“It’s extreme, even if [the fairway] is 50 yards apart,” Adam Scott said. “It will be interesting to see, but I don’t know how big a difference it will make on the next shot. I don’t know if they cut it short enough that guys can advance it 150 yards or 30 or 200 [yards], but it’s probably nice not to see us trudging through and losing balls as often as you would in the longer grass.”
The USGA’s Championship head of agronomy Darin Bevard offered this rebuttal…
“We’re doing it for playability, visibility and aesthetics. Not to make the course easier, just to make it the way we wanted it to play before the fescues got so high.”
Finally, GolfChannel’s Brandel Chamblee explains why its a no-brainer picking McIlroy to win this week.
“This is the first major he’s played in since 2012 when his putting is not a question. Rory McIlroy for the first time in his career is a good putter.”
Then there is McIlroy’s advantages tee to green. “He’s eliminated the left miss, which has always been his bugaboo,” Chamblee said. “This golf course gives you a little more width off the tee…There’s only one player better tee to green on the PGA Tour, and that player’s not as experienced as Rory is. The fact that he’s putting so well, and the look of this golf course, and the fact that a U.S. Open doesn’t often give you four looks at par fives — guess who leads the pga tour in par five scoring average? Rory McIlroy — everything points to Rory McIlroy.”
Finally, a quick note if you’re hoping planning on watching golf Monday…Can’t wait for this to get going tomorrow…
We have gone 8 U.S. Opens without a playoff. There has never been a run of 9 straight without one. #USOpen
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) June 14, 2017