What does a modern day open to the man who runs it

In the last month, I have drowned in the US Open – and absolutely loving it. I have played both Erin Hills (this year’s open women’s site) and Oakmont (this year’s US Open Site); I covered uswo on the ground and will do the same in the men’s event next week; I have accumulated on the latest qualification results and story scenarios; I even talked to Grantin Lpga Pro Linn about how Brooks Koepka became an open US killer.

Then it was Saturday at Erin Hills and the interesting conversations I had with John Bodenhamer, leading championship official in the USA, as the man behind US Open. We talked for half an hour in the backyard of the club – which was created to imitate the hills of another open host, Shinnecock hills – Diving into what it worked, what not and what actually opens the sh.ba mean

Bodenhamer, in the middle of the 60s, is a font of knowledge. He knows what Ben Hogan did in the short par-4 in Oakmont in 1953 (led the green, made birds). He knows what Jack and Arnie do there, during their 1962 Play off (both played conservatively, did pars).

To explain open ethics, Bodenhamer turned back to Johnny Miller’s Epic 63 in Oakmont in 1973. Miller looked at the course every day as if he was driving a car, locating red, yellow and green holes. Green would say goyellow would say PERHAPSRed meant…progress to your risk.

“We think about this amount,” Bodenhamer told me. “We are thinking of giving them some green lights. It’s not like going out in every hole – we can make it much tougher than we do it. Twenty over could win if we love it. We don’t want it.”

What USA wants is to show the “cathedrals” of the sport and develop a test that players believe is difficult but right. This is when Bodenhamer was as transparent and tangible as any executive I encountered in the golf industry.

We talked about The consistency of Erin Hills waiting again a SH.BAas the red numbers determined its debut for 2017. We destroyed the state of green in the Chambers bay, which pro it decreed in 2015. Among these topics was Dustin Johnson’s victory in Oakmont, permanently remembered a continuous decision that kept fans not knowing his last six holes.

“In no one for anyone – I was part of it,” he began. “But it really happened more for us than for these great places and these great players. And I think we’ve refused him to try to be less about what we do with the golf course than for the golf course and what players do in the golf course. This is really better for us.”

Bodenhamer clearly sees this mission. He knows that USA has made mistakes, but also that the event of signing the association is in a different era now, and the more time I spend around, the more I find myself agreeing with it. Players love the test. Courses want to be the test. And fans like to look at the test.

We have another special week coming.

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