U.S. Open player impressions

The word on the condition of Chambers Bay for the U.S. Open from the players focused on the greens and their opinions varied from disgust to approval.

Sergio Garcia took to social media to express his feelings about the greens.

Happy with my Even par round today although it could’ve been a bit better by the way I played but this greens are as bad as the look on TV

— Sergio Garcia (@TheSergioGarcia) June 18, 2015

Others like Rory McIlroy were not as open with their criticisms. “(The greens) are not the best that I’ve ever putted on,” offered the 2011 U.S. Open champion.

Continue reading to see what else McIlroy and some of his competitors had to say about Chambers Bay after the opening round.

Jordan Spieth
I missed a couple putts inside ten feet, but that’s going to happen out here. That’s inconsistency on the greens. I made a lot of them from inside ten feet, too. So I just came out to try and find a little something.

It’s interesting because it was a tough adjustment when we got on the course because the green speeds on the course are significantly slower than they are on the practice greens. And that’s tough to adjust to when you’ve got 40 feet… But those long putts, they seem like they’re going to be so fast and the ball tends to stop a little sooner

Justin Rose
I really hope the greens roll better in the morning because it wasn’t a lot of fun out there in the afternoon. I couldn’t see a putt staying on the line I hit it on and makes it a little frustrating at times. I’m hoping I can get some good looks at it tomorrow and the ball rolls a little truer, so I feel like I can make some birdies.

Jason Day
I talked to some of the guys this morning that played and they said it was pretty gettable out there… The greens were a little inconsistent with the speed, but overall very happy with how I played from tee to green.

Rory McIlroy
(The greens) are not the best that I’ve ever putted on. I still feel like if you make a good enough stroke and you have the right speed, there’s a good enough chance the ball will go in. I need to find a rhythm in my stroke over the next three days, work a bit on the putting green and hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Henrik Stenson
It’s different… It is a links course with some extreme features, there’s no two ways about that. We’ve got some big banks, we’ve got some massive runoffs and fairways that are really sloping in areas. Like the 8th hole, hit a nice 3-wood down the middle, just trying to hit a nice fairway finder, but it turned into a rough finder. So, yeah, there are some extreme features on this course, I think everybody can see that. And then it’s more down to how you’re going to play those, and make sure you don’t get tricked out by them.

(The course) definitely plays a bit firmer and faster than (when I visited in) April, even though I didn’t play, it was more firm and burnt now than it was in April. So I think some of the holes played longer when I started playing practice rounds than when I was walking it. It’s a challenging course.

Martin Kaymer
I do enjoy (the course) a lot, yeah. You have to think where you want to leave the ball. You think you hit a good shot and it ends up in a completely different position. You have to adjust a lot on the golf course in the moment really. I enjoy playing those golf courses lot. It’s never really boring.

Patrick Reed
It’s a different type of golf course. If the fans are everywhere, then all of a sudden if we hit it into the fescue or anything like, it’s all going to be trampled down, ball is going to be sitting pretty well. With having the fans kind of back a little bit, it allows you if you do hit a poor tee shot or something like that, you’re going to get penalized for it. You’re not going to be able to get away with it where it’s going to be a perfect lie and be able to knock it up there.

This golf course can play completely different any other day, depending on what kind of day the page 1 of 2 superintendent’s having, where he wants to put the tee boxes. There are some tee boxes out there that were either on the downslope or the ball was a little bit above your feet.

Dustin Johnson
It’s firm and the greens are at a really good speed. I thought the conditions were favorable, especially this morning. It’s firm but you could control your golf ball, for sure.

The conditions are tough. They’re definitely tough. Today they had some pins that you could get to, but then there were a lot of pins that were very difficult. It’s definitely a little bit different for a U.S. Open, but last year was kind of similar at Pinehurst. It was firm and fast and brown and I really like that, too.

That was one thing that I thought I did very well was the speed of my putts. The greens here, they’re real fine, they’re a little bumpy, but that’s how — it’s just like that for everyone. So I think speed’s important so you can get those close tap-in pars. But I didn’t notice anything today. I thought they were all pretty similar.