Come on, USGA: Give us Brooks-Bryson at the U.S. Open!

NORTON, Mass. – Mother Nature had provided a gentle forecast – crisp, fall-like weather, temperatures reaching the low 70s – but being a veteran of 37 PGA TOUR seasons, Mark Russell suspected some turbulence would accompany Friday’s first round of the Dell Technologies Championship. There had been a drastic change to the par-4 12th at TPC Boston and Russell, vice president of rules, competition and administration for the PGA TOUR, had caught wind of player discontent. Some of it was loud, much of it animated, but all of it was met with Russell’s unmatched sense of calm. “Let’s just play four rounds of golf and see what we have,â€� Russell said. Well, after just one day, we have definitive proof that architect Gil Hanse has provided a much tougher 12th hole. When the day was done, the field average was 4.453; in the previous 14 years of this tournament, the average there was 4.064. Just three birdies were made in Round 1, as opposed to years 2003-16 when an average of 14.98 were made per round. And when it came to rank, No. 12 was the toughest hole Friday, compared to being on average 7.5 in past years. It’s just one-quarter of the way through the tournament, of course, and both Russell and Hanse have asked for a bigger pool of data. Players being players, however, many have already decided they don’t like the change. “It was one of the better holes. You don’t need to change it,â€� said Justin Thomas, who seemed to have support from other vocal peers. Yet, heeding Russell’s call for a fair sample, Marc Leishman simply shrugged. He had to make a ticklish 5-footer to save par, but so be it. “I don’t really get into all that stuff,â€� the Aussie said of the controversy after his round of 4-under 67. “I just play what we’re given. That’s what we’ve been given this week, so just play on it and do as good as I can.â€� In years past, No. 12 was roughly a 465-yard hole with a green tucked in behind an environmentally friendly hazard. True, it yielded its share of double-bogeys or higher (3.51 per round between 2003-16) and there were seven made Friday, but mostly the biggest change thus far is in the lack of scoring opportunities. Kevin Na made the only morning birdie, from 29 feet, while Grayson Murray (18 feet) and Kevin Kisner (12) converted splendid approaches in the afternoon. A miserly 25.26 percent of the field found the green in regulation. Indeed, it wasn’t the 12th that players had come to know, although Leishman seemed to understand the change. “In the past, it has been more (like) driver, wedge, or driver, 9-iron. But now, you’re going to be hitting longer irons in there.â€� But more than length (and while it can stretch to a 511-yard par 4, Friday it played at around 490), the new 12th features a bunker down the left that requires a 256-yard carry, and a big “Principal’s Noseâ€� bunker down the right that can be reached at 305 yards. Since at approximately 300 yards the fairway slopes steeply downward, the play is to carry the left bunker but hit your drive up on the plateau. Therein lies one of the problems — players conceded they hadn’t yet figured out the hole and so decisions were all over the map. Adam Scott hit 3-wood, 7-iron and made par; Gary Woodland hit 2-iron, 4-iron, made bogey and seemed to admit he was confounded; Louis Oosthuizen hit 4-wood, 4-iron and made bogey by missing the green short; and Thomas stayed with a game plan to hit a big, high sweeping draw into the 13th fairway, from where he still had a 190-yard second shot. He made par but said, “I still don’t like the hole.â€� Colleagues who might have agreed with Thomas weren’t about to adopt his game plan, however. Not when the penalty for not hitting a big, high sweeping drive was trouble with trees and then a possible second shot up and over more trees. And not when quality players such as Scott (3-wood, 201-yard approach, two putts from 50 feet), Rory McIlroy (3-wood, 214-yard approach, two putts from 12 feet), and Dustin Johnson (3-wood, 6-iron, two putts from 60 feet) showed that the hole wasn’t impossible. Hanse was on-site Thursday and faced the players. So often they have sung his praises, but this time there is criticism. Like a man, he listened, but he also agreed with Russell. Give it time.

