I wrote this to the USGA

[wilt the stilt]

I spoke to the person who answers the phone at the USGA. She said that they are fielding a lot of calls by people who were disgusted by the U.S. Open. The email address is [e-mail]. She promised me that they are very concerned and reading every email.

Dear USGA,

This last U.S. Open was a disgrace. We regular golfers want to watch one hard tournament a year. One of the challenges that we appreciate is the difficulty of the professional golfer dealing with the frustration that all us regular golfers deal with every week. When a bad swing costs you 2 strokes and the mental toughness that it takes to endure.

How does a pro react when things aren't going right? That is the U.S. open. Congressional was a disgrace and moving the pins up on Sunday was a disgrace. I can understand a first cut for 5 yards off the fairway but that is it. These are the best players and they should be punished for not controlling distance and accuracy.

Furthermore, I remember the time that the pro's complained about the sand being too fluffy and they changed the sand. Give me a break. Sand traps are supposed to be a 1/2 stroke penalty. Pro's today aim for the sand trap as a bailout. This is pathetic. They should grow over the traps and make them grass with rough in them. I guarantee that they won't be aiming for them anymore. When you go into a pot bunker in the British open you are losing a stroke(the way it should be).

Finally, The ball is too long. Sergio was hitting a 3 iron from 256. This is not right.

The average golf pro grew up a priveleged pampered life and they steamroll you guys into placating them. They wouldn't know tough if it hit them in the face.

FYI, the TV's clicked off.

[Redbear]

1. I sent them a note about my disappointment as well

20 players under par?

[ProfessorGAC]

5. The 20 Players Sticks In My Throat

When people are comparing Rory's accomplishment to what Tiger did at Pebble, it irritates me. Yeah, he shot a record low score but he did it in a tournament where 20 guys finished in red numbers.

When Tiger won at Pebble ONE guy finished under par. ONE! Winning by 15 when NOBODY else is better than +3 is the real scoring record.

Playing on a course that wasn't tough enough, then got softened by rain and turned into a target range and winning by 9 is snot the accomplishment everyone is making it out to be.
GAC

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Tiger had a massive advantage playing early on Thursday in 2000

Don't forget about that. The fog kicked in and conditions were dramatically worse in the afternoon, with 75 players not finishing the round, basically the entire late wave. Tiger shot 65 in perfect weather.

If golf had a Beyer or Ragozin type adjustment of speed figures based on course conditions like in horse racing, Tiger's effort -- as dominant as it was -- would have been downgraded. Same with Oosthuizen last year at St. Andrews, when he had the ideal late/early draw on Thursday and Friday, thereby finishing his Friday round before noon (at -12 total) and completely avoiding the overpowering winds that shattered Rory's chances and stopped play for hours when certain greens were unplayable.

Some mathematical guy this week did a comparison of the great efforts in golf history in relation to the field and came up with Tiger first and I think Oosthuizen was third. I got a big laugh out of that. It shows how many simpletons are out there, even in high positions, with no clue toward trip handicapping as applied to golf.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. While I Get Your Point

You're talking about 1/8th of the tournament. And, he wasn't the only guy to finish the first round while the weather was good. And, he didn't win on the first day, he won on the 4th day.

Your own data say he shot 65. He won by 15. Not everyone shot an 80 on Thursday.

So, while he might have gotten a little benefit from the weather, he wasn't the only one and he still dominated wire to wire.

And besides, i don't need a mathematical formula to tell me what i saw. I watched the tournament and i've been watching TV golf since the 60's. There is no amount of handicapping that will change my opinion about that being the most dominating performance i've ever seen.
GAC

[Awsi Dooger]

2. Agree about the traps

Jeff Overton acted like a juvenile last week, waving his arms in complaint at too much sand, then similar when a naughty ball mark supposedly got in his way on a short putt. Nothing was Jeff's fault. I'll be rooting against him.

Nicklaus put grooves in the sand at Memorial a few years ago and many pros were so disgusted they skipped his tournament the following year.

Otherwise, I didn't mind the conditions other than Sunday. The final day is supposed to be a wind blown rock hard survival, only great shots threatening the vicinity of the hole. This Sunday wasn't any different than Friday.

I think the newly altered greens prevented the typical US Open treatment. They already looked brown and bumpy on Thursday, despite plenty of recent rain. Davis Love said they were bad greens. You could tell the USGA was sensitive because they responded to Love's remark.

It was definitely US Open Lite but some of the articles have gone ridiculously overboard. If Rory had missed the event with a Kim Clijsters type of recent ankle injury I doubt we'd hear 25% of the moaning. After all, when the winner of a PGA event is 16 under par it typically correlates to 50+ players under par. This event had 20 players under par, which not coincidentally normally aligns with an 8 under par winning total. And that's where we would have been, minus one freak performance.

[Redbear]

9. Eliminate Rory and you have 19 players under par

Which is more than the previous 10 US Open's combined

You are right about easy Sunday. Sunday saw 32 players shoot under par. Friday there were 18 under par.

[Kingofalldems]

3. Next year's Open will be payback time for the USGA

The course will be incredibly hard. Guaranteed.

[wilt the stilt]

4. Olympic can be tough.

2013 at Merion is always a good venue. It all depends if the USGA will be steamrolled. They really need to do something about the sand traps. If they no longer constitute a penalty for a mishit then something must be done.

[jakefrep]

8. Just because one guy shot lights-out...

...the couse setup is a disgrace? The USGA doesn't need to fuck these courses up any more than they usually do.

[wilt the stilt]

12. do u watch golf regularly?

U.S.Open never has 20 people under par

[Awsi Dooger]

10. The depth of the men's game today is so outstanding

That an 8 shot victory in 2011 is equivalent to 15 shots in 2000 terms.

Whoops, I almost forgot. That would be the assertion if Tiger had won by 8. Since it was someone else, all steps are necessary to downgrade.

Bottom line, Rory shattered Tiger's scoring record. That's all anyone will care about. The -16 is destined to become a famous standard, as years go by and no one threatens it.

[wilt the stilt]

11. you may be right

because the USGA will never let this happen again. i think this will go down as an anomaly and most true fans will know that this was not normal. As I said the USGA is getting bombarded and to the casual fan yes but to golfers no.

[Awsi Dooger]

13. More evidence today of how dominant Rory was

This week it took -4 just to make the cut. The course was laughably tame compared to the US Open set up yet winner Jacobson beat Rory's mark by only 4 shots, the same margin that Rory eclipsed Tiger's -12 from 2000.

Also a phenomenal effort by Yani Tseng in the women's major, matching Cristie Kerr's -19 from last year while winning by 10 shots. Kerr won by 12 last year.

I've been collecting matchup wagers all year on Tseng. She demoralized top tier players like Jiyai Shin and Ai Miyazato earlier this year in Australia. Shin and Miyazato had contested the #1 spot less than a year ago. Once Tseng jolted them and asserted the true pecking order, and by wide margin, it was inevitable Shin and Miyazato would have letdowns. Besides, they hit it considerably shorter than Tseng.

I think this was the last time I'll get bargain matchup prices on Tseng. The sportsbooks were still trying to pretend Shin was her equal just a few days ago.