News
Monday, June 1, 2009
18 Questions With ... Mike Davis
Said Mike Davis: "We want it to be the hardest test each year. But you’ve got to make it to where it’s fair. Then everybody says, 'What is fair?' If everybody plays the same [course], isn’t that fair? I don’t think that’s the answer."
By David Shefter
Mike Davis, 44, is entering his 19th championship season at the USGA, and fourth as senior director of Rules and Competitions. A key part of his role is managing the course setup for the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Amateur and Walker Cup Match when it is held in the U.S. Since taking over for Tom Meeks in 2006, the Clinton, N.J., resident has worked with the Championship Committee to formulate and implement a course setup philosophy that has enhanced the playability of U.S. Open setups, as well as created plenty of excitement among fans and players alike. Davis recently talked with USGA staff writer David Shefter about the upcoming U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course:
USGA: It seems your work is endless, whether it’s championship preparations, overseeing the USGA-PGA Rules Workshops or other golf-related endeavors . . .
MIKE DAVIS: It is. People in golf tend to think you are only busy in the summer. Actually the summer is probably the easiest time of year.
Now that you have three U.S. Opens under your belt as the Association’s top setup guy, is it getting easier for you to prepare for the USGA’s biggest championship of the season?
DAVIS: I would say in some respects it’s getting easier and in some respects it hasn’t changed. Over the years you find better ways of doing things or you try things that work and stick with them, and it becomes [more manageable]. Or you try things that don’t work. One thing that’s become easier is the [idea of] graduated rough. I know there were some superintendents who raised their eyebrows and said, “What the heck are they doing?” I think now it’s become more accepted, so it’s easier to go in and do it. The [host] clubs understand it a little better now.
Has the graduated-rough concept been universally accepted by the players?
DAVIS: I think so, particularly the ones who play every year. My thinking is, you’ve got some players who just show up that will take whatever is given them and just play. Their mindset is, “I can’t control it, I’m just going to play.” If the greens are too firm, everybody’s got to play them. If the rough is over the top, everybody’s got to play it. Then there are other players who are very thoughtful and mindful of setup. They really pick up on all the details and have opinions on it one way or the other.
Last year I ran into a player who has been critical of past USGA setups, and he thought Torrey Pines was the “fairest” setup he’s ever seen at a U.S. Open. As someone with that responsibility, does that make you feel good when you hear those types of positive comments?
DAVIS: It’s great when a championship goes well. The fact is, everybody realizes that what happened at Torrey Pines last year, so much was out of our control. You can’t create drama like we had like that. All you do is set up the course in a way where the story is about the competition and players and the drama. It’s nice to get some accolades. Really what they talked about was the competition and the design of the course. I think that’s great. You just don’t want the guys to every day be talking about the setup. You don’t want that to be the story.
But when you hear people say it’s a “fair test” of golf, isn’t that the objective, no matter who walks away with the trophy?
DAVIS: We want it to be the hardest test each year. But you’ve got to make it to where it’s fair. Then everybody says, “what is fair?” If everybody plays the same [course], isn’t that fair? I don’t think that’s the answer. When you set it up … you still have to make sure when a guy hits a good shot, he’s rewarded. If a guy executes a shot perfectly and he ends up in the exact same place as somebody who hit a marginal or bad shot, that’s not what I would call fair golf.
Aren’t there intangibles like unforeseen weather that can throw even the best setup guys a curveball?
DAVIS: There is some luck to this. You can do all you want, and sometimes it’s just not going to work out right. Sometimes that’s due to Mother Nature giving you something that was never forecast. You could be forecasted for no wind and all of a sudden you get 25 mph winds and you didn’t put enough water on the greens or they were too fast or used a hole location you never would have used if it got windy. In the back of my mind I’ve been saying, “Enjoy it when you do get some luck because there’s going to be a time when things just don’t work out.”
Going to varying teeing grounds or changing a scheduled hole location must be a nice backup plan when the forecast suddenly changes.
DAVIS: The benefit of using different teeing grounds is twofold. First, it allows you to make adjustments on a day when there’s going to be cold and windy conditions. At Bethpage in June, typically we are going to get a south or southwesterly wind, and, generally speaking , we set up the golf course for a south wind. But if all of a sudden a north wind comes up, which happened on Friday in 2002, and you are not willing to move tee markers, then you are handcuffed. The other benefit is that it allows us to do some things with the setup like using a harder hole location, or bringing into play a different drive zone from a [forward] tee. You give the players a choice from an “up” tee.
Most golfers know the game is a lot more mental than physical, so by changing tees, aren’t you also challenging their course management and strategy?
DAVIS: Absolutely. Another thing that people have to realize is that the mental side of the game becomes very tough under tense conditions. If it’s late on Sunday or he’s in contention, and all of a sudden you throw him something he wasn’t expecting, it’s one thing to analyze it when you’re playing casually, but if you’re in contention for a National Open Championship, your mind is not always necessarily working the same at that point. And your caddie is not thinking maybe as clearly as he normally would. Moving a tee marker or shifting it to another angle may not make it harder, but it does cause some impromptu course management.
Come championship week, do you feel like a child on Christmas morning just waiting to see what’s going to happen?
DAVIS: I absolutely love that week. There’s part of it I don’t love because it’s so busy and you get pulled in so many different directions. But my absolute favorite thing is doing the setup early in the morning when you are out there walking the golf course. There are very few people out there. It’s just a great time. I would say setting up the course, even years in advance, I love that part. It’s by far my favorite part of the job. And I would actually pay to do that. It’s just a fun thing to do.
