Great US Open Courses/Setups Create Great Champions

[Mr 3 Wiggle]

Bethpage was not a great course this year. So much for those loud mouthed New Yorkers and all their garbage about how awesome their tricked up munie is. Just like their bagels and their pizza, no one outside of New York sees what the big deal is.

[connecticutter]

The rain took a lot of the thunder (no pun intended) out of the course. I played Black since I went to college down there. On a dry July day those greens are just brutal on the approach. Shinnicock out in eastern Long Island is a tougher overall set up though.

In spite of all of the USGA volunteers and marshalls, they did a horrible job at crowd control. I was there on Friday, and they let people move around th4e grandstands while players were putting on the green or hitting a tee shot. Though it was funny to see Garcia get heckeled.

[Mr 3 Wiggle]

The other day some channel had them on their top ten toughest US Open courses list. What a joke. I can think of many more than ten US Open host courses that are tougher. That place is all hype...just like most of the stuff that comes out of NYC. I guarantee you...that Bethpage from the tips (farthest tees the public can play from) is no tougher than Bulle Rock from the tips.

[Horseballs]

The other day some channel had them on their top ten toughest US Open courses list. What a joke. I can think of many more than ten US Open host courses that are tougher. That place is all hype...just like most of the stuff that comes out of NYC. I guarantee you...that Bethpage from the tips (farthest tees the public can play from) is no tougher than Bulle Rock from the tips.

Yeah, but does Bulle Rock have a sign on the first tee talking about how badass the course is?

[lorenzoinoc]

You could spread out bails of hay, add in the next county tees and dry out the greens on any course and make it hard. From that standpoint, Bethpage offers only the New York metro and big tournament staging space as its only real attributes.

Pebble should be alot more interesting and has two great closing holes that would thicken the drama considerably if it's close at the end, as compared to BB. Bethpage's 18th is bs and anticlimactic, sucking drama out of an otherwise great finish.

[Horseballs]

Lorenzo and Wiggles should have a NYC hate-off. It's too early to call and both hate NY for different reasons but it could be interesting.

[Mr 3 Wiggle]

Yeah, but does Bulle Rock have a sign on the first tee talking about how badass the course is?

Probably not...not as many egomaniacs down here as in NYC...people know what what tees to play.

[Mr 3 Wiggle]

Hopefully the USGA will have the good sense not to play the US Open at Bethpage again. NYC has it's venue (Shinnecock Hills). They don't need two. Seems as though they just played it there so a bunch of hacker New York fatheads could watch it and say, hey that's the hole I made 12 on the other day.

[lorenzoinoc]

Hopefully the USGA will have the good sense not to play the US Open at Bethpage again. NYC has it's venue (Shinnecock Hills). They don't need two. Seems as though they just played it there so a bunch of hacker New York fatheads could watch it and say, hey that's the hole I made 12 on the other day.

Assuming the particular New Yorkers you're referring to could count to 12, but that's kind of a longshot.

[Not a hacker]

Zo is spot on about the lack of dramatic finishing holes at Bethpage. That's one of the reasons I rate Pebble Beach and the Old Course so highly, they have fantastic finishing holes. A close field at those two courses makes for some supercharged finishes.

[lorenzoinoc]

Lorenzo and Wiggles should have a NYC hate-off. It's too early to call and both hate NY for different reasons but it could be interesting.

Unless 3W has a whole mess of ex-in-laws from New York, an ex-wife from New York and sends support checks to New York which then get divied amongst all of them, I win.

If he'd volunteer to write the support checks I'd concede. Otherwise he's got a pretty steep hill to climb here.

The other thing is I feel the same way about New York italians that black people must feel about O.J.

[SDB1]

Is Shinnecock a public course? I like the idea of having all U.S. Opens at public venues. I hate the fact that I'll never be able to play golf at some of the courses on tour. It adds so much to watching the tournament when you've actually played the course.

Any course can be tricked up. At Torrey Pines the public can never play the tees the pros play from. There are many holes where the back tees are permanently closed to the public. Torrey pines is not that difficult until you move the tee boxes back another 50+ yards and grow the rough way out to where you can't even find your ball.

[Not a hacker]

Pebble Beach is a public access course. Providing you are a member of the public who has a spare grand or so just lying around for a round of golf. The Old course is also a public course. All the great major venues are public courses. Snobby private courses are not major championship courses as far as I'm concerned. Every time this topic comes up it just makes me madder and madder that a two-bob shitpot invitational like The Masters can carry the status of major championship. It's a mickey mouse major. Even the PGA craps all over it IMO.

[Horseballs]

Is Shinnecock a public course? I like the idea of having all U.S. Opens at public venues. I hate the fact that I'll never be able to play golf at some of the courses on tour. It adds so much to watching the tournament when you've actually played the course.

Any course can be tricked up. At Torrey Pines the public can never play the tees the pros play from. There are many holes where the back tees are permanently closed to the public. Torrey pines is not that difficult until you move the tee boxes back another 50+ yards and grow the rough way out to where you can't even find your ball.

Shinnecock is extremely private. No chance of playing that one. I like the idea of being able to play the US Open rota as well, but there just aren't that many superb public tracks with history. I'm sure a course like Bandon Dunes or Whistling Straits (both public) would be tough enough to hold the US Open, but they don't have the history of the other courses on the rota, Bethpage Black excluded.