The climax of the U.S. Open was magnificent.
So is Dustin Johnson.
So was the TV coverage.
So was Chambers Bay.
But all are flawed just as magnificently.
About the only aspect of the 115th U.S. Open that wasn’t so flawed was the champion, Jordan Spieth. He was simply magnificent in victory.
Rarely has a major championship been so fiercely criticized and, in my opinion, justifiably so on most counts.
Spieth’s play was, on the whole, stellar and befitting of the 21-year-old’s ascendance to stardom as he notched his second consecutive Grand Slam title of 2015. His double bogey on the 71st hole gave a glimmer of hope to Johnson and to Louis Oosthuizen, both of whom would finish a shot behind Spieth. He obliterated that hiccup with a perfect drive and then a 3-wood approach to 15 feet on the controversial finishing hole, resulting in a birdie.
So no quibbles there about magnificence or performance under pressure.
For Johnson, who celebrated a bittersweet first Father’s Day on Sunday and then his 31st birthday on Monday, this was yet another heartbreak. He deserved better. Ignore the crass and snide remarks about his “voluntary” six-month hiatus from the PGA Tour. He has an astounding tee-to-green game and, as has been the case with so many great ball strikers, he was victimized by abysmal putting. He is in good company. Hogan, for one. Our own George Knudson, for another.
With a similar 15-foot putt for eagle (having demolished the 18th with a drive and a 5-iron), Johnson missed the chance to win, then to tie. Three putts from a couple of lengths of a flagstick. A modern tragedy.
Robert Trent Jones Jr. characterized Chambers Bay as a links course on steroids. He meant that as a good thing. He was right but he was wrong. In attempting to “improve” on classic links layouts, he created a monstrosity.
The golf course looked amazing on television but was an abomination as a U.S. Open venue.
Spectators were frustrated by their inability to get close to the action because of the bizarre routing on topography that resembled something from the Golden Tee video game. Relegated to grandstands, they might as well have watched it on TV. Speaking of that, Fox deserves kudos for some of their technical innovations. Magnificent. But deeply flawed were their choices of on-air personnel and camera work.
Chambers Bay’s putting surfaces were abysmal, a motley combination of fescue and poa annua (annual bluegrass, considered a weed by botanists and a plague by most course superintendents). Players compared the experience to putting on broccoli and cauliflower, a comment on not only their colour, not unlike your grandma’s shag carpeting in the 1970s, but also their consistency. Brandt Snedeker’s birdie putt on 14 on Sunday bounced six inches in the air before cruising into another time zone. “Good hang time on that putt,” noted one wag. Unrepaired ball mark? Sprinkler head? Maybe. Or maybe not.
John Feinstein is a noted golf writer and author. Sitting on a Golf Channel panel last Thursday, he rightly and bravely commented that if there is one thing Tour pros like better than playing golf, it is whining about golf courses. But occasionally, like a stopped clock, they are right. This was the case at Chambers Bay.
So in the aftermath of a controversial and memorable, but not historically significant, U.S. Open, questions must be asked.
Should Chambers Bay be considered as a future major championship venue? No.
Should Dustin Johnson be considered as a future major champion? Yes.
Should Jordan Spieth be considered as a Grand Slam candidate? No doubt.
Was this year’s U.S. Open magnificent?
Yes.
And no.