U S Open

[whattashot]

First round...SOFT/normal? Why? I watched the entire 18 holes yesterday. No soft fairways. In fact, commentators were delighted with the firm conditions.

Every person who plays this game knows that normal greens in this game are NOT normal. There is NO backspin unless you are using a short wedge, and with a 10 mph wind behind except with a hill behind the flag stick there is none with them either. So I come to hole 5 and the flag stick is EIGHT feet from the fairway, 10 mph, gusting up to 12 mph wind, so someone tell me...how the hell are you supposed to get close? If I hit the "normal green", it will be somewhere between 10 and 20 YARDS long. If I hit the soft fairway 15 yards out expecting a bounce on, my experience says its going to die with 3 or 4 yards right where it hits.

From the USGA (underlining and bold added)

“We keep hole locations a minimum of five paces – approximately 15 feet – from the edges of a green. Many golfers are not aware that while there are rules about the size of the hole and the depth of the liner, there is no rule about how far from the edge of a putting green the hole must be located. In the interest of keeping hole locations on the easy side, we encourage the course setters to minimize the number of holes near the edges of putting greens and to allow extra distance if there is an adjacent hazard. We are especially careful to locate holes even more than 15 feet from the front edge of a putting green, and we are always conscious of measuring five paces from the edge of any false front.”

Its not life and death, but it sure is frustrating.

[Mailman]

So I come to hole 5 and the flag stick is EIGHT feet from the fairway, 10 mph, gusting up to 12 mph wind, so someone tell me...how the hell are you supposed to get close? If I hit the "normal green", it will be somewhere between 10 and 20 YARDS long. If I hit the soft fairway 15 yards out expecting a bounce on, my experience says its going to die with 3 or 4 yards right where it hits.

Am I missing something here (apologies if I am)? I'm sure you are right but I cannot see the round that you played in any of the tours. FYI, I played well in Rd 1 (not so in Rd 2) and did not experience your angst. Brookline is a relatively short course (Major-wise) and personally have no qualms about tour admins choosing pins close to the edge of the greens to try and keep the scoring honest.

[whattashot]

Am I missing something here (apologies if I am)? I'm sure you are right but I cannot see the round that you played in any of the tours.

I made the post right after experiencing hole 5. I have finished the round now, and it should be visible.

[Mailman]

The hole (#5) is difficult but not impossible as I found in an online 3-way game I had last Monday.

From about 25 mins in you can see how we all played it. Wind was slightly following for the 2nd shot and playing to normal/normal/stimp 14 setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVanw3bENSU&t=1521s