2020 US OPEN

[hairpuller]

They’ll need to figure out a way to deal Bryson, as that is really ugly golf.
Hopefully everybody doesn’t come back next year all beefed up and hitting it over all the bunkers and trees!

I was rooting for Kokrak!!

Scott

[FrankHS]

Originally Posted by AX17609

I think the story of this tournament is that Bryson DeChambeau has rendered golf course architecture irrelevant...

Why is that? (Asking this ignorantly, not rhetorically, I'm not a golfer.) Seems there oughta be 50 Ways to lower the long ball (advantage.) Maybe draw the most vulnerable holes' out-of-bounds lines only 3 feet outboard of the _fairway_ borders. Would that be unfair?

[Mr. Paul]

Interesting suggestion to change the rules to neutralize big hitters that score better than everyone else. Scoring better than everyone else is the goal of every professional golfer. In football, if a team wins the Super Bowl with a different approach to the game (the "west coast offense" for example), it's pretty common for other teams to try to model their game after the winner's style.

John Daley had limited success with his long ball philosophy, but he ultimately did not have the skill level in the rest of his game to pull it off consistently. Bryson made the shots and putted well.

The 2020 US Open is an interesting chapter in the "are pro golfers really athletes" discussion that comes up from time to time.

[6L6]

Incredible win by Bryson! Gonna be even more fun to watch when he gets that 48" driver!

One thing however...

If you watched the event yesterday on TV you'll have noted that despite a 5 to 10mph slower swing speed, Wolff was hitting it as far (and sometimes further) than Bryson. That tells me a couple of things:

* Bryson has too much spin on his ball for use with the driver

* His 5 degree loft on the driver may actually be too much!

* Maybe Bryson is playing the wrong ball (Bridgestone vs Wolff's Taylormade)


You can bet they'll be looking at all of that.

GREAT FUN watching that tournament!

[hairpuller]

I think the fact that Bryson tees his ball up about 3 inches adds to the incredible height he gets on his drives and the very nominal run out. Wolff's drives were about half as high, which resulted in twice as much run out...if not more.

scott

[Lkristians]

This is a great thread, guys. All of your points are well taken. You could be on a roundtable panel on Golf Channel! It was certainly a great win for Bryson. I have to chalk it up to being in the best shape mentally and physically, and working harder than everyone else. And we haven't heard the last from Wolff!
Masters in November!

[reeve21]

Can't say I'm a big fan of Bryson, but I've got to give him credit for taming the monster.

I remember reading about what Bobby Jones said the first time he saw Nicklaus, I'll bet a lot of people feel that way now (to paraphrase, "He plays a game I'm not familiar with").

I know these guys are bigger and stronger than ever before, but they are driving it a hundred yards past what the courses were designed for. Does anyone else think the ball and/or clubs should be regulated so that we don't lose these great old courses?

[FrankHS]

Originally Posted by Mr. Paul

Interesting suggestion to change the rules to neutralize big hitters that score better than everyone else. Scoring better than everyone else is the goal of every professional golfer...

As a casual fan, I watch a few majors per year, but Im not amazed at length as much as accuracy and creativity. Obviously those aspects are not mutually exclusive, but the news quote below (from a US Open summary I read yesterday, since I missed most of it) implies the industry wants to address old-fashioned sensibilities (such as mine.)

<<The USGA and R&A are so concerned about the impact of long hitting on the game that they issued a report earlier this year that said, in part, that advances in distance off the tee were threatening to "undermine the core principle that the challenge of golf is about needing to demonstrate a broad range of skills to be successful.">>

Of course, BD did demonstrate that "broad range." So will it come down to legislating a specific value system preference, or else, "What sells golf best?"

[AX17609]

Originally Posted by FrankHS

Why is that? (Asking this ignorantly, not rhetorically, I'm not a golfer.) Seems there oughta be 50 Ways to lower the long ball (advantage.) Maybe draw the most vulnerable holes' out-of-bounds lines only 3 feet outboard of the _fairway_ borders. Would that be unfair?

The issue with Bryson isn’t his length. It’s that the way the ball lies no longer makes a difference. He doesn’t need to hit it in the fairway. Short grass, long grass ... it’s all the same to him. Hence, the way the course is designed — the way the fairways run, the placement of the bunkers, etc. — makes no difference.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by AX17609

The issue with Bryson isn’t his length. It’s that the way the ball lies no longer makes a difference. He doesn’t need to hit it in the fairway. Short grass, long grass ... it’s all the same to him. Hence, the way the course is designed — the way the fairways run, the placement of the bunkers, etc. — makes no difference.

