disease. The greens mower isn't quite level, and yet, I putt well under 18 per 9 holes every round. Maybe the tour players shouldn't be sissies about it, and try to remember what it was like to putt on those muni courses when they were just kids.

~Rock

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McRock said:

What he said.

Maybe they should have the US Open at TPC Deere Run. I'm predicting now that -28 wins it.

I don't really care about Davis. There are other things that bother me about the USGA than this course. I actually kind of liked the way this course was set up. At least there were birdies. I don't remember where it was maybe 2-4 years ago, but if someone got a birdie, it was just a miracle. I do not like seeing people grind out pars for 4 rounds. I do like seeing an appropriate mix of birdies, bogeys, and pars, and don't mind if that person shoots even par with that mix.

For everyone complaining about the greens, it makes me wonder, should I complain to my golf course? Because my greens have clover in spots, and currently a boat load of something they call silver dollar disease. The greens mower isn't quite level, and yet, I putt well under 18 per 9 holes every round. Maybe the tour players shouldn't be sissies about it, and try to remember what it was like to putt on those muni courses when they were just kids.

~Rock

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JB said:

Honest question for you.
You go to THP Legacy which is held on two of the finest courses in the country. You get there and the greens are brown, there is less grass than dirt and every putt is bumpy and wobbling around. I suppose you say nothing about it?

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Hawk said:

I think Mikey would be wise to just apologize for the crappy greens. It was an obvious negative and he's not doing himself or the USGA any favors denying that. They should have a uniform putting surface. Hard and fast is good, but the poa was a problem.

Other than that, the course handled the tourney really well. It was both crazy hard and very gettable at different times. Allowed for a guy like Oosty to go crazy and almost cause a 3-way tie.

The greens themselves were really cool. The guys were rewarded for hitting spots and took a hit for missing them. Sometimes a bad one. Not like they didn't know where to hit it though.

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JB said:

This to a T. Own up for the screw up, and let the other great aspects of the course (that were fantastic) shine through. His (and others) defense of the green surfaces is hysterical.

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UNIVERSITY PLACE — He heard it all … the players likening the greens to various vegetables, their lost respect for the USGA and the talk of spectators being treated like the dirt they were trampling around in all week at Chambers Bay as they were trying to catch a glimpse of the U.S. Open.As executive director of the USGA, Mike Davis oversees all aspects of the U.S. Open — good and bad.

The good was 21-year-old Jordan Spieth winning the tournament in dramatic fashion. The bad, which got just as many headlines and probably much more traffic on social media, were the bumpy greens and difficult viewing access for spectators.
Davis agrees with the criticism but only to a point, and he promises to do better if the U.S. Open returns to Chambers Bay.

“In some ways, they weren’t as good as we would have hoped,” Davis said of the greens, “but some people would make it out that they’re putting on broccoli. I completely disagree with that assessment. That’s an unfair assessment to say they were that bad because we have had bad greens before that were bumpier than these; we just have.”
During the final round, Davis walks with the last groups, acting as a rules official.
“I was right there. I was watching like a hawk. You just didn’t see much bounce to (the greens), you really didn’t,” Davis said.
The players disagreed, repeatedly voicing their displeasure to the media.
Davis said Chambers Bay encountered some agronomic problems last fall when the fescue greens were invaded by poa annua.
Getting rid of unwanted poa annua has been a challenge for decades. No chemical is available that produces consistent, positive results. Handpicking poa out of greens has been tried, but it’s mostly a losing battle.
“What happened this time was something that really was beyond the control of the grounds staff here and the USGA,” Davis said.

“Having done a lot of these things (conducting Opens), I look at it and say, ‘Yes, we had bumpy greens,’ ” he said. “But at the end of it, we’ve had bumpy greens many, many, many times at the U.S. Open. We’ve played this event 115 times, and the vast majority of them have been on poa annua greens. Later in the day, there’s a bounce to them. If you have ever looked at that famous putt Tiger Woods made at Torrey Pines on the 72nd hole, that ball was in the air 30 times.”
The two main entities of this Open — the USGA and Pierce County, which owns Chambers Bay — will have their post-championship assessments, but statements from both parties indicate a desire for the Open to return in another 10 years or so.
“Getting smooth greens, that will happen,” Davis said. “Listen, that will absolutely happen. That will absolutely, positively happen.”
Davis doesn’t want the excitement of the past week — and the buzz over this event that engulfed the Northwest golf community the past two years — to be buried under any controversy, and he doesn’t think it will.
“Fifty years from now, they’re going to look back and say, ‘Do you remember the end of this 2015 U.S. Open, how it went back and forth?’ ”

And those who try to claim the outcome — and Dustin Johnson’s three-putt on the last hole — was decided by the poor greens didn’t listen to what Phil Mickelson said after his round Friday.

Mickelson said downhill putts can be tricky, “but uphill they seem to hold the line just fine.”
Both Johnson and Spieth had eagle putts on the 18th, but Johnson had a 12-foot downhill putt whereas Spieth had a 16-foot uphill putt that he easily two-putted for the victory.
Regarding spectator viewing, Davis said every event is a learning process.

“I do think our group, the people who did the roping, were probably a bit conservative,” Davis said. “In their defense, they put public safety first, as it should be. But we probably had some areas that could have been used for viewing that weren’t used.”
The USGA did make some adjustments. Through the practice days and the first round Thursday, you virtually had to have a seat in the grandstands to see anything on the par-3 17th hole. After the first day of competition, and determining that a ribbon of teeing ground for that hole wasn’t going to be used later, that area was opened for spectators.
“When you’re running an event at a new place you’re trying to anticipate how it works. Inevitably, you get some things right, but there are other things you miss on,” Davis said.

The U.S. Open heads to Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh next June. It has been held there eight times previously, most recently in 2007. Even with all that experience at Oakmont, it’s a learning process.
“When we got done with the U.S. Open in 2007, were there things we could have done better there? Absolutely,” Davis said.
Now it will just be a question of whether everyone will want to try do it better at Chambers Bay sometime down the line.

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Hawk said:

Yepper. Tons of variety and interesting shots. Amazing landscape. Just say, 'sorry about that' and it's probably gone and forgotten by next week.

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JB said:

Honest question for you.
You go to THP Legacy which is held on two of the finest courses in the country. You get there and the greens are brown, there is less grass than dirt and every putt is bumpy and wobbling around. I suppose you say nothing about it?

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Erky said:

Aside from the setup of the course, is the USGA improving or declining under Mike Davis? I mean, I see the Masters taking the lead with Drive Chip and Putt, followed by the PGA with the PGA Junior League. The USGA is involved in the First Tee like everyone else, and has some initiative I have heard of called "Play 9". Their handicap system is terribly broken and golf is on the decline. Aside from outlawing different types of clubs, I am curious what they are doing. This isn't a rhetorical question. I am genuinely curious.

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Erky said:

Aside from the setup of the course, is the USGA improving or declining under Mike Davis? I mean, I see the Masters taking the lead with Drive Chip and Putt, followed by the PGA with the PGA Junior League. The USGA is involved in the First Tee like everyone else, and has some initiative I have heard of called "Play 9". Their handicap system is terribly broken and golf is on the decline. Aside from outlawing different types of clubs, I am curious what they are doing. This isn't a rhetorical question. I am genuinely curious.

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salisboss said:

Why is the handicap system broken? I would argue that the slope, course rating system is broken.

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Erky said:

Are they not part of the handicap system?

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salisboss said:

To me kind of but I think the rating of a course is different from the formula that gives an appropriate amount of strokes.

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