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You may heard of the 16th at TPC Scottsdale. Shortest hole on the course. Enclosed by stands. A packed house. Party atmosphere. Sure, the gallery sometimes can be, well, a bit boisterous, but it’s all in good fun. Yet don’t forget the other 17 holes this week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Those are the ones that usually decide the winner. RELATED: Tee times | Power Rankings | Amy paying it forward THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER THE FLYOVER You’ve just finished the hardest hole at TPC Scottsdale, the 490-yard par-4 14th. Now it’s time to make your final move on the easiest three-hole stretch on the course. The 553-yard par-5 15th is the shorter of the two par 5s; the 163-yard par-3 16th is the shortest on the course; and the 332-yard par-4 17th is the shortest par 4. Collectively, they played to just under a half-stroke below par last year. The closing hole, the 442-yard par-4 18th, is more challenging, but by then, you’ve got momentum. Right? LANDING ZONE Speaking of the drivable 17th … more than 10% of all tee shots struck at that hole in the last 17 years have found the putting surface. Most of the field will try to drive the green – 86% tried it last year, with 18% of those being successful. Even finding the water that guards the left and back side of the green is not terrible, with a par-or-better conversion rate of 40%. No surprise it’s this week’s Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole. A look below at where all tee shots landed last year. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Stewart Williams: “Breezy conditions may linger into Thursday morning before decreasing and becoming light during the afternoon Thursday. Otherwise mostly sunny skies return with highs in the upper 60s expected. High pressure will build over the region Friday and dominate the weather through the weekend. This will provide a gradual warming trend, with highs returning to the mid-70s this weekend under sunny skies. The next piece of upper level energy will arrive on Monday, bringing a chance for showers and cooler temperatures.â€� For the latest weather news from Scottsdale, Arizona, check out the PGA TOUR weather Hub. SOUND CHECK It’s so hard to control your adrenaline. You have so many juices pumping and your … hands are tingling and it’s a little shaky. It’s a great atmosphere; it’s a great hole. The fans are unbelievable, they are what makes this event what it is.â€� BY THE NUMBERS 1,759 – Total tee shots struck at par-3 16th since the last hole-in-one (Francesco Molinari, third round, 2015). Despite the drought, the 16th remains one of the easiest par 3s on TOUR to ace; just eight other par 3s since 1983 have yielded more aces than the 16th. 27 under – J.B. Holmes’ score at the drivable par-4 17th in 48 career rounds. That’s the best of any player since 2006. +62.85 – Hideki Matsuyama’s Strokes Gained: Tee to Green at TPC Scottsdale, most of any player since 2014. 70 under – Matsuyama’s cumulative score at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, best of any player since 2014. 30 – Weeks that Justin Thomas has led the FedExCup standings in his career, making him the fourth player to reach that mark (Tiger Woods, Jimmy Walker and Dustin Johnson are the others). SCATTERSHOTS Welcome back: Charl Schwartzel is making his first PGA TOUR start in nearly nine months. Schwartzel last appeared on TOUR at the 2019 RBC Heritage in April. He was then sidelined with a wrist injury and didn’t return to action until December at an event in his native South Africa, finishing T3 at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. He missed the cut in his next two starts overseas. Schwartzel, a two-time TOUR winner, starts his season on a Major Medical Extension. He’ll have 12 starts available to earn 262 FedExCup points to keep his card. Speaking of South Africans: Branden Grace has found his game. He won the South African Open in mid-January, his first win on any Tour since 2017, and he also had a top-3 finish and a top-20 finish to sandwich that victory. A year ago, Grace was solo second to Rickie Fowler at TPC Scottsdale in his tournament debut, leading the field in scoring on the par 3s and par 5s. “I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season,â€� he said that Sunday. But he was unable capitalize on the momentum, failing to produce another top-10 finish in his next 23 stroke-play starts. That dropped him out of contention for a spot on the International Team, a tough blow given his track record at the Presidents Cup. His South African Open victory not only has him back on track, it also finished off the career slam of South African events. Grace had previously won the Joburg Open, Alfred Dunhill Championship, Dimension Data Pro-Am and Nedbank Golf Challenge. Grace’s lone TOUR win is the 2016 RBC Heritage. Speaking of winners: In this week’s field are 91 different PGA TOUR winners (for a combined total of 258 victories). Excluding THE PLAYERS Championship and the FedExCup Playoffs events, that makes just the fourth field on the PGA TOUR schedule since 2010 to have more than 90 different winners. The others are the 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in both 2018 and 2019.

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