It's 2019. How Will the USGA Mess Up This Year's US Open?

With drone-enabled heat maps, high-definition moisture sensors, and a generous sprinkling of arrogant ivory tower attitude, the USGA will find some way of messing it up. It's in their DNA. I know. It's Pebble. How could they mess up Pebble? Well, I thought they couldn't mess up Shinnecock. I was wrong...twice.

Predictions (serious, silly, and all in-between) welcome.

The fans, players, and media will be furious about...something. And it will be great.

Iirc, it was typical USGA the last time, when GMac won. Hard, dry, fast...

They will penalize Tiger on the 16th hole 2 stokes for a infraction that occured on the 5th hole Sunday. Tiger will lose by 1 stroke. :)

> @JohnnyCashForever said:

> With drone-enabled heat maps, high-definition moisture sensors, and a generous sprinkling of arrogant ivory tower attitude, the USGA will find some way of messing it up. It's in their DNA. I know. It's Pebble. How could they mess up Pebble? Well, I thought they couldn't mess up Shinnecock. I was wrong...twice.

>

> Predictions (serious, silly, and all in-between) welcome.

I bet they mark the course w/ penalty areas not previously marked and it ends up helping or hurting players enough to put the new rules into question. There is also the 40 sec per shot pace of play rule - don't believe they will assess anyone but it will be obvious even the USGA can't get some of these guys to play quicker. Pebble is a classic.

> @JohnnyCashForever said:

> With drone-enabled heat maps, high-definition moisture sensors, and a generous sprinkling of arrogant ivory tower attitude, the USGA will find some way of messing it up. It's in their DNA. I know. It's Pebble. How could they mess up Pebble? Well, I thought they couldn't mess up Shinnecock. I was wrong...twice.

>

> Predictions (serious, silly, and all in-between) welcome.

Seems like lately, the USGA has really turned the corner with their shenanigans. 3:4 have been fair? I circled the ones where I think they may have messed up. What does everyone else think about these last so many years?

Thursday morning they will announce everyone has to use the same new USGA approved ball that they have in a big bin on the first tee.

It's an amateur organization trying to run a tournament for professionals. There will be screw ups of massive proportions; we just don't know how they will screw it up (yet).

They will stretch out number 7 to 189 yards and make 16 a driveable par 4.

Trust me it is the USGA they will find some way to mess it up. Grab a beverage of your choice some popcorn sit back and let the fireworks begin or in the case of the USGA the Charlie Foxtrot to begin

> @zonadub said:

> Iirc, it was typical USGA the last time, when GMac won. Hard, dry, fast...

Hopefully its like that again, rather than the overwatered bog that it is for the paying punter.

There were 2, maybe 3 bad pin placements for 1 day last year at Shinnecock and everyone lost their minds, so I think it’s pretty safe to say that people will freak out about every US Open going forward.

> @lawsonman said:

> They will penalize Tiger on the 16th hole 2 stokes for a infraction that occured on the 5th hole Sunday. Tiger will lose by 1 stroke. :)

Maybe accurate except. The infraction will have happened front nine Thursday. They will wait till #12 on Sunday to tell him “ you may want to look at the footage afterwards and tell us if the ball moved “. You know. Cause back 9 Sunday of a major is best time to plant a seed in someone’s head.

Oh and they may adopt some of the pgas trickery. I hear that random bunkers around the course will be marked as sand playground areas for patrons to walk their cats in. But will be played as regular sand traps. So if you’re in a trap with 127 fans .... don’t ground your club.

Sometimes I worry that this forum will lay down on the job of being hysterically anti-USGA. But along comes a topic like this.

> @"15th Club" said:

> Sometimes I worry that this forum will lay down on the job of being hysterically anti-USGA. But along comes a topic like this.

Hey man, they brought it on themselves. :) If it was just a bunch of internet posters bashing the USGA that would be one thing. But it's not.

