U.S. Open: Thank goodness, USGA halts 18-hole playoffs

The USGA’s announcement that the 18-hole playoff at the U.S. Open is dead left us with just one question: Why didn’t they do this sooner?

Thankfully, the USGA has come into this century with one good idea.

In what has to be one of the surprises of the year, the organization has decided to forego its 18-hole playoff for its four major open championships: the U.S. Open, the U.S. Women’s Open, the US Senior Open and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

The announcement was made earlier this week by USGA CEO/Executive Director Mike Davis who said in a press release:

"“We know how important it is to everyone in the golf world to see play conclude on the Sunday of a major