When Sunday ended, there was no winner and no survivors.
Maybe that’s what the United States Golf Association wanted. Bloody up the best golfers in the world for four days and then send two more players out there one more time for good measure.
The USGA says it is not its intention to embarrass the best players, but you would have a hard time convincing many of them on the basis of the two U.S. Opens this year.
Pins were hung off the side of cliffs at the Olympic Club for the U.S. Open last month. The fairways were like virtual television because they seemed about as wide as the screen. Lee Janzen won at even par, and the players couldn’t get out of San Francisco soon enough.
But that was nothing compared to what the women faced this week at Blackwolf Run. This might be the first time in Open history that the rest of the field feels sorry for the two playoff participants, Se Ri Pak and Jenny Chuasiriporn, who will be subjected to that torture track again.
The USGA succeeded in making birdies an endangered species last week. The leading scores of six-over were the highest for an Open since 1983, back in the days when most woods were wood.
It was mostly golf at its worst for what is supposed to be the marque event on the women’s tour. The barrage of bogeys triggered questions once again, asking if the USGA has gone too far.
“I know it is not their intention to embarrass the best players,” LPGA Commissioner Jim Ritts said. “But they came dangerously close with this setup. I worry that it is going to give the misleading impression that the talent level isn’t there.
“My worry is about the general sports fans who doesn’t know much about women’s golf. Did they walk away with the impression that these women can’t play? I hope they didn’t.”
Helen Alfredsson has the same concern. She had no problems with the high scores, but she also knows it certainly didn’t make for pretty television.
“We’ll be OK as long as you guys (the media) don’t say we look like a bunch of idiots and that we can’t play golf because we’re women,” Alfredsson said. “Don’t say the women can’t play. Say the course played really tough.”
There’s little question that Blackwolf Run was brutally tough. When the winds kicked up Saturday, it seemed like any round under three digits was a good score.
Still, the USGA knew the winds could blow on Blackwolf Run, and it made the course the second longest Open layout at 6,412 yards. That length would have been OK if it didn’t have perhaps the hardest greens in Open history.
When asked what was challenging about Blackwolf Run, Pak, who speaks limited English, said, “Everything.”
Judy Bell, the immediate past USGA president, who set up the course, stuck with the association’s mantra that the Open “isn’t supposed to embarrass the best players. It is supposed to identify the best player.”
But, she was asked, at what point do you go from identifying the best players to embarrassing the best players?
“That is a great question because we are not trying to embarrass anybody,” Bell said. “These are wonderful, wonderful players. We are not trying to embarrass anybody. I guess for me, embarrassing the players would be tricking things up, making the greens soft front. We didn’t do that.”
Bell, though, did set some difficult pins, especially on Saturday when the wind made the conditions a double killer. She took some heat.
“I am not trying to be defensive,” Bell said. “I wish all these scores were lower. I wish they all were around par.”
Par also was rarely seen at the Olympic Club. The narrow fairways made the driver a needless accessory. Most players used irons off the tee.
At the women’s Open, length was the premium with players using fairway woods for approach shots into greens. Mostly, they missed.
As a result, Open golf is playing back on your heels. It is about being defensive and passive instead of being aggressive.
Is this what fans want to see from the best players in the world?
“I don’t like any professional to shoot 6-, 7-, 8-over,” Ritts said. “But at the same time, people understand that this is the U.S. Open. I think the people at home weren’t looking at the fact the leader was 6-over. The only they cared about was that somebody had a one-shot lead.”
Ritts, though, believes the USGA pendulum has swung as far as it is going to go on the toughness scale.
For her part, Bell says she has to look at the tapes.
“I always think we can learn something and we can make it better,” Bell said.
That should come as a relief to many players who don’t think it can get any worse.
