Reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark gives eye-popping 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 surprising characterization of the course’s greens.

“They are extremely fast. If the greens get any firmer and faster, they’d be borderline,” Clark stated.

“They already are borderline.”

Over the previous decade, the United States Golf Association (USGA) has drawn ire from quite a few gamers for organising golf programs unfairly. Shinnecock Hills in 2018 instantly involves thoughts. Just ask Phil Mickelson concerning the course setup that 12 months. Chambers Bay in 2015 additionally obtained 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.”

Pinehurst No. 2’s greens are well-known for his or her turtle-back shapes, which makes them a lot smaller than their precise measurement. 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.

Yet, Clark and the opposite 155 gamers within the discipline should take care of them for what they’re.

“As far as practicing, the biggest thing is where you leave yourself on the greens,” Clark defined.

“Today, I went with my caddie [John Ellis] and we were really charting to certain pins, like we’d rather be here than there. Sometimes, that almost could mean not that you’re trying to miss a green, but you’re erring towards the easier up and down.”

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

Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images

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

“You have to play a lot of break on these greens,” Clark stated.

“When we’re hitting lag putts and short putts, you have a 10-footer downhill, down-grain. Normally, you’re not more than four or five inches outside the cup on most greens. Here, you’re maybe playing 10 to 12 inches, so you’re not getting below the hole and having it run away. It’s really a lot of practice. That’s what we’re going to focus on a lot.”

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.

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

“They’re pretty similar to 2014 from what I remember,” Simpson stated Monday.

“This is pretty typical U.S. Open in the sense that par is a great friend to you all week. It’s a brutally hard golf course. I think what Martin Kaymer did in 2014 was incredible. If you take out his winning score [of 9-under], second place that year, and the previous two winners, it was somewhere right around even, one over or one under. I don’t foresee anybody doing what [Kaymer] did then. But you never know ‘cause guys are so good.”

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be positive to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.