It has been a very busy nine days for those fine folks from the United States Golf Association who run our national golf championships. Last week the USGA hosted the United States Open at Chambers Bay in Washington. This week the USGA has relocated to Sacramento where Del Paso Country Club is the venue for the United States Senior Open. After two days of sweltering weather in the state capital, the over-50 set finishes out the Senior Open this weekend.
The 115th annual U.S. Open is now in the record books. It was quite a head-scratcher from start to finish. The USGA chose an immature, eight-year-old site for its National Open. From the perspective of the television fan, Chambers Bay appeared to be a most beautiful site with gigantic dunes framing many of the holes. On occasion, I imagined that we were playing the Open at Ballybunion in Ireland or at the New Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. Yet in spite of the stunning vistas, the greens at Chambers Bay left something to be desired and the harshness of the course’s humps and bumps were contrived to say the least. In the end, Ballybunion and the New Course seem far removed from the reality of Chambers Bay. After watching four days of championship golf, it is somewhat similar to Tom Doak’s design of Old Macdonald in Bandon, Oregon. I can imagine that the USGA made a bunch of money last weekend by having its ultimate championship in the Pacific Northwest and I think the Fox Network loved the idea of showing the National Open in prime time. Yes, the Open will return to Chambers Bay, but the greens will be different and the harshness of the course will be softened.
As for the conclusion, with Jordan Spieth winning following Dustin Johnson’s three-putt from 14 feet, this type of stuff has happened before at the U.S. Open. Way back in 1947, Sam Snead missed a 30-inch putt on the final hole of the 18-hole playoff to hand the National Open to Lew Worsham. Davis Love III three-putted the final hole in the 1996 Open to lose the championship to Steve Jones. In 2001, Retief Goosen and Mark Brooks both three-putted and bogeyed the final hole in the Open while Stewart Cink three-putted after missing the final green and recorded a double bogey. Goosen ended up winning the 18-hole playoff the next day over Brooks while Cink ended up one shot back. This all points to that long ago phrase that no one ever wins the U.S. Open, it’s just that 155 other people happen to lose it.
Jordan Spieth has now upped the ante in the post-Tiger world of golf, and for all intents and purposes he seems to be someone who just might be the equal of Rory McIlroy. In fact, if we are to review the last four major championships, the only winners of grand slam events during the last year are named Rory and Jordan. He’s not as long off the tee as Rory, but he does have a rock-solid short game. He appears to be the smartest as well as the most patient of all of the game’s top players of this era. If Rory has his ‘A-game’ going for him, then no one can beat him. Yet Jordan is more consistent and more resilient than Rory and will sometimes win tournaments, such as last week’s Open, when he isn’t playing better than everyone else.
Lastly, while I won’t pile on Dustin Johnson for failing to win or at least tie the U.S. Open, I will take a swipe at him for blowing off the awards ceremony. Longtime championships such as the British Open and the U.S. Open, feature awards ceremonies that recognize the champion golfer, the second-place finishers and the low amateur in the field. While Louis Oosthuizen attended the ceremony for finishing tied for second place, Johnson was conspicuously absent. I think it was a weak gesture on Dustin’s part.
My comparison would be the 2006 National Open won by Geoff Olgilvy at Winged Foot. All three runner-ups, Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie, and Phil Mickelson, attended the ceremony. Montgomerie and Mickelson experienced heartbreaking 18th-hole blowups to lose that Open, yet still had the grace to attend the ceremony. The USGA had only two runner-up medals to pass out that day and Mickelson laughingly responded that it was alright with him if he didn’t get one since he already had three silver medals from previous Opens. Johnson still has some growing up to do for someone who is not only a world class golfer, but is also 30 years old.
Regardless of how quirky and non-traditional Chambers Bay happened to be, that certainly won’t be the case this weekend at Del Paso. True, some of the competitors who make the cut in Sacramento would prefer the 70-degree weather of Puget Sound instead of the 100-degree intensity of Sacramento this weekend. Yet Del Paso is well-manicured, extremely fair and very historical in its layout. Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of Del Paso and the layout is very much what one usually gets from a USGA championship. The greens are lightning fast, the fairways appear to be pristine, and while the rough appears to be little more than two inches deep, I saw my fair share of senior stars having difficulty hitting from beyond the fairways.
Except for a handful of prime-time pairings during Tuesday’s afternoon practice round, most notably featuring Mark O’Meara and Tom Watson, most of the golfers in the field teed off early that morning and were long gone from the course by 1 p.m. The practice putting green was largely deserted that afternoon as was the driving range. Then again, the temperature topped off at 104 degrees that day.
Obviously, once the Senior Open started on Thursday and Friday, half the field would have morning tee times one day and afternoon times the other day. Everyone would have to play one of their opening rounds in the heat of the day. A nice gesture by the USGA on Thursday morning was to have Bob Niger of nearby El Dorado Hills hit the first tee shot of the tournament while playing in the 7 a.m. pairing. Niger has been an amateur golfer, then a pro, then a reinstated amateur and is now once again a professional. Niger was the NCGA golfer of the year in 2005 and 2006 and returned to the play-for-pay ranks in 2008. He’s not getting rich from senior golf, having won a little more than $60,000 while Monday qualifying into 16 Senior Tour tournaments. This will mark the third time he has played in the U.S. Senior Open, having also gotten into the field in 2010 and 2012. His wife, Wendy, has always caddied for him, and she was inside the ropes once again at Del Paso.
The Senior Open concludes Sunday in Sacramento. A well-known senior golfer under the age of 55 will be the championship golfer come Sunday evening. After all, we’re going to get a traditional winner at a traditional venue.