I agree with you about the length. In fact, he placed sixth overall in distance off the tee for the tournament.
But I wouldn't go as far as saying where the ball lies makes no difference. I think it still does to all these players, incl. Bryson.
The biggest difference I saw was strategy. Nearly every single player approached this Open according to dogma, i.e. patience, patience, patience. Try to hit fairways. Play the driver judiciously. Leave it below the hole etc...
He didn't. As you said, he didn't care nearly as much as the others where the ball ended up. He hit it as far as he could. Consequently, over the course of 4 days, he hit a lot more 8 and 9 irons out of the rough than hybrids and 5 irons. And when he did hit the fairway, he was a wedge away.
Wolff caught on early and bought in. He's no slouch either in the distance dept. They weren't that far off from each other at the turn.
But Bryson had a better overall game than Wolff, and more experience. And he putted better.
I'm sure that if Brooks Koepka was watching, he wasn't seeing anything all that different than the way he's won his last few majors. Hit it far, use brute strength to get you out of trouble, and putt well. Maybe Bryson's unorthodox "rigid" style makes it look more revolutionary.
It certainly was fun to watch. Can't wait for Augusta!....

[robj144]

Originally Posted by AX17609

The issue with Bryson isn’t his length. It’s that the way the ball lies no longer makes a difference. He doesn’t need to hit it in the fairway. Short grass, long grass ... it’s all the same to him. Hence, the way the course is designed — the way the fairways run, the placement of the bunkers, etc. — makes no difference.

Sorry to derail as this has nothing to do with golf, but looking at the post above mine, I was just curious. Are you using something other than an apostrophe, ', for your abbreviations? I don't see anything on my keyboard that slants to the left. My accent mark, `, slants opposite.

It's just pure curiosity to what that character is... sorry to derail again.

[AX17609]

Originally Posted by robj144

Sorry to derail as this has nothing to do with golf, but looking at the post above mine, I was just curious. Are you using something other than an apostrophe, ', for your abbreviations? I don't see anything on my keyboard that slants to the left. My accent mark, `, slants opposite.

It's just pure curiosity to what that character is... sorry to derail again.

No. I was contacted by a moderator about this a couple of weeks ago. My apostrophe is sometimes rendered incorrectly by their software. We speculated that the problem might lie in my pre-historic version of Safari.

[dbintegrity]

I enjoyed watching the US open.... The distance thing did work out for Bryson this week, but anybody who plays golf, knows that every day is a new adventure my motto... "Sometimes Chicken, Sometime feathers". LOL ... It is much easier to predict where the ball is going when it comes off the face of the club in the fairway, it is a considerably different situation when it is hit out of the rough... Kudos to Bryson to be able to work out those distances out of the rough vs the fairways.... Matt Wolff is an awesome competitor and will only get better as he matures on the Tour... There is some unbelievable young talent out there... its great to watch these fine players....

[Mak2525]

Interesting quote from DeChambeau's coach Mike Schy and a unique approach the USGA could take to counter the bomb and gouge methodology:

"They can easily change this whole situation by scaling the rough on courses and they aren't talking about that.

"Instead of having the same rough 200 yards out from the green, you scale it. At 200 yards it's an inch and a half deep. At 60 yards it's six or seven inches deep. The game can go back to strategy and risk and reward if you scale the rough in the right way.

"If you scale the rough it becomes back to how it used to be."



Here's a link to the article if anyone is interested in the whole conversation:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/54241284

[jseth]

Well, it was a great victory for Bryson, without doubt... and it's interesting to note that he was not the longest driver out there... somewhere around 6th in distance for the week?

His strategy was what did it for him, it seems... far easier to hit pitching wedge out of that salad than to attempt to hit a 5 iron out of it.

Not my business, I know, but I was dismayed by the complete lack of grace and "form" in Bryson's method, all the way through his bag... if the robotic approach works for him, then more power to him.

I question how long his body will hold up to the rigors of swinging the way he does; not just Bryson, either, but a lot of the longest hitters have moves that don't portend well for longevity in the game... I think of Sam Snead's swing, and how long he was competitive as a pro... he won throughout 6 decades! We shall see how long Bryson can "keep it up"...

Funny thing about all that distance these days... Jack Nicklaus has been railing about the golf ball for nearly 50 years now, but the USGA still doesn't want to face that point!
One of the many cool things about golf is that the pros and the amateurs all use the same equipment - ball, clubs, etc. Anything that the pros use is available to the rest of us provided we have the money to spend on it (while, of course, the pros don't pay a thing for their equipment in most cases), so I understand the reluctance of having a separate ball for the professional game.

I actually think that making courses harder and faster is one key to "taming" Bryson's advantage... when the conditions are really hard and fast, controlling the ball becomes much more important than "how far can I hit it?"...

It's going to be interesting to see what develops from all this...