It’s probably like a chemistry experiment. You spend all that time planning and now it’s time to see how everything works.
DAVIS: Sometimes you can know almost exactly what is going to happen. But there are other times you just don’t really know what’s going to happen. An example: I’m not exactly sure how the ninth hole at Bethpage is going to play. I’ve looked at it and I’ve spent time out there by myself studying it. I think I know what’s going to happen, but I’m not sure. Part of that is going to depend on what kind of weather conditions and turf firmness we have.
Getting back to the ninth hole, do you watch it the first few days and see if adjustments to the teeing ground will need to be made?
DAVIS: I’ll be watching it like a hawk in practice rounds to see what’s going on. I’m kind of interested to see how the balls are going to react when they hit the ground because there is so much tilt to that fairway
The last few years we’ve seen drivable par 4s, but Bethpage doesn’t have one. Are you disappointed?
DAVIS: Honestly, no. It’s a neat feature as long as the architecture lends itself to it. Part of me doesn’t want to get into a rut of having to have that every year. A drivable par 4 is only good if it can be done. With Bethpage, could you move tee markers up? Yeah, but you would see guys bombing it right at the green, where the worst score they are going to make is 4. And to me it’s not enough risk or reward to make it worthwhile.
But you have also said there are other risk/reward opportunities on the course.
DAVIS: There are plenty of places at Bethpage where players have a choice. We just don’t have a drivable par 4. You look at the two par 5s [four and 13]. Two out of the four par 3s, the eighth and 14th holes, offer tremendous risk/reward opportunities. Depending on hole locations, guys are going to stand on those tees and say, “Do I want to go for it or not?” And if they do go for it and execute, birdie is going to be a good possibility. But if they go for it and they don’t execute – in case of the 14th hole – they are probably going to make bogey. And in the case of the eighth hole with a front hole location, they could easily make double bogey [by going into the pond].
Is there one renovation on the Black for this U.S. Open that stands out?
DAVIS: I’d say there’s a handful. I’m really excited about what’s happened behind the fourth green. I think you’re going to see more guys go for it. I’m excited about the sixth hole, giving the players a choice of hitting [tee shots] down below the hill. I’m very excited about No. 8 with that front portion of the green. I’m curious about nine. I think the [changes] are going to be good, but I’m not entirely [sure].
I’m sure players will be happy to see the fairway cut back on No. 10.
DAVIS: Exactly. The other thing on 10 – and everyone seems so focused on that fairway being brought back – but that hole should play straight downwind. It’s a 505-yard hole. They are going to be hitting a long club in there. But you can’t land it short, which is the case with so many holes at Bethpage. So what we did was put that closely mown area behind the green. You are going to see balls hit that green – if it gets firm and/or it’s really downwind – and probably release back. If you walk back in that closely mown area, it’s a really cool shot. It’s one of those shots where they are trying to hit the ball hard enough up the hill, and then as soon as it hits the green, it falls back down. It’s like some of the Pinehurst greens in that you have to hit it almost perfect to get a good recovery.
Are you pretty confident about where the golf course is at with little less than a month left before the U.S. Open?
DAVIS: The answer is, yes. Right now I’m not sure I can think of one aspect that I am not happy with. I guess in a perfect world, I would say the rough would be a little thinner. How the rough came through is almost to be expected because when grass starts popping in the Northeast and upper Midwest in the spring, it always comes in thick. Otherwise, we’re where we need to be, and you just kind of keep your fingers crossed.
Obviously, pace of play at all levels of play is a concern, and it’s generally a hot topic with the professional tours. A few years ago, the USGA went to a checkpoint system in its amateur championships and it’s been very successful. Any thought of implementing a similar system with the three Opens?
DAVIS: It’s been talked about. At the end of the day, if we were concerned about nothing more than improving pace of play at the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open, we would go to that because it absolutely, positively works. We can improve pace of play by probably a half-hour to 40 minutes at the U.S. Open if we did this, but I think it would be so disconcerting to some of the players. I think long-term, you might see this. The policy has become pretty standard now in amateur golf. We’re using it, state/regional [golf associations] are using it, other events are using it … and part of me says, maybe it’s just a matter of time until we’ve introduced it to enough young players who will eventually be playing in a U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open that we can go with it. You’ve got to understand, for these touring professionals to see something so radically different for one week out of 52, and they are playing in one of the most important events all year … you’ve got to ask yourself, is that really what you want to do? The whole world, including most of the players, wants to see pace of play get better. It’s just a question of, are we at that point right now? I think the answer is that someday we’ll probably be at that point, but not in 2009.
The Golf Digest/U.S. Open Challenge is going to happen for a second year in a row, and you’ll be out there on the Friday before the championship begins to referee the proceedings. What would Mike Davis shoot under U.S. Open conditions?
DAVIS: That’s a good question. If I had some time to practice, which I rarely have anymore, I think I could probably shoot high 80s, low 90s. I don’t think I would shoot any higher than that if you gave me a chance to practice. Could I shoot in the mid 80s, low 80s? I could do that if my game was on. For me it’s about getting in play off the tee, because I’ve always been a pretty good iron player and a good putter. If I could get it in play, I would do OK, but that’s a big if. I do think, unless I had one of my worst days ever, I would break 100.
To read the transcript of Mike Davis’ comments to the media on Monday, May 4, about the setup for the U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course, click here.
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