Misc: ***Official US Open Thread***

[brokenloginagain]

Not at Merion they wouldn't.

they would if they got 3 of 4 days with no wind.

 

[Tre4ISU]

Not at Merion they wouldn't.

Merion stinks. One of the stars in 5th gear would massacre that place if they got conditions like this week.

 

[mywayorcyway]

As you had requested, here's my course report. Obviously the course played really long but these guys are so long off of the tee that length really didn't matter much because the fareways had so much roll to them. After walking the course I think it's safe to say that TV does no justice to the changes in elevation. Other than standing on a tee box I don't think anyone had a "flat" lie all week. The fescue was absolutely brutal and was anywhere from knee to waist high. Around the greens there was zero forgiveness for missing the green and getting up and down was a challenge due to the elevation and pin placements. The fairways were very wide for a US Open course and you really had to hit a pretty bad tee shot to find the fescue. The pro's make it look easy but on most of the par fives the second shot was much more difficult than the tee shot just because of the way the holes were shaped and how you had to position yourself for your approach shot. I loved how they could set the course up so that it played differently every day. That area had seen quite a bit of rain throughout the week and this spring, so the course played much softer than intended. In dry conditions the scores would have been much higher.

From a patron standpoint I thought it was much easier to get around the course compared to Whistling Straits two years ago. There was a ton of bleacher seating around the course and on Friday capacity was never an issue, so that was nice. There were some holes that didn't have the best viewing but that is pretty unavoidable with a course like Erin Hills. I thought the USGA did a pretty crappy job with concessions though. The food options were extremely minimal and the only place you could get a beer was at the concession stands that sold food, so the lines were stupid long. I'm not sure why the USGA didn't have side vendors set up for beer sales but they definitely lost out on some significant concession revenue due to their set up. I was also disappointed with their inventory at the Merchandise tent/store. We stopped on our way out on Friday and they were out of stock on all of the large and XL Nike and Under Armour polos. I asked if they were getting more shirts in for Saturday and Sunday and they said "no, what we have is it." Again, this is a pretty big miss for the USGA and there were a lot of frustrated people in the merchandise store. To compare, I stopped at the merchandise store at Whistling Straits after the Saturday round and they had stock on everything and had merchandise flown in every night for the next day. We had to park about 30 minutes south of the course and then catch the shuttle. The set up the USGA put in place was absolutely awesome. There were thousands of people waiting in line to go through security and get on the shuttle and from the time we parked until the time we got on the bus it was maybe 30 minutes. That was pretty impressive.

Much appreciated. The course looked fantastic on TV.

 

[mywayorcyway]

Fox's coverage is better than CBS by so far it's not funny. They show far more shots and I would bet they show more shots than NBC. Joe Buck isn't nearly as bad as Jim Nantz and don't even get me started on Nick Faldo. This residual complaining about Fox is ridiculous. They have the best talent in the booth, great former player commentary and they showed shots. It'll never be perfect due to the nature of golf itself, but they do pretty well. Get rid of Sonders, find something more relevant for Gil to do and it would be really good. This is also a production company that doesn't broadcast much golf so they get next to zero "practice" for the second biggest American event of the year.

I thought Fox did a great job of showing a lot of golf, particularly Friday and Saturday. Not a ton of puff pieces and the ones they had were short. They use technology better than the other guys as well.

I can't agree on Buck vs. Nance, but I'm with you on the rest.

 

[Rural]

The ratings were horrific........

 

[jbindm]

The ratings were horrific........

So is it the lack of star power at the top of the leaderboard or the lack of drama on Sunday? Is the PGA better off when there's one clear cut top guy that the field is chasing every weekend?

 

[riceville98]

So is it the lack of star power at the top of the leaderboard or the lack of drama on Sunday? Is the PGA better off when there's one clear cut top guy that the field is chasing every weekend?[/QUOTE)

I watched it but, was not as interested due to the "no names" at the top and suspect that lots of others skipped it due to that as well

 

[Tre4ISU]

So is it the lack of star power at the top of the leaderboard or the lack of drama on Sunday? Is the PGA better off when there's one clear cut top guy that the field is chasing every weekend?

There is no doubt that golf is better off when there is one dominant player. I don't see it in the near future, but more people tune in. Personally, I loved that leaderboard over the weekend as it was a bunch of guys who had had really good careers to this point but hadn't yet one a big one. They also were all a bunch of guys with stones. Then you had some guys like Snedeker and Sergio just on the out limits of reach, who, with a 65 could be right there. I loved it. I also realize that a lot of people couldn't tell the difference between Brandt Snedeker and Russell Henley.