General

U.S. Open Rewards Mediocrity, Not Greatness

Jun 12, 2008, 2:35 PM UTC

Occasionally,

graces TSB with his presence. This is one of those occasions.

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â†µNBC’s promos of its U.S. Open coverage have promised a Father’s Day gift to top them all – prime time coverage of the national golf championship. I suppose there are some people who dislike their fathers that much.â†µâ†µESPN only covers the early rounds, so it sticks more to the game when it promotes its telecasts, which begin today. The network rolls in some really weepy violin music and has an announcer talk in hushed tones about the U.S. Open’s importance: “Win it, and forever walk with the greats.” â†µ

â†µâ†µOh, you bet. All the greats: Geoff Ogilvy; Steve Jones; Scott Simpson. â†µ

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â†µAndy North won it twice – and only managed one other victory in his entire PGA Tour career. But give North credit – he was able to parlay those two U.S. Opens into many years as the most dreadfully boring television analyst in the history of sport – any sport.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe U.S. Open is a ridiculous test of golf. It does not reward flair, creativity, strength or daring. It does not reward greatness. It rewards safety. Stay out of the rough. Don’t attack the flag. Make sure that lag putt gives you a tap-in. Take your par and move to the next hole.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe Open is rigged up so a bunch of guys in blue blazers can clink the ice in their Glenlivet and chuckle about how the best players in the world couldn’t handle the deep rough. â†µ

â†µâ†µOver the past 25 years, as the USGA honchos have fallen more in love with their ability to trick up a course, it’s produced the worst list of winners of any major championship. The PGA Championship gave you four Tigers Woods, two Vijay Singhs and a Phil Mickelson – and that’s just since 1998. That’s seven legitimately great winners. In that same period the Masters gave you three Woods, two Mickelsons, a Singh and a Jose Maria Olazabal. Again, seven great champions. â†µ

â†µâ†µThe Open? Woods won it twice. And that’s it. The rest of the winners are a collection of the very good (Payne Stewart, Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk) and the OK (Michael Campbell, Angel Cabrera). Interesting that some of the best U.S. Open winners in recent times (Woods, Tom Kite, Tom Watson) won at Pebble Beach, a course the USGA can’t mess with because the wind might start blowing hard off the Pacific and make it unplayable.â†µ

â†µâ†µSupposedly, weekend hackers enjoy watching the best players being butchered by a course in the same way any of us might. That’s perverse. It’s like watching the NBA Finals contested on a hockey rink.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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