Sandy Tatum On Golf In The Year 2046

Fun concept and pulled off adeptly by the 91-year-old former USGA President, Sandy Tatum, writing for this week's SI/Golf Plus.

He wants a US Open for Cypress Point in 2046 because by then the USGA will have wrapped up the ball study. Maybe.

Many early American golf courses, like ­Cypress Point, are sports artworks that can and must remain relevant. For years there has been discussion at Cypress about extending the course beyond its existing 6,500 yards. Some, myself among them, have countered that the course’s length should stay right where it is, and it has. It remains Alister MacKenzie’s course. It is a joy and a challenge. The players are going to find the same thing at the U.S. Open at Merion next year. Cozy Merion will have plenty of bite, just as it did for Jones and Hogan and Nicklaus. Length is over­rated.

Shorter courses encourage faster play, and I hope that for the 2046 Open, the rounds will be played in no more than three hours. Pace of play is not even close to where it needs to be. Golf played briskly is healthier for the game and for those who play it.

I hope the rules in 2046 will be essentially what they are today, but I would also hope that the governing bodies add a rule that requires the putter­ to be the shortest club in a player’s bag. I believe that anchoring a club against one’s body is akin to allowing a croquet stroke.

Other than those quibbles, he just loves the game as his USGA predecessors have left us!