USGA Plays Games with the US Open

Chambers Bay Golf Course

The United States Golf Association has an identity problem. These august ladies (I assume there are some token women involved) and gentlemen are attempting to make the US Open resemble the British Open.

Most Golfers in the United States play on courses with trees, meandering streams or lakes, and green fairways/greens; but the USGA has chosen to stage the US Open at Chambers Bay (a course built on a sand/gravel pit) with one tree, a busy railroad track, sprinkler heads in the middle of greens, the remains of old buildings, and dormant or dead grass on the undulating fairways and bumpy greens, described by one golfer as "putting on broccoli heads."

In addition the USGA has chosen  not only to make the course the longest in history, but also to change par 4s to  par 5s and vice versa from day to day  I can't imagine the United States Tennis Association changing the heights of the net from day to day in the US Open, or Major League Baseball changing the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate in the World Series. Why does the USGA feel the need for these gimmicks?

Enough with the gimmicks, USGA. Don't game the game.

15th hole

Fox sports announcers keep referring to the course as "beautiful Chambers Bay," and I guess it is beautiful if you are into moonscapes and railroad container cars. The only hole I could possibly consider beautiful is the par 3 15th (length varies significantly from day to day) as it features the course's only tree and the viewers and golfers are looking out over Puget Sound.

This is not a course to which US golfers can relate. We all appreciate the British Open because it is played on typical British course. It's time the USGA  stops being gimmicky and plays the US Open on typical US courses.