WM Phoenix Open

TPC Scottsdale (Stadium Course)



    News

    Huggan v. The USGA

    June 13, 2007

    U.S. Opens are so narrow that straight hitters almost lose their advantage. Everyone is in the rough. I'm used to that. -Geoff Ogilvy

    No one quite goes off on the USGA and its Open set-ups like our European Correspondent John Huggan. Huggy is at it again today on Golf Observer with the suggestion that the Oakmont set-up is far too closely resembles disasters past. __So it's no surprise, this early in US Open week, that most of the talk is of the course rather than the upcoming championship.

    __

    Has Oakmont, almost universally feared and revered as the toughest, most brutal and most unforgiving track on the US Open rota, been prepared in a way that will allow the best to prosper? Or has the USGA blindly done what it normally does and eliminated any semblance of strategy and flair in a misguided effort to make America's national championship 'fair,' while at the same time producing a winning score some way north of par? Sadly, the initial signs are that the latter policy has yet again reared its tedious head.

    Worth a read. As is John's interview with Champion Geoff Ogilvy in our Open section.

    --Bob Carney