What an US Open it was. Rory McIlroy breaking or tying many new records. Record low cakewalk scores by just about everyone. Here is a countdown of the Top 10 most surprising storylines at the US Open that happened.
10: Luke Donald: What made Donald's week surprising was the fact that he was #1 in the world coming in and was likely the most consistent player on Tour at that time, coming off many high finishes. However, he never got it going, and the usually-consistent Donald was very erratic off the tee all week, never a threat and finishing T45. Donald actually birdied his first 2 holes of the championship but then played his next 7 holes 7 over par.
9. Patrick Cantlay: Patrick Cantlay was a guy who just completed his first year in university. Still an amateur, yet he played so well, shooting a 67 in the second round after a first round 75. Finished T21 and beat a lot of top players, including Luke Donald and Phil Mickelson. Very rarely an amateur finishes this high up in a major.
8. Henrik Stenson: Stenson kind of went under the radar and was overshadowed by the McIlroy story. So, what was significant about him is two things. One, was because he was struggling MIGHTILY prior to the tournament. His T23 finish came out of nowhere. Two, was the fact that he threw a temper tantrum on the same hole both rounds in the weekend. On Saturday, at the 15th hole, he flung his club after a poor iron shot. Then on Sunday, on the very same hole, he snapped his club after a shot and this time he cut his own hand. He actually needed first aid. Moral of the story: Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT throw tantrums!!
7. Phil's week: Prior to this US Open, Phil was again the overwhelming favourite to win the US Open. A lot of people had very high expectations for him. They thought that the golf course really suited him very well. However, it was not to be. Phil was as erratic as anybody out there, and was lucky just to make the cut. And then on Saturday, the day of Phil's 5th anniversary of the Winged Foot collapse, shot a hilarious back nine 42 to drop like a bullet down the leaderboard. When all was said and done, Phil finished 7 over par, 23 strokes behind McIlroy. List of little-known players who beat him: Kevin Chappell, Brandt Jobe, Johan Edfors, Kyung-tae Kim, Robert Rock, Gary Woodland, Do-Hoon Kim, Harrison Frazar, Patrick Cantley, Sunghoon Kang, Adam Hadwin, Russell Henley, Sang-Moon Bae, Chez Reavie, Michael Putnam, Scott Piercy, Alexander Noren.
6. The Golf Boys: Do you believe in golf superstitions? If you keep a list of golf superstitions you might want to add this one to the list: DON'T MAKE SILLY GOLF VIDEOS BEFORE A MAJOR. Earlier this week, Bubba Watson, Ben Crane, Rickie Fowler, and Hunter Mahan made a golf video of them acting silly and goofing off, and called themselves "The Golf Boys". All 4 are relatively well-known American players whom people expected to be in contention for the US Open. However, just the opposite happened. THREE OF THEM MISSED THE CUT. The one who didn't miss the cut was Bubba Watson with a T63 finish.
5. Robert Rock: It was really quite remarkable that Robert Rock even got into the US Open first place, let alone finishing T23. The week before the US Open, Rock made a miraculous all-world par on the 71st hole of the Italian Open to win his first European Tour event in 204 starts. And then he had to pay VISA $24,000 if he wanted to travel to the United States to play the US Open. He decided to pay, and he arrived at the course late Wednesday. He had aboslutely no practice because he was such a late arrival. However, despite having virtually no practice and no experience at an US Open, he notched a T23 finish, shooting 70-71-76-68. This is one indication that the USGA really set up the course too easy this year!
4. Jason Day: Jason Day this year has really gone under the radar a lot, with the media focusing on a lot of other young stars rather than him. What makes Day so significant was the fact that prior to this week he had NEVER played in an US Open before, yet he went out and notched a runner-up finish. This is the same guy whom never played in the Masters prior to this year and finished T2. And last year he never played in the PGA Championship before and made a Top 10 finish. He has been so low-key this year so a lot of people didn't realize how solidly he has played all year.
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3. Robert Garrigus & Kevin Chappell: Can you believe that Garrigus and Chappell were the low Americans? CAN YOU?!?! You have a higher chance of winning the lottery than predicting this would happen!
Seriously. Chappell's high finish came out of nowhere because the only other time ANYONE has ever heard of him was at the Valero Texas Open. And another remarkable thing about Chappell: He BROKE the record for the LOWEST 54-hole scores AFTER the first round. Really! A virtual unknown breaking a US Open record! For the last 54 holes he played better than McIlroy! He shot a 76 in the first round but finished off with 67-69-66.
And Robert Garrigus wasn't exactly on his A-game prior to this championship. The only time he contended for a PGA event was earlier this year in Kapalua, yet now he finished third place in the US Open from out on the blue. Just unbelievable.
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2. The low scores: Seriously, they call this a ****ing US Open? Look all the low scores!!! LOOK AT THEM!!! 20 players broke par!!! Winner was 16 under par!!! Last year, 5 over par was enough for a 8th place finish. This week, 5 over par was only enough for a T45 finish! Even the Byron Nelson Championship this year was tougher than the US Open!!! Honestly, one reason why the course played so ridiculously easy for the pros was because of the unseasonably hot temperatures prior to the US Open. The hot temperatures sucked up all the moisture from the rough and the grass was unable to grow very thick, resulting in players being easily able to recover from bad drives. And they were unable to make the greens very fast because of the wet weather. They had a lot of rain before and during the week. The greens were as soft as flypaper all week and it did not challenge the players a lot.
If there was one thing I could say to the USGA, this is what I would say: STOP MOVING UP THE GODDAMN TEES!!!! Yes, I felt that this wasa HUGE mistake that the USGA made. They moved up a LOT of tees all week. They moved up the par fives so much that EVERYBODY had a chance to go for the green in two. They also moved up the tees for the two long par 3's, the 2nd and the 10th holes, for 2 of the 4 days, and the result was a total lack of brutality that they would have possessed if they played at full length. And they even moved up a lot of the tees for the par 4's. COME ON!!! This is a US Open, for crying out loud!!! This is NOT the Bob Hope Classic. This is NOT the Travellers Championship. THIS IS THE US OPEN!!!!!! The course is SUPPOSED to play its full length to CHALLENGE the players!!!! This week was anything BUT a challenge for the pros!!!!! If they keep making this so easy for the pros, then the US Open will begin LOSING ITS CHARACTER.
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1. Rory McIlroy: This was one of the most remarkable performances I've ever seen by someone who's not named Tiger Woods. McIlroy's performance was so Tiger-esque. He was a ball-striking machine all week. Nothing but fairways and greens. Despite his length he drove the ball very precisely and hit iron shots very well too. And when he missed greens, he was able to save par. He only had one three-putt all week, and that came at the 71st hole. Another thing that made McIlroy's performance so remarkable was the fact that he took the bull by its horns since Thursday, and never even came close to letting go. He was able to conquer all those demons after the final round Masters collapse. To be able to come back after a loss of this magnitude is what made this performance so amazing. With his 16-under-par 268 total for the tournament, McIlroy set or tied at least several different records in the history of the US Open.
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And that was the countdown of the Top 10 Most Surprising / Interesting / Significant Events at the 2011 US Open. One final note: Wonder how difficult the USGA will set up the 2012 US Open at the Olympic Club? Hope they don't make the same mistakes they did in 2011 and make the course a bear. Stop cutting the rough. Stop watering the greens 2 weeks before the US Open, or whatever. Just DON'T MAKE THE SCORING THIS EASY EVER AGAIN!!!
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