Gary Player on Chambers Bay: 'One of the worst golf courses I've ever seen'

I didn't even realize the course had greens since you could tell the difference between the greens and the fucking fairway.

Couple of things since this bored is clearly showing a lack of Butler Cabin knowledge:

1) The USGA is on a kick about brown being the new green and building sustainable golf courses that are friendly on the environment. Many courses today use recycled water as their water sources and there have been significant technological improvements that have been made in intelligence about watering patterns to get no more water on the course than needed. It's spun as an environmentally friendly thing (which it is), but in the long run, it will save $$$ for courses which can be the difference between some courses making it and not.

2) If you look at almost every single US Open, by the weekend it gets baked and browned out. Chambers was no exception. This wasn't because Chambers sucked ... it's standard USGA.

3) Citing number of putts per round is an unsophisticated FS stat that doesn't even come close to explaining what happened. It's like saying that there were more 3 putts than normal at the US Open this week and concluding that it must have been the greens fault. I can't find the stats online so you'll have to take my word for it, but I guarantee you that the GIR rates this week far surpassed typical US Open rates. When GIR rates go up, the number of putts tend to go up. The putts per GIR this week at the US Open was all inline with the same metrics at prior US Opens. The big difference is that in most US Opens there are more missed greens which leads to more chips/pitches which leads to lower putts. At Chambers, you got bigger greens leading to more putts.

4) The USGA was the group responsible for the greens. They rebuilt a few of them and most weren't problems for them PRIOR to the tournament. They will be fixed for future tournaments to be sure. This was the first time a professional tournament was held on the course, there was bound to be areas for improvement.

5) The fan experience is what it is. They could find ways to mellow the ground in areas and allow for more fan friendly experiences. That being said, walking the course for a large number of patrons isn't going to happen. The course isn't an easy walk. It's unrealistic to have a large number of people walk 10+ miles and follow a group. One of the big problems about attending tournaments in person is that you are often stuck with only a view of a very specific part of the action. From what I understood, the stands did a good job of allowing action across multiple greens/tees and had the ability to enhance the typical experience. Most of the complaining that I heard came from non fans ... I haven't heard much coming from the fans.

The sprinklers work just fine ... I don't understand why it is so hard to understand that brown is what the USGA wants and has every single year. By Sunday it's almost always brown to some degree. This year moreso than normal ... a lot of that has to do with the fescue that was on the course.

So you're saying that the US Open doesn't have brown every year?

Yes, this year's Open was more brown than normal. But if you go back and look at Pinehurst last year or really any recent US Open that wasn't influenced by rain, you'll find a browning out on every course.