"They made it look like Bethpage Pink."

Vindication! Yes, as predicted, those savvy, super wonderful New York fans had the nuanced course setup stuff fly over their thick skulls! Mark Herrmann reports. Love this about No. 18 Sunday:

"They made it choke-proof," he said. "I have 10-handicappers who I'd trust with a two-shot lead on that hole." Cowan said his students on the lesson tee Tuesday morning shared his opinion. Of the USGA's setup, he said, "It was a local disgrace."

The best fans in the world! Uninformed, unenlightened and yet so graceful delivering their insights!

Comments

[Scott]

Oh snap! That's quite a takedown. One question. What's "savy?" Do we save stuff too much?

[Tommy Naccarato]

Bravo Mike Davis!

Given the situation, I doubt a single "Blue-Collar" New Yorker could have figured out which side of a garden hoe was up in similar circumstances. Speaking of which, when is this blue-collar thing going to die? Probably 80% of the people out there were out of work stock brokers!

[Chuck]

So, it's not just the stuffy memeberships at places like Winged Foot or Oakmont moaning about the USGA's setup of their respective courses.

Count the Publinxers of Nassau County among the propietary complainers at Oakmont ('Oh, Miller shot 63 because the USGA made us run the sprinklers on Saturday night, and our greens are faster for our Invitational than at an Open...')

[Scott]

Seriously, Geoff's right. NY fans are slobs and California golf fans are the best--knowledgeable, savy and well-mannered. I especially liked the guy who brawled with Adam Scott's caddy last year. That was truly spectacular. You rock California!

[Geoff]

That's right Scott, two of the next four Opens in CA! Thankfully we don't have to listen to everyone pandering to the great NY fans for at least 8 years! Boy that got old by Tuesday.

[Scott]

Exactly! Why not have all U.S. Opens in California from now on? In fact, let's have all sporting events from the World Cup to the Davis Cup to the Kickball finals on ESPN Ocho held in California! You guys deserve it. I mean, with that ass-kicking governator and your robust housing market and your world-beating economy, why not? I hear tent cities are all the rage there. Can I rent one?

[Seitz]

Methinks Scott doth protest too much.

[RM]

Scott, It was Stuart Appleby's caddy. How can you be so wrong...so often? I saw it with my own eyes. It was one drunk fan among the masses. I saw Bethpage with my own eyes too, a massive amount of drunks and/or idiots.

Example: Father and 9 year-old son at the first tee during Monday's practice round. Drew Kittleson, amateur from FSU, is about tee off. Right before he brings his club back, the father yells "Go Gators." Then the father looks down at his son: "That'll get in his head." It probably didn't get in Drew's head, but I'm sure it got in his own son's head. Something tells me he won't be growing up to appreciate the game's traditions.

[RM]

Scott- Correction...I think the drunk dude at torrey yelled something that made adam scott's caddy get in his face. appleby's caddy then saw it from the 18th teebox and ran over there to break it up. the only actual brawling was between a couple of drunks and the cops. i saw it, and neither caddy was involved in any actual fisticuffs.

[dsl]

What happened at Bethpage was just a giant self-fulfilling prophecy. ESPN & NBC incited the jackasses by constantly praising them and, well, we saw the result. So many 'get in the hole' and 'you 'da man' screams, it made your head spin. Phil did his part by doing the old 'take four steps, lift head, give goofy grin and half-thumbs-up, repeat, repeat for four straight days. The jackasses loved it and so did the talking heads and the press and the self-fulfilling prophecy just rolled on.

For the record and for all of time, we'll see the best fans in golf in July. Unfortunately, 'you da man' and 'get in the hole' guy seem to be capable of travelling overseas these days.

[RM]

dsl, maybe augusta has it right by controlling behavior with fear. but then again, some jackass did a snow angel on sunday. by the way, there's a guy here in atlanta that is credited with starting "you da man" after yelling it at nicklaus at the masters in the 80's. he goes by the nickname of..."youda". it's only going to get worse in the age of twitter when too many people think they matter and try to inject themselves in to the public spectacle of major golf.

[thusgone]

pardon me, but i lost track. does this mean the kickball finals on the ocho will be held somewhere in the british isles from now on?

[myron]

Ok, help me out here....what makes PJ Cowan an expert? Anyone can make a golf course difficult, but doing so in a fair manner is what counts. Five guys under par with the Black showing its soft under belly and PJ Cowan decrees the US Open set-up a cupcake? If 18 was such a "throw away," remind me how many of the guys in contention made birdie to cut into the two shot advantage that Glover had? Hmn....Duval (par), Mickelson (par), Barnes (par). 15, 16 and 17 were where you couldn't take your hands off the wheel and Lucas Glover didn't and the others did. The Black held its own just fine.

[OWGR Fan]

Actually Chuck Oakmont was hit with heavy thunderstorms overnight before the last round in which JM shot 63. Nice try though.

[Chet]

"You da man" and "Get inda hole" are enough reasons to never return to Bogpage for the US Open. Big Break, maybe.

[dsl]

RM - Perhaps 'Youda' will also come to mean 'youda-serve a kick in the arse'?

thusgone - exactly. Although it might occasionally go to Dubai if the dollars can get worked out. Big demand for kickball over there.

[keith86]

My favorite was some wanker yells "tiger can do better" at Michael Sim just after blasting it past the corner on the 1st hole.Then tiger hit's yep lost right and has to chip out all while the echos of you da man,in the hole still ring out.Sorry but the fans were WANKERS.

[MacDuff]

Do fans scream "Youda girl!" at LPGA events? "Inda hole" similarly inappropriate.

Bovine behavior, do we want to police it? Should these guys be ejected for being screaming tossers?

[doug]

Mike Davis will be forever in Phil's brain with that set-up of 18 on Sunday...

Seemingly such an easy birdie opportunity: driver into one of the widest fairways in US Open history, little wedge, kick-in birdie....

but how to hit it close... how to hit it close... oh I damn I should have threaded a 3 iron between the bunkers so I could hit a full wedge and spin it back to the pin... but wait... could I have put that 3 iron in play or would I have fanned in like at Winged Foot????