Congratulations to Lucas Glover, who notched his second tour victory today that happened to come at the U.S. Open on one of the toughest courses around: Bethpage Black. His 4-under final score was enough to hold off Phil Mickelson (who has now finished second in the tournament more than anyone else) and David Duval, both of whom shared the lead late in the final round, and Ricky Barnes, who faded in the final round.
But to me, this U.S. Open will long have a big question mark over it because of the rain in the first two days and how the tournament organizers handled it. Of the top five finishers, none had to golf in the rain on Thursday, and the earliest Friday first-round tee time for any of them was 10:33 a.m. In fact, the only person to not finish over par and tee off on Thursday was Tiger Woods. On the flip side, while three more players got to start on Friday instead of Thursday, 58% of the players cut after the second round had to start in the rain on Thursday. Twenty of the 26 worst scores in the first two rounds were from players who had to play the poor conditions on Thursday and early Friday. The average first-round score of those who started Thursday was a full two strokes higher than those who didn’t.
One of my friends who played golf in college said “that’s golf.” No, it doesn’t have to be. Weather doesn’t have to play such a big role and be such a big disadvantage for players who got unlucky with their tee time. Can you imagine if they told Roger Federer that he had to play in the mud while his opponent got to play on a dry surface?
Unfortunately, the golf powers-that-be feel the need to get the tournament completed by Sunday, so they force players out in terrible conditions knowing not everyone will have to go. And what happens in the end? They go to Monday anyway. Change the rules! Be smart about when you send people out. And if some players have to play in the rain before the horn blows, figure out a tee-time system that will send the rest of the players out first the next morning so they have to play in the mud of the early morning. There are creative solutions golf can implement that will make the playing field more fair. But, the sport that prides itself on tradition above all else will keep up the unfair practice.
on Jun 22nd, 2009 at 2:49 PM
You are obviously not a golfer. This happens all the time and is just getting so much blogged/written about it because for a change Tiger was on the wrong side of the draw (other than the British Open where he shot 81 in a cold rain storm).
How about all the times when this was reversed and Tiger got favorable conditions vs. the other side of the draw.
It is a running joke on the PGA tour that if you are on the same draw as Tiger you will get sunny conditions or play will be halted to your advantage so Tiger doesn’t play in the rain.
If they waited for everyone to get the same conditions, we would still be in round 2 not done with the tournament.
on Jun 22nd, 2009 at 4:52 PM
Tiger has benefited from good weather too….sorry but he lost because of all the short putts he missed.
As for you tennis analogy, there are plenty of differnet conditions throughout any given day at a tournament. It can start out sunny and end up rainy at Wimbledon forcing a match to be interupted. Wind can roll in for afternoon matches when morning matches get calm winds. Some players play more night matches. It’s part of the game.
on Jun 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 PM
I am a golfer and I am a long-time golf fan. I have played in beautiful conditions and in downpours. And I can tell you it’s a LOT harder to play in the rain. Nice try, though.
But in a tennis match, BOTH competitors in a match face the same conditions throughout the entire match.
What Tiger Woods did or didn’t do has nothing to do with this. Few major championships have been played with this kind of disparity. I cannot remember one – and neither can Jim Rome. Even if they had, it doesn’t make it right – FIX IT so unfair advantages aren’t handed out with the draw!
on Jun 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 PM
How can you fix it? You can’t put a dome over a golf course. You can’t have them play on a bunch of different golf courses so that everyone starts at the same time, even if you had enough courses in the same area and they were all designed the same. You can’t cancel play for the entire day if rain is in the forecast but not until the afternoon, or else they’d have been playing the first round today, not the final. About the only thing you can do is split the players into 18 groups and have each one start their round at a different hole, which would in itself cause inequities based on the difficulty of some holes.
on Jun 22nd, 2009 at 7:54 PM
Seriously Cyd…golf is played in rain all the time. Was this an exceptionally bad weather weekend? Yes. But it’s part of the game. And it’s easy for you and Jim Rome to say “fix it” but, as Joe said, how? I haven’t heard any players bitching about it so I’m not so sure why you and that douche Jim Rome are in such a lather about it.
