U.S. Open: Mashers Collide In Mamaroneck; Quickly-Refuted Report Suggests USGA Hands Over Setup To Super!

These guys know how to mash it! Even the golf ball!

Round three of the 2020 U.S. Open features two of the game’s elite, First Team All-American mashers of terra firma in the vicinity of their golf ball.

I bring good news: if their past run-ins with the golf laws are any indication, drama looms this weekend at Winged Foot.

Patrick Reed(-4), was called out on live TV pushing rough down behind his ball in the playoffs, and digging a canal in the Bahamas, and has a lawyer trying to silence those branding him a cheater. He’s also hitting just 38% of fairways and half the greens, so there is a sustainability question heading into the weekend.

Bryson DeChambeau (-3) came to the forefront of rules official bad dreams with incidents along the way, but nothing like this year’s combo package at Muirfield Village. While most of the footage has been taken down after takedown requests by the PGA Tour, though there remains a couple here where Bryson handles a ruling with absolutely no class. The scenes of him turning his driver into a spatula, however, sleep behind a password.

Worse news for officials: Reed loves the pairing, reports GolfChannel.com’s Ryan Lavner. What could go wrong!

For starters, this pandemic-delayed edition of the U.S. Open lacks walking officials and only TV cameras to witness any excess mashing. A belated Happy Saturday to the USGA Rules trailer. Hope you get a good pizza delivered. Then there is the whole these-guys-grow-the-game and they-are-athletes and we-can’t-taint-brands mindset that has so far prevented higher ups from telling players to stop with the lie improvement nonsense.

Mercifully, there were no incidents reported through 36 holes other than NBC’s Jim “Bones” Mackay noting the mitzvah that was Reed’s lie on the fourth. So maybe Reed and DeChambeau have gotten the message. Or they’re just waiting to liven up our Saturday. Coverage begins on Peacock and moves directly to NBC, so check those local listings if they still exist.

In other bizarre U.S. Open news, there appears to be a peculiar vibe developing between the Winged Foot set who were reportedly not pleased with the sensible USGA team attempting to present a tough, smart and efficient setup.

Following the very good round one scoring, Outside The Cut reported this assertion and I have no reason to doubt someone fairly credible in greater Mamaroneck believes this occurred, as delusional as it sounds:

UPDATE — Per internal source, the USGA has made an uncharacteristic move to largely defer setup decisions back to the Winged Foot team in regard to SubAir (which ran all night), watering and pin positions. Both the USGA and WF are very pleased with the setup for R2.

— Outside The Cut (@OutsideTheCut) September 18, 2020

Before that was up too long, Andy Johnson at The Fried Egg asked the USGA’s John Bodenhamer about this report. The reserved Bodenhamer, charged with setting up the course along with Jeff Hall and doing a stellar job, replied quickly to Johnson:

In response to rumors that the USGA has deferred to Winged Foot on a lot of setup and agronomic decisions, John Bodenhamer said this is "absolute FAKE NEWS!"

— The Fried Egg (@the_fried_egg) September 18, 2020

I’m not going to belabor the utter shallowness of a few hundred members of a club hoping for higher scores. But I will say this: keep an eye out in the middle of the night for any weird light and roller sounds coming from Winged Foot. Stranger things have happened.