Why does this busy American open green have its own set of unusual rules

Oakmont, Pennsylvania – Oakmont Country Club Clubhouse practice green stuff? It is no Practice Green – Technically not technically anyway. Actually, this is the second half of the 9th green, just like the USGA we opened here in the past did, which allows players to practice this week.

“It’s a difference, and it doesn’t seem to be much,” Craig Winter, senior director of golf and amateur rules at USGA, told Golf.com Tuesday morning, “but if it’s Once was The practice of putting green back there, which also means that it’s a wrong green, which means that the player will have to get rid of it, and then that’s not what we’re doing. ”

Instead, if a player enters the 9th green close event at this 125th U.S. Open, he should hit too far and settle in the green practice holes and polishing the Tour professionals, that player will only play anywhere the team is settled. Should his sphere happen to disappear into one of the practice holes? “The ground is under repair,” Winter said. “You will float out of the hole itself. Just put it on the nearest relief [no closer to the hole]. ”

Wild, right?

The whole scene is. Tuesday at 11 a.m., when players shot at the 9th green and size putter from all angles, they grinded twelve people in the second half of the green: players, caddies, coaches, agents, journalists. To be clear, the green is huge – 70 feet from front to rear, over 20,000 square feet – so there is room to roam, but there is no other similar environment on the premium competitive golf course.

The unusual set is illuminated for players with green signage. “The whole green is the 9th green green,” the sign reads. “It has been divided into two parts, and you can practice with two blue bets and a blue dot before and between the circle.”

“If you see where that line is, you can plug it into a hole,” Winter said. “In that place, the slope is steep. It’s a natural breakthrough. It’s similar to what we did in 2016, probably inside the yard, right and left.”

However, this division is important because once the game starts seriously on Thursday, if the player intentionally goes from the back of the green, crosses the fictional boundary, and goes into the front of the green, he may be punished by a two-stroke for violating Rule 5.2, which will be practiced before the tour. If the player wants to hit second Practice in the lower half of the green, and the fine will be even more severe: disqualification.

However, it doesn’t need to worry about players who accidentally hit the putter on the line. “Maybe it’s a pull or push; it’s all good,” Winter said. “We just don’t want players to try to play on purpose” the lower half of the green.

Green and green also means that it is still performing abnormally this week. While players are not allowed to measure surface conditions (with levels, moisture meter, etc.) in the lower part of the green yes This is allowed to do so on the back half of the green or on the side of the club. “You see a lot of things on the golf course because it’s one of our Champions Greens because it’s the simpler answer in the process,” Winter said.

Whether the ruling is simple is another matter. But of course, if all of this is planned, there is no need to make a decision.