118th US Open Walking Thread, presented by Johnnie Walker

I liked the 18-hole playoff, too.

 

This is an outdated narrative. It's like saying "The Jaguars sucked in 2015, so they must suck now."

Fox was garbage at Chambers but really good at Oakmont during the rules fiasco and good at Erin Hills during a mostly blah US Open.

CBS' coverage is truly lazy and bad in almost every way. It's just familiar. Fox uses technology that CBS simply refuses to use. TopTracer on every tee, and from the fairways, and green mapping that is way better than CBS. Fox doesn't bring Jack up into the book to masturbate for 20 minutes, nor does it completely miss important shots the way CBS does (like Cantley making a hole-in-one last week, which they DID NOT EVEN HAVE VIDEO OF).

Azinger and Faxon are so much better than Faldo. Azinger works so much harder and is so much more insightful. They just showed an entire Women's US Open without commercials, which is an incredible feat. Meanwhile Dustin Johnson, the world's No. 1 player, shot a 29 on the front 9 at Riv this year, and CBS didn't have any coverage of it. At all. They didn't even have highlights of it, that's how hard they dropped the ball.

More recent: The way CBS fucked up the coverage of Spieth's run at the Masters was unforgivable. The fact that they went to commercial as he was about to hit his second shot into 13 was insane, and the fact that we never heard any of his pre-shot conversation with Greller (it was only available on the featured group streaming) was ridiculous. The way they fucked up the PGA Championship last year (not showing and of Kisner's shots down the stretch until JT won) was ridiculous. They literally cannot show live golf. Their motto ought to be "Just a moment ago...."

CBS without Tiger to be the primary driver of the narrative is totally lost. I was down on FOX as much as anyone, but they're so much better than tired ass CBS at this point. FOX strived to get better, while CBS is happy to be totally complacent.

 

I like it in theory...but of course it’s hard to actually watch 18 holes on Monday if you have a job with normal hours.

 

Great analysis.

One thing I think hurts Fox (in golf, and other sports): the graphics--even when providing better information than elsewhere--always just sort of look somewhat unpolished and unprofessional.

 

Agreed here. Love the technology advancements in golf, regardless of who is broadcasting the event.

As a golf fan, the shot tracer is on par with the yellow first-down line on football broadcasts.

 

OBTW, John Smoltz qualified for Senior US Open.

I think Fox well-outshines CBS, esp. in the commentary department. Not a huge Faxxon fan, but Azinger is tremendous.

I do love me some Dottie Pepper.

 

I'm guessing the on-site fan experience will be much better this week, too. Quite a few issues at Chambers Bay, from getting around the course to literally running out of food/drinks mid-afternoon.

 

Never been to Cypress Point, but if I had only one course I could play for the rest of my life, Shinnecock Hills would be in my top three choices. It's as pure as it gets. Take away all the U.S. Open infrastructure and when you stand next to the clubhouse and look out over the terrain, you can easily sense that 100 years ago, someone standing in the same place saw exactly the same thing. The 11th is a world-class par 3 (no one builds uphill par 3s anymore), and the closing holes on each side are phenomenal.

 

Prop bets:

Tiger or ...
US Open group (DJ, Spieth and McIlroy)
Masters group (Reed, Garcia, Watson)
The Open group (Stenson, Johnson, Mickelson)
The PGA group (Thomas, Walker, Day)

 

He is likely to finish behind all of them, except maybe Mickelson and Watson.