SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – The U.S. Open wants to be the ultimate test in golf, and sometimes that leads to a series of trick questions.
Take Shinnecock Hills Golf Club 14 years ago, for example.
A year after Jim Furyk tied the tournament’s scoring record at Olympia Fields Country Club, conditions at the 2004 U.S. Open were so bone dry and lightning fast that only three players broke par on the weekend, none on Sunday. Fans having to move to the side because of a golf ball rolling toward them is not unusual, except when the player hit the shot with his putter from the green. Tee shots that landed on the seventh green rolled off the putting surface and into a bunker.
One year after Rory McIlroy broke the tournament’s scoring record at Congressional Country Club, no one broke par at Olympic Club in 2012, when Webb Simpson won.
Moments like this lead to criticism that the United States Golf Association overreacts. Justin Rose sees it another way.