PGA Tour Players Unleash On USGA

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Pro golfers have long howled about the USGA and U.S. Open setup, traffic, hotels and other perceived slights, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

That said, coupled with declining ratings, the end of a sellout streak in a year when ticket sales were limited and another U.S. Open where the champion as only part of the story, and you have major perception issues for our national Open.

Brian Wacker quotes many players for GolfDigest.com and the themes generally revolve around course setup, Mike Davis and a general disdain for the USGA.

The two most damaging quotes come from a pair of former U.S. Open winners, Geoff Ogilvy and Jordan Spieth.

Ogilvy:

“Did anyone ever trust them?” reasoned 2006 U.S. Open winner Geoff Ogilvy. “I think for the most part their intentions are sound, there’s some pretty good golf minds there, but they just can’t get out of their own way. You never have a U.S. Open where they’re not the story. Augusta is never the story of the Masters -- this year Patrick Reed was the story of the Masters. It has nothing to do with Augusta. It’s never the R&A, never the PGA Tour, never the PGA of America.”

Spieth:

“I think it was chasing score to par,” said Jordan Spieth, who won at Chambers Bay three years ago. “We had beautiful conditions with wide fairways so how they are going to get the score to par it’s going to become unfair with greens or pin positions or a combination of the two. They put pins where greens weren’t designed that way. As a golf course design nerd it was frustrating to look at. I was like what are you doing? I played poorly. Even with the setup, I thought it was fantastic for me but the course nerd in me was like I want to play this course at a different time.”