Majors

Watching the marquee group on usopen.com, you begin to get a sense for what these players are facing.  This is a stern test of golf on a scale that is hard to me imagine for me not having played any conditions like that in my life.

The rough is truly punishing, the fairways are fast and the greens, well, it’s amazing these guys can keep it on there, and even more amazing when you see shots land softly.

In a sense it both magnifies their almost superhuman abilities, and yet it also shows them in ways that resemble the way we often feel as golfers.  I don’t often see tour players be so uncertain, careful, and vulnerable as they can be during this tournament.  And yet it also elevates them simultaneously.  Great shots are even more spectacular and magnificent because of the difficult conditions.

It does feel like golf as it should be.  I’m not saying that they should play open conditions every week, or that average golfers should be faced with open conditions.  But watching the PGA tour week in and week out, they can make the game seem too easy.  Then again TV coverage is normally skewed, showing the best players on the planet, on their best days.  One of the reasons I love watching them in person is that you can follow players who aren’t playing their best and you’ll see that even if they are spraying the ball (which tour players are capable of) they manage to score well. Read the rest of this entry »