The U.S. Open doesn’t have an 18-hole playoff anymore. Woot!

If the 2018 U.S. Open has a tie atop the leaderboard after 72 holes, there won’t be an 18-hole playoff on Monday to decide it. For the first time, in the event of a tie, the national championship would come down to a two-hole aggregate playoff on Nos. 17 and 18.

“The U.S. Open has been played since 1895, and in that time period there have been 33 playoffs,” USGA CEO Mike Davis said in announcing the change in February. “They’ve always been 18 holes or even more. We decided after talking to a lot of stakeholders that golf really in this day and age, everybody wanted to see a Sunday finish.”

The last was 10 years ago. In 2008, Tiger Woods beat Rocco Mediate by one stroke in a playoff that took 19 holes, with one of sudden death after they couldn’t decide it in a combined 90 holes at Torrey Pines. For most of the championship’s history, the 18-hole format has been in play, though it had three 36-hole playoffs between 1928 and 1931.

Not everyone in the field was previously aware the USGA had made the change. Here’s a fun exchange from a Jordan Spieth press conference two days before the tournament:

Reporter: What do you think of the USGA decision to go to a two-hole playoff to decide?

Spieth: It’s the first I’ve heard of that being an option.

Reporter: Really?

Spieth: It’s still 18 holes, right?

Moderator: No, it’s two.

Spieth: Oh, it is two? I didn’t even know. What do I think of it?

Moderator: Two on Sunday.

Spieth: Two on Sunday. Either way, I mean, I guess strategy changes a little from an entire round, but I honestly had no idea that it even changed. I was even looking at a weather forecast for Monday, thinking, you know, what’s it look like if you happen to work your way into a playoff? So shows you what I know.

The U.S. Open is already an advanced test of golf. The courses are brutal most years. Shinnecock Hills has ruined some of the world’s best players.

A 72-hole tournament leaves plenty of time to make sure whoever wins doesn’t fluke into the trophy. Making people stay around (or keep their attention fixed on) the tournament for an extra day to watch two players wind through the course lends itself to some extra drama at the end, but it’s not worth the delay and difficulty it causes fans, players, and workers.

Sometime soon — maybe on Sunday — 72 holes won’t be enough. That doesn’t mean the USGA needs 90 to hash out a couple of players’ differences.