U.S. Open: Wyndham Clark offers eye-poping report on Pinehurst’s greens

Wyndham Clark, the defending U.S. Open champion, arrived at Pinehurst No. 2 on Monday prepared for his title protection.

After enjoying a observe spherical, he made a shocking characterization of the course’s greens.

“They’re extraordinarily quick. If the greens get any firmer and quicker, they’d be borderline,” Clark mentioned.

“They already are borderline.”

Over the previous decade, the United States Golf Affiliation (USGA) has drawn ire from quite a few gamers for establishing golf programs unfairly. Shinnecock Hills in 2018 instantly involves thoughts. Simply ask Phil Mickelson concerning the course setup that 12 months. Chambers Bay in 2015 additionally acquired a good dose of criticism, as did Oakmont a 12 months later.

So when Clark makes use of the phrase “borderline,” he implies that the greens are “borderline unfair.”

Photograph by Gregory Shamus/Getty Pictures

Pinehurst No. 2’s greens are well-known for his or her turtle-back shapes, which makes them a lot smaller than their precise dimension. Slight misfires will roll off the edges of those placing surfaces, leaving gamers scrambling from precarious positions across the greens.

Plus, no rain is within the forecast, that means these greens will solely get more durable because the week wears on. Temperatures in North Carolina will hover within the excessive 80s and low 90s, that means the placing surfaces will solely agency up.

But, Clark and the opposite 155 gamers within the subject must cope with them for what they’re.

“So far as training, the largest factor is the place you permit your self on the greens,” Clark defined.

“In the present day, I went with my caddie [John Ellis] and we had been actually charting to sure pins, like we’d relatively be right here than there. Generally, that just about might imply not that you just’re attempting to overlook a inexperienced, however you’re erring in direction of the better up and down.”

An adage for enjoying No. 2 is to not fireplace at flagsticks however to play proper into the guts of the greens. From there, you must attempt to two-putt and stroll away with par.

Photograph by David Cannon/Getty Pictures

However no two-putt par is assured when you’re on these placing surfaces.

“You need to play quite a lot of break on these greens,” Clark mentioned.

“Once we’re hitting lag putts and quick putts, you may have a 10-footer downhill, down-grain. Usually, you’re no more than 4 or 5 inches outdoors the cup on most greens. Right here, you’re perhaps enjoying 10 to 12 inches, so that you’re not getting under the opening and having it run away. It’s actually quite a lot of observe. That’s what we’re going to deal with loads.”

Clark didn’t compete within the 2014 U.S. Open, the final time Pinehurst No. 2 hosted this championship. He was nonetheless in school then.

However Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, did.

“They’re fairly much like 2014 from what I keep in mind,” Simpson mentioned Monday.

“That is fairly typical U.S. Open within the sense that par is a good pal to you all week. It’s a brutally arduous golf course. I believe what Martin Kaymer did in 2014 was unbelievable. If you happen to take out his profitable rating [of 9-under], second place that 12 months, and the earlier two winners, it was someplace proper round even, one over or one beneath. I don’t foresee anyone doing what [Kaymer] did then. However you by no means know ‘trigger guys are so good.”

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in Via. Be sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.