US Open venue drew polarising views US Open news in brief

By Neville Idour

RECORDS, RECORDS, RECORDS

The first round at the US Open was a record breaker. In 2017 Branden Grace shot 62. This year Ricky Fowler and Xander Schauffele shot 62, the first time two players have done that. These three players are the only ones to have shot 62.

A total of 47,000 US Open rounds were played until Fowler’s 62. The six rounds of 65 or lower on the first day were the most in US Open history. It was also the first ever opening or second round where every player broke 80. Was the course too easy?

The consensus was yes but only for that first round with the wide fairways and greens just soft enough to be very good for scoring. However that would change in the following rounds as the scores would show.

Third Round Darkness

Wyndham Clark was unimpressed with having to play the last two holes in the third round due to darkness. The final group did not tee off until 3.40pm. Clark said they were playing twilight golf and he couldn’t see. He put his bogey on 17 and Fowler’s unfortunate short putt bogey on 18 down to poor visibility.

Clark said: “I would like to see us tee off an hour and a half earlier because if there is a playoff tomorrow we wouldn’t be able to play.”

Clark’s caddy said: “It is crazy to think that we are doing this on the last two holes of a major. Common sense prevailed and tee times were moved forward 70 minutes.

Jon Rahm Loses His Cool

It was disappointing to watch Jon Rahm lose his cool during the second round on the 17th hole. He played not his best bunker shot, yelling out loud that four letter word before smashing the club into the bunker face then throwing it over his shoulder without looking.

He was fortunate it didn’t hit someone. His frustration at his disappointing play in the first two rounds had clearly got to him. However he was able to produce an excellent final round to charge up the leaderboard for an encouraging tied 10th finish.

Tv Coverage Puzzling

There were times when a viewer couldn’t help wondering why there was not more coverage of much higher placed players. I took particular note during the concluding stages of the second round when there were several players fighting to make the cut including Ryan Fox.

One particular player A Yang, who was 13 over par, was shown playing many shots, then there was a sequence of players shown whose scores were +8, +6, +5, +7, +13, +15 — in other words, no hope of making the cut.

The other criticism of the course, which will host the US Open again in 2039, was the atmosphere, or lack of it.

Compared to last year’s jam packed event at the Boston Country Club, this year was something of a damp squib. Crowd numbers were fairly low at a reported maximum of 30,000 per day with many of them corporate or members’ guests.

For some reason the 13th and 14th holes in the corner of the course seemed sparse with spectators. Maybe they were a step too far from the rest of the action. Certainly watching TV, on several holes you could wonder where are the big numbers of fans we are used to at The Masters, The Players, or majors played on the east coast of the USA.

In fact, apart from Jon Rahm who only just made it, there was no coverage of Fox or any others players fighting to play the weekend. The only concession was to show Fox’s final putt.

Mcilroy Hard Done

BY? NO

Some Rory McIlroy fans reckon he was hard done by accusing Wyndham Clark of cheating. They say his ball moved when hitting from the rough on the back nine in the final round. A two shot penalty would have given McIlroy the win. However the situation was closely examined by rules officials and given clearance.

Conversely many fans believed McIlroy was lucky to still be in the hunt after his free drop on the 14th hole. Again a rules official gave him the free drop. Various opinions were voiced.

“Improper drop.” “His drop was clearly more than a metre from where his ball was embedded.” “No way his ball plugged on that angle.”

Former DP World Tour player Nick Dougherty said on Sky Sports “This is not luck, it is beyond luck.” The upshot of all of that is in each case rules officials made the decisions and we still ended with the deserving winner.

Us Open Tv Viewership Up

Despite the on-course spectator numbers looking thinner than usual for a major, viewership was up 27 percent on last year’s US Open. Primetime coverage across all four rounds averaged 4.8 million viewers, the highest in five years.

The final round averaged 6.2 million viewers with a peak of 10.2 million. American television broadcaster NBC was pleased as it bodes well for The Open broadcast starting on July 16.