U.S. Open talk takes over

I walked into the office of Mike Amyx, the mayor of Lawrence, Kan., recently. He wanted to talk about the U.S. Open. ¶ As soon as I opened the door, Mike shot me a look and asked, “What the heck was going on at that U.S. Open?” I could tell he had been looking for me so he could get some intel from his “inside man.” But my need for a $9 haircut was able to last a full week after the U.S. Open’s conclusion.

Clarification: Mike Amyx’s office is a barbershop. Mike is my longtime barber. And yes, he is also the mayor of Lawrence.

Usually we wait until I sit down to start the sports chatter, and typically we start off with his inside scoop on Kansas University basketball or football before we get into professional golf. But I hoisted my 3-year-old son Boyd into his chair and answered Mike’s questions to the best of my abilities.

Were you there? Yes.

Did it look like that in person? No, it looked even better.

What happened to the greens? The U.S. Open!

After a few minutes it occurred to me that Mike’s questions weren’t only for his own curiosity. He was gathering insight to share with his next dozen clients.

“I know a guy who works in the business,” maybe Mike would say shortly after I left, “and he says…”

How many of your golfers, members, friends, neighbors, neighbors’ friends, etc., have cornered you recently with these same questions? I know this is the case because I’ve heard it from you guys firsthand — several of you have even resorted to calling me, asking me questions like Mike the barber/mayor, to add in a little eyewitness insight.

Yes, turf pros around the country are being asked their expert opinions by people who previously had only a fleeting interest in their work. So what answer are you giving? By now, have you had so much practice that your response feels rehearsed? Do you feel like a politician?

Well, guess what? Like Mike, you are a politician. And your constituency is the golfing public. Maybe some of the things you’re saying to them includes:

• The USGA is embracing “brown is beautiful.” Whether you like the look of it or not, fewer inputs are the future for many courses.
• The greens caught a lot of grief, but every player had to play them.
• The U.S. Open is not the Masters.

There is so much said every April about “Augusta Syndrome” and the pressure that the Masters puts on superintendents across the country. Now, in late June, we’re talking about a mottled brown public golf course in the Pacific Northwest. But it was in the May issue that I quoted Chambers Bay Superintendent Josh Lewis saying, “Golf isn’t played on a color, it’s played on a surface.”

Has the look of the U.S. Open — and with it, the talk of “sustainability” and reducing the game’s inputs — become a bigger conversation piece at the 19th hole than the conditions of Augusta National in April? And if so… how awesome is that?

Boyd wasn’t quite done with his haircut when Mike ran out of questions and summed up his take on the U.S. Open for me. First he talked about how beautiful the course looked in Sports Illustrated. Then he really got going.

“You know what? I liked watching that tournament. I liked watching those guys struggle!” Mike told me. “Every one of those guys had to putt the same greens. And Jordan Spieth… he didn’t just beat the field, he beat that course. He won that thing.”

Turns out Mike really didn’t need an inside man at all.