And yes both competitors in a given tennis match have to deal with the same conditions. But who you play in the next round probably didn’t. At Wimbledon, there have been some players who have had their matches rain delayed over three days while others playing in the same round finish their match during a 2 hour good weather window. And which side of the draw you end up on determines which days you play and how many days off you may get.
The one thing that they should not have done (IMO) was start the final round last night . Having the leaders go back out on the course to play one or two holes at 7pm seemed stupid to me.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 AM
You say fix it but HOW??? – do we wait until there is a forecast for sunny conditions for all to play?
Maybe we should hold the whole month of June as the US Men’s Open. We could have April designated as Master’s month, June as US Open month, July as British Open month and September as PGA month.
Since the PGA is loosing sponsors, why don’t you call them up and suggest this as a alternative plan?
Yes this wasn’t equal conditions for everyone but that is part of the “rub of the green” as us true golfers call it.
This happens all the time in the British Open when conditions change rapidly either to the better or the worse (usually for the worse).
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Congrats to Glover. Tiger is my favorite but weather can’t be used as an excuse for him. His driving was off too much and he didn’t sink the putts he needed to. He had just as good a chance to win this tournament as Glover did. Mickelson as usual choked away another US Open although I will be a bit easier on him this time given his family situation. Barnes should be shot for that final round performance.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 PM
A couple ideas:
First, be smarter about how long players have to play in the rain. They sounded the horn around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday when they knew they would have to at some point anyway – the forecast for last Thursday was terrible. Sound the horn earlier.
Second, instead of just resuming where you left off after a rain delay, make the people who haven’t gone out yet go out first so the players who haven’t had to play in the rain get the worst conditions.
Only 4 of the first 18 golfers made the cut. That’s 22%. Of all the rest of the golfers, 43% made the cut. That’s a statistically significant number. Why not do something about it for next time?
Again, this isn’t like football or baseball, when all competitors have to play in the same weather conditions. If everyone was out on the course at the same time, I’d say let them play in snow! But why not find ways to limit the advantage that the luck of the draw can give someone? They already try to do it by flipping the start times around between the first and second rounds. Why not be smarter and more creative when it comes to weather? Why not?
It’s not easy, and it’s not tradition, yeah I know. But to me, sports like golf and tennis should focus a little more on finding a true champion in the majors, instead of “getting the match in.” They’re focused on the TV ratings they can get on a Sunday that they know they won’t get on a Monday.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Well Cyd I can’t argue with those stats re: some of the players who didn’t make the cut or ended up being too affected by the rain at the start to really have a shot at the end. You do make a good point there buddy. But what can you do? I don’t see them changing the tee times because of that.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 2:56 PM
The big deal is also TV coverage. ESPN and NBC paid for the rights and they want play for when their broadcast is scheduled. Like it or not, TV has a big impact because that is where the USGA gets their money.
Unless everyone plays at exactly the same time, conditions in golf will always be different. Yes, this was an extreme case but it wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.
Did some guys get the short end of the draw? Yes, but perhaps next time, they will end on the other half. That is why there is always a bit of luck in the game and the scots call it the “rub of the green”. It can be soft wind vs. hard, a bounce off the tree, or full rain vs. sunshine.
Over a career, the greats will still shine through. Look Tiger still finished near the top. As much as I don’t like him, it shows that he was able to over come the rain as a great player would. The reason he didn’t win was the 4 final holes in the first round played +4 when it wasn’t raining anymore.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 3:28 PM
Okay, I just had to look at the pairing sheet after Cyd’s stats were up in his last response. I don’t recognize (nor do probably many golf fans) any of the first 9 players off the tee as legit contenders (even for the cut)
In the next 3 groups, there were 6 players with world ranking of under 50 and half of them made the cut (or 50% cut rate). Not making the cut was Justin Leonard and while a good player he has never made the cut in a US Open (per ESPN not me)
It is also interesting that Cyd’s stats were for the first 18 players as this excluded the very next pairing of P Harrington, A Cabera and Tiger. If you include them, the stat of those who made the cut shifts up to 29% and improves with each of the next 3 pairings.
