GOLF NOTES: 115th US Open - Gone and, let's hope, forgotten
By FRED SEELY JAX GOLF NEWS Gone and, let's hope, forgotten. The 115th U.S. Open was a debacle, from its $17 million cost overrun to its three-putt ending, with unwatchable television and bad spectator sightlines in between. You have to go back to 1970, when a prominent USGA member pulled the strings to get the event at his home course in Minnesota — Hazeltine, the “cow pasture” — to find such a mess. But this couldn't have been backscratching: Chambers Bay is a muny, owned by the county. Any other ownership and it would have smacked of FIFA-like payouts. The course was hokey, and every aerial shot showed exactly that. It looked as if it had been dropped in from space. The surrounding land looked nothing like the golf course. It was contrived, and it was an insult to every golfer who treasures the traditions of the game. It was also in awful shape. I can't speak to growing seasons in the Pacific Northwest, but obviously it isn't June. It was torturo...