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The conditions at the 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina have been downright brutal through two rounds.
Though for fans in attendance, they clearly haven’t been difficult enough.
A member of the grounds crew went viral on Saturday morning after she revealed that she was booed by fans for applying water to the greens prior to the third round.
Getting booed by the grand stands at the @usopengolf for putting water down on the greens might be the coolest thing to ever happen to me
— Kate Phillips (@KateHPhillips) June 15, 2024
“Getting booed by the grandstands at the @usopengolf for putting water down on the greens might be the coolest thing to ever happen to me,” @KateHPhillips tweeted.
Water is applied in hopes of keeping moisture in the greens throughout the round and keeping them from getting burnt out in the North Carolina sun. Temperatures in Pinehurst are set to exceed 90 degrees on Sunday with little cloud cover.
But clearly, fans welcome the chaos. Players, however, don’t see things the same way.
“I mean, they are extremely fast. If they get any firmer and faster, the greens, I mean, they’d be borderline,” defending champion Wyndham Clark said earlier in the week. “They already are borderline.”
“So every putt is fast. I find myself hitting uphill putts six feet by, six, seven feet by. Common theme in our group,” he said. “I mean, multiple guys putts off the green. Multiple guys hit putts, they’re like, Oh, my gosh. It’s definitely the defense right now is the greens.”
Clark shot rounds of 73 and 71 over the first two days to make the cut by two strokes. Though he began his third round trailing leader Ludvig Aberg by nine strokes.
This year’s highly anticipated U.S. Open comes after a much-maligned 2023 event at Los Angeles Country Club. Fans complained about both the ease of LACC’s greens and the width of its fairways.
So the 2024 edition may well be a case of the USGA finally getting even.