If you are going to quote stats, be sure that this gay sports fan accountant can audit them. If I feel there is a bias, I will feel obligated to point it out sorry – lol.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 4:24 PM
More uninformed golf commentary from Cyd. Just stop. Please. Find another blogger to write about golf because you can’t do it.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 4:31 PM
That comment was a little blunt. Just want to add, I love your work on this site—but when writing, one should stick to what he knows.
“Change the rules! Be smart about when you send people out. And if some players have to play in the rain before the horn blows, figure out a tee-time system that will send the rest of the players out first the next morning so they have to play in the mud of the early morning.”
This makes absolutely NO sense. “The mud of the early morning”? How do you know it will be muddy the next morning? Are you suggesting that the groundskeepers intentionally mess up the course to equalize the conditions? What if it doesn’t rain again? It’s one thing to complain about unfairness and bad breaks, something at which professional golfers are extremely skilled. They play the best courses in the world every weekend and find something to whine about at each one. But you can’t really believe what you’re writing here. There are no solutions to this problem because the game is played outdoors. It’s physically impossible to get 100-some golfers out on the same course and guarantee equal conditions. If you get the short end of the stick, that’s just the rub of the green.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 4:43 PM
KJ, the next grouping that I left off was the 7:33AM grouping. Woods, Harrington and Cabrera didn’t tee off for over a half hour later. Of the next grouping I left off, 4 of 6 DIDN’T make the cut (and the two who did finished +4 and +16 for the tournament). You can try to slice and dice and cut holes in the numbers all you want, but it’s very clear that getting that early tee time severely hindered those players’ ability to win a major championship.
Boomer, sorry, you’re stuck with me. Consider yourself lucky
You CAN be smarter about it. The problem is, I guess, that the PGA (like every other major sports league) is so rigid that they would never allow there to be thought put behind something like this, never allow tournament organizers to get creative. They COULD adjust on the fly. But they won’t. By the way, I’m not talking about drizzle here. The weather and conditions were severely different for different golfers. If some are going to play in the rain, have them all play in the rain. Make it a total mockery. That’d be great! “The leader at the end of the first round is Woody Austin, who shot a 12-over 82.” Now THAT I’d watch!!
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 11:26 PM
“The weather and conditions were severely different for different golfers. If some are going to play in the rain, have them all play in the rain.”
What if the tee times are rejiggered and then it fails to rain the next day? We are back at square one, with an “unfair” set of tee times that helped one group of players over another, except now the grubby fingers of organizers are all over the results. Sometimes it’s best just to leave things to chance.
And frankly, the people who run golf tournaments have enough on their plates as is. Hang out at the scoring area of even a regional junior golf tournament and you’ll see the controlled chaos involved in shepherding dozens of players around a golf course in a competitive environment while enforcing a 200-page rule book on a five-mile-long track. Bringing subjective decisions that involve inconsistent, unpredictable weather reports into the equation does not make sense.
The “rub of the green” is enshrined in the Rules of Golf–tough luck is a basic tenet of the game. That’s what makes it so compelling both to play and to watch. Many if not most avid golfers would think you have a solution in search of a problem.
on Jun 24th, 2009 at 1:06 PM
In truth, mud on the ground (and the ball) was a much bigger issue than rain or wind. Rain and wind are a normal part of golf. If fairness was the goal, I would have preferred the USGA (not the PGA – this is a USGA tournament after all and they uphold the rules of golf) institute the lift-clean-place rule. That would certainly have made things more fair for everyone. The wind and rain impact each hole differently based on direction, location, elevation, etc. Each ball in play hits the ground. Every time.
I agree with you, Boomer. As the sentiment goes, “play it as it lies.”