Year In Review Vol. 7, SI Roundtable
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In May, Sports Illustrated convened David Fay, Brad Faxon, Larry Dorman and myself at Rhode Island Country Club for a roundtable discussion hosted by Jeff Silverman. This meeting of the minds appeared in SI's stand-alone U.S. Open preview issue.
While David Fay's "middle of the night" Shinnecock Hills green rolling didn't make the published version in its entirety, but it did give me a Golfdom column (and served as a reminder that the USGA needs much better overnight security...assuming this tale of woe is true).
Should you have nothing else to do today: we pick up during the 2004 U.S. Open conversation and why the USGA was consistently messing up course setups...
SHACK: Doesn’t the problem still come back to scoring – low scoring and the USGA being bothered by that. I mean Jeff Maggert said last year that he knew after those two rounds – and the words he used – were I knew that they were gonna panic. And it just seems like with all the changes in the game that the USGA is still clinging to par. And I know you’ve said that that’s not the case, but it seems to me the only way to explain the things that went on, and I’m sorry, but Saturday was to me, watching it on television, was as embarrassing as Sunday because that’s when it started to go bad…
FAY: Um-hum…
SHACK: And it just seems so apparent that the scores bothered everyone. I’ve spoken to all the people who rolled the greens and it was clear that Friday night that was the feeling, that these guys have gone low for a US Open. Seventeen were at par or better.
FAY: Um-hum…
SHACK: And I don’t understand why the USGA clings to that notion when courses are in better shape, players are better, technology and equipment are just better, so scores should naturally evolve.
FAY: Well, they have naturally evolved. And we’ve always taken that position. Look at Ben Hogan. Two of his four US Opens he won at seven over par. Seven over par. And the one he lost in a playoff he was seven over par. You look at his average over his salad days other than at your home club, Riviera, his scoring was very high. We’re not gonna cling to par. But we want par to have some meaning. And on the rolling, we can go on and on about that, but that’s our fault. The rolling took place. It was not done at our request. It was done in the middle of the night.
SHACK: In the middle of the night?
FAY: In the middle of the night.
SHACK: Really?
FAY: In the middle of the night.
SHACK: That’s (laughs)
FAY: In the middle of the night.
SHACK: You make it sound as if Carl Spackler came out and rolled the greens in some vendetta.
FAY: It would be nice if Carl did write a book on the US Open. It would be pretty juicy.
SHACK: Well, everybody there that I’ve spoken to said that wasn’t the case.
FAY: You haven’t spoken to the right people.
SHACK: Well, the other problem…
FAY: In the middle of the night. I can understand they were upset that they were blamed…
SHACK: As they should be…
FAY: …on Saturday by certain voices within the USGA. So on Saturday night that was when the rolling took place.
Faxon: Without your knowledge…
FAY: I want you to know, that was without our knowledge.
SHACK: Saturday night there was another rolling…
FAY: It was excessive rolling on Saturday night. Saturday night. Not Friday night.
SHACK: Cause I was watching on television when you came on and said that by mistake it was rolled, and NBC had a shot of the seventh green and they were out double-cutting it. And my mom called and she said that doesn’t make much sense does it if the green got too fast. Why are they out doublecutting it again. To anybody watching, it just seemed like the whole thing was out of control. And I guess it’s just hard for people who want our national Open to be something special to see this sort of chaos.
FAY: Well, it’s sort of in the eye of the beholder, too, Geoff. As I said, it got out of control, but it didn’t get in our minds that far out of control. Now you’re gonna say, Oh, now wait a minute, now. But I’ve said for many years, and Brad, I said it to you I remember up at that dedication up at Buttonhole, because I’ve been consistent on it, once a year, and this goes back in the history of the US Open, it has always been a very punishing examination…
SHACK: Um-hum…
FAY: Whether it was at Myopia Hunt Club at the turn of the century, which was far tougher than any other course, whether it was Oakmont, with the Fownes rakes in the bunkers, whether it was Oakland Hills in 1951, or Olympic in ’55, or Winged Foot in ’74. You can go on and on. But the US Open has always been probably the hardest golf tournament. We’ve got majors. We’ve got four or five majors. But that’s always been its imprimatur. It’s the hardest golf tournament. If you look at it, when we’re all growing up, there’s more strain strain on the faces of the players. It feels like they’ve been in a fist fight. You would say I was embarrassed by it, and believe me, we did not want to see what we saw on Sunday. But a lot of people are saying, Man, I loved that. But you don’t want to see that every week because these are great players. Look, it wasn’t that far away from what we wanted. Seven – everyone focuses on that. I was just as concerned about one. Actually, one in some ways bothered me more than anything. There were shots, where don’t have a wild slope to the green, where once they were hitting and they looked like they were finished, they had come to rest they rolled on for 25 yards.
SHACK: Well, that’s where Ernie gave up, according to Tom Meeks.
Faxon laughs.
FAY: Well, anyone who’s an athlete knows you don’t say that. That doesn’t even warrant response.
