NOT OPEN MINDED
John Granato: Hey golf, you are embarrassing yourself
Jun 20, 2018, 6:45 am
The course may have been hard, but it did not stop Brooks Koepka. Andrew Redington/Getty Images
I’m in the minority. I know this because I’ve heard so many people criticizing the USGA for Saturday’s third round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. I’ve heard “joke” “clown’s mouth” “unfair” “brutal” “abomination” and so on and so forth.
I, on the other hand, found it compelling. I thought it was the closest thing golf has had to an endurance test. We’ve seen those pictures of athletes giving it their all with nothing left in the tank but somehow fighting through, crawling to the finish line.
Marathoners and tri-athletes come to mind. You older readers will remember Kellen Winslow being carried off the field after the greatest playoff game ever and Michael Jordan battling through the flu to beat the Jazz.
The closest thing golf has to that is Tiger limping around on a bum knee to beat Rocco Mediate in the 18-hole U.S. Open playoff at Torrey Pines in 2008. But that was special because Tiger fought through an injury. The only thing that got hurt last Saturday was the players’ feelings.
Waaaaaa. It was windy and the course was too hard. Waaaaaa.
I agree there were a couple of pins that were unfair. When Brooks Koepka hit a beautiful approach on 15 that landed about 10 feet from the cup and backed up into the bunker. That was crappy. Good shots should be rewarded not penalized.
The way the players reacted though you’d have thought every shot was unfair. Zach Johnson was the most outspoken saying, “They’ve lost the golf course. When you’ve a championship which comes down to sheer luck, that’s not right.”
That came from a guy who shot 2-over par 72. If it was Rickie Fowler I could understand it. Rickie shot 84 that day. 84 is really bad. 84 is embarrassing. But 72 is not and Zach Johnson shot 73 the first two days so he actually played better on the day he was complaining about.
And oh by the way Zach, Brooks Koepka did not win it with sheer luck. He just flat out played better than everyone else. He also shot 72 on Saturday and he played in the worst of the conditions. If you watch a lot of golf you know that sometimes you get the raw end and sometimes you get lucky. If you have a morning tee time and there isn’t any wind you can score well. If the wind picks up in the afternoon, chances are the scores will be higher. That’s just the luck of the draw.
The lucky guys on Saturday played early and took advantage. Daniel Berger and Tony Finau both shot 66 in the morning. They moved up 44 spots and were tied for the lead by the end of the day. That seems like a lot but it was actually just 6 shots better than Koepka. It’s not that unreasonable to make up six strokes when the conditions change so drastically.
Let’s go back to Friday’s second round. It was windy in the morning and the scores showed it. The winds subsided in the afternoon and the scores went down. No one complained about it then. Why? Probably because the course got easier.
On Saturday morning there was very little wind. On hole 7 they were hitting 9-irons into the par 3. By the afternoon when the winds picked up they were hitting 6-irons into that same green. That’s a huge swing. Ask any player which club he’d rather have in his hand and the answer is pretty simple. It’s the 9.
That alone can explain the soaring scores. Of course the greens are going to dry out and get crusty. That happens on every course. Did the USGA cut and roll them so they were almost unplayable by day’s end? Yeah probably.
The USGA took the heat, accepted their role in the controversy and acted accordingly the next day. They made it so much easier that Tommy Fleetwood was a five foot putt away from shooting the only 62 in U.S. Open history. He missed it but tied for lowest round ever. Is that what everyone wanted? Over 4 rounds that would be 28 under par. No thanks. I’ll take 1-over anyday over that in our national championship.
And speaking of 1-over, that’s what Zach Johnson shot when he won the Masters in 2007 and in his third round he shot 76. My guess is that it got windy and the greens got so slick they were almost impossible. Sound familiar? But I’ll bet he didn’t complain about the greens and the course setup after that round. You know why? They wouldn’t ask him back. Gary McCord was kicked off the broadcast team because he said they used bikini wax on the greens.
Remember Sergio Garcia on 15 at Augusta this year? He went Tin Cup with five wedges into the water; five wedges that on any other course would have given him five birdie putts. But did he or anyone else complain about the greens? No way. Can’t risk losing playing privileges at Augusta.
But by all means pile on the USGA.
Was it too hard on Saturday? Maybe.
Were there a couple of unfair holes? Yeah.
But as the old saying goes, “They weren’t trying to embarrass the best players. They were trying to identify them.”
And they did.
His name is Brooks Koepka.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.