Glad you agree!

I was glad to see so many readers agree with me that when the USGA makes a golf course unplayable, and brings a lot of luck into the equation, it spoils the event for the players, for the spectators, and the final results!

Growing the rough long in a U.S. Open has been done before, and penalizes the players if they don't hit the fairway. That is a justified move on the part of the USGA. But for a ball to roll away from the hole on the greens, and roll, and roll, and roll, and roll, and roll some more, is not the correct goal on the part of the tournament organizers!

The same holds true for the fringe around a green. The side of the green at hole #14 at Pebble Beach is not a green, it is rough, and should be grown the same length as the rest of the rough on the course. For a ball to roll ten feet past the hole to the fringe, and then continue rolling, and rolling, and rolling, until it comes to rest in thick grass forty feet away from the green, is no way to decide the best golfer in the event.

Golf is a game of skill, not a roll of the dice, and it is unfortunate that the USGA has not figured that out after all this time! Several times during the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach last week, commentators interviewed the USGA official on-hand, and asked him if he thought the conditions at #14 green were fair. Each time the official ansewered, "Yes, we feel it is fair."

That official should find another job, because he is a masochist ( and I do not mean in the usual sexual connotation)! I guess it would be more appropriate to call him a sadist. In any event, the USGA needs to reevaluate its definition of "fair".

I would like to hear what other readers have to say about this subject, so please reply to me if you have the time, and an opinion one way or the other. Thanks.