U.S. Women's Open: "Davis' absence a big miss for women's golf"

USGA Executive Directors have long taken a back seat at the U.S. Women's Open for reasons both reasonable and odd, but as Randall Mell writes for GolfChannel.com, the Tuesday U.S. Women's Open absense of both USGA Executive Director Mike Davis and President Diana Murphy at Trump Bedminster was hard to miss. Especially with USGA headquarters literally down the street and players facing non-golf questions.

Mell writes:

Yes, Davis doesn’t always make an appearance at this annual women’s news conference, which is troubling enough in itself, but his absence Tuesday was especially glaring.

Davis’ last appearance at the U.S. Women’s Open annual USGA news conference was 2014, but this one demanded his square jaw, even if he was only going to deflect, block or dodge, like all the players he left to answer the hard questions.

Funny thing, though. While Davis didn’t have to dodge any hardballs Tuesday, he’s the one who got the black eye.

“It's probably been several years since he has been here,” USGA public services director Beth Major said of the news conference’s makeup. “I know this is the team assembled last year. We are being consistent with the same team.”