> @Bensdad said:

> It's an amateur organization trying to run a tournament for professionals. There will be **** ups of massive proportions; we just don't know how they will **** it up (yet).

Your first sentence basically sums up why the pros don’t like the USGA.

USGA desires attention, they will mess something up to get it

> @WidespreadPanic said:

> There were 2, maybe 3 bad pin placements for 1 day last year at Shinnecock and everyone lost their minds, so I think it’s pretty safe to say that people will freak out about every US Open going forward.

I think it was more than just pin placements that were complained about..

> @lawsonman said:

> > @"15th Club" said:

> > Sometimes I worry that this forum will lay down on the job of being hysterically anti-USGA. But along comes a topic like this.

>

> Hey man, they brought it on themselves. :) If it was just a bunch of internet posters bashing the USGA that would be one thing. But it's not.

Well we have the nearly-current examples of Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas, who barely even understood the rules that they were trying to criticize.

I’d be quite happy to have a good, clear organized debate between some of those guys and USGA’s Rules and Competitions experts. Live, and video recorded.

> @Chadwickog said:

> > @WidespreadPanic said:

> > There were 2, maybe 3 bad pin placements for 1 day last year at Shinnecock and everyone lost their minds, so I think it’s pretty safe to say that people will freak out about every US Open going forward.

>

>

> I think it was more than just pin placements that were complained about..

>

>

Zach Johnson kicking off the Saturday coverage by saying “They have lost the golf course, it’s gone” was the most absurd thing I’ve heard.

Hey USGA quit beating around the bush. Just kill the entire golf course and skip the fore play. Get to it already; I don’t want to see a single spec of green out there.

Of course people will find something wrong with it. That is the way of the world in the internet age, wake up and find something to be offended or complain about.

Players, media, and internet posters will find something to complain about regarding the USGA even if they have to make something up. Which is usually the case.

The risk at Pebble is always the Poa greens when the USGA gets hold of them.

In 1992 they were pretty bad. In an effort to make them as hard as possible, the dried them out to the point of losing a lot of turf. They were painting the greens to keep some colour, and the ball rolled terribly after about mid morning.

McDowells year, the greens were pushed pretty far too.

The pushing of those poa greens to make those tiny greens hard and fast always going to be a pretty big risk at Pebble. There are some spots where you can get a hole location with some wind and get yourself pretty close to a Shinnecock situation.

Most likely there will be some stupidity with a new rule. But will it be a player or official this time?

> @rangersgoalie said:

> The risk at Pebble is always the Poa greens when the USGA gets hold of them.

> In 1992 they were pretty bad. In an effort to make them as hard as possible, the dried them out to the point of losing a lot of turf. They were painting the greens to keep some colour, and the ball rolled terribly after about mid morning.

>

> McDowells year, the greens were pushed pretty far too.

>

> The pushing of those poa greens to make those tiny greens hard and fast always going to be a pretty big risk at Pebble. There are some spots where you can get a hole location with some wind and get yourself pretty close to a Shinnecock situation.

>

> Most likely there will be some stupidity with a new rule. But will it be a player or official this time?

If it involves some stupidity with a new rule, it would be a pretty safe bet to believe it will be a player.

Most likely they will screw something up regarding a vague rule enforcement or maybe pace of play. The USGA always has some sort of agenda where they are trying to send a message to what they consider the greater golf community. Sort of like when Chambers Bay was selected in part based on their low maintenance natural greens which were almost unputtable.

The USGA screws up almost every US Open either by going extreme US Open (Shinnecock 18) or the opposite (Erin Hills, Congressional) or strange ways (Chambers Bay)

The one exception has always been Pebble Beach. It's the most famed US Open course and they're not dumb enough to ruin it. (Shocking I know)

LOL, that PGA change not publicized enough? Let’s get it under our belts.

I'll go with Dustin Johnson tries to tap in from 6 inches on #18 with the flag in to win, but the flagstick deflects it way to four feet. He misses the putt. But since this means Tiger wins, no one will care.