Testing the Limits

The PGA’s U.S. Open was held this past week. The tournament is traditionally considered the hardest test of golf in the calendar year. It is also one of four “majors,” meaning, of all the tournaments on the golf schedule, this is considered the most important, most profitable, and most coveted by the players. If you win a major, you have firmly established yourself in the lore of the game.       

They only hold the U.S. Open at select courses that have been recognized as premiere sites for competition. This means the course must be unique, long and challenging. Generally, during the buildup to the 4-day tournament, the course is prepped in order to maximize any mistakes a golfer might make. The fairways are thinner, the rough is deeper, and the greens are faster. 

Golf is hard, but U.S. Open golf is absolutely harrowing. 

Moreover, the infrastructure needed to host an event of this magnitude is immense, which puts it out of reach to most facilities (your typical golf course could never handle the influx of a quarter million spectators).

This year, the U.S. Open was held at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, which has served as the site of more single golf championships than any other course in the country. Donald Ross (considered one of history’s greatest golf course architects), designed the course in 1907 and to this day it is considered his masterpiece.

What makes Pinehurst No. 2 so unique (and therefore, so difficult) is the inverted bowl shaped greens. When trying to hit an approach shot, the player must be ridiculously accurate in his placement or the ball will simply roll off the green. The other trademark attribute is the immense amount of fairway waste areas that are full of sand and wire grass (e.g. imagine playing golf on a grassy sand dune).

So, as you might guess, this tournament in particular is fun for the average golfer to watch because they get to see pros do things that are completely out of character. It’s not uncommon to see balls fly off greens, desperate chip outs from the fairway, and agonizing three-putts. 

But as a test of accuracy, strategy, and sheer will, there is nothing better. 

And that was certainly the case as things wrapped up last Sunday. Two of the best players in the world, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, battled it out to the very last shot with DeChambeau coming out on top with an absolutely epic finish. 

In this case, I was torn on who I wanted to win. McIlroy has not won a major in 10 years, having been so close on so many occasions that it just felt like he deserved this one. On the other hand, DeChambeau has had such a unique approach to the game that a second major would have legitimized his methodology. 

But the moment that everyone has been talking about is when McIlroy missed a very makeable 3-foot putt to secure the lead. Instead, he lipped out, all but washing away his dream of a 5th major. 

It’s easy to say that one shot was the reason someone won or lost a tournament, but the fact remains that there were 280-ish other strokes of the club that had the same effect on the score. 

Watching McIlroy miss that putt prompted a reaction from me that made my wife jump off the couch. I outwardly yelled “No!” in disbelief when the ball rolled around the edge of cup. It wasn’t that I wanted McIlroy to win, it was more an utter shock that one of the best players in the world would miss that putt at that moment. 

I watched as McIlroy sat in pain at the scorer’s table in the clubhouse and then leave the tournament in visible dejection. No one wants to have an experience like that in life, and few of us could handle the aftermath if it did happen. But given the class act that McIlroy is, if anyone can bounce back it will be him. 

Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan is also a class act, so when he’s involved in a project, I’ll go see it. And that’s what happened this past week when I went to see his daughter’s first film, “The Watchers,” starring Dakota Fanning. 

The film follows a young woman who gets lost in the forests of western Ireland. While searching for shelter, she is befriended by a small group of people who warn her about mysterious creatures that wander the area. 

I wanted to like this film given my history with Shyamalan and his habit of producing interesting content, but the obtuse storyline left me feeling flat. It has its moments and is certainly full of eeriness, but in the end the younger Shyamalan never met the father’s level of intrigue.

A near-miss “C-” for “The Watchers,” now playing in theaters everywhere. 

Got a question or comment for Dom? You can email him at moviediary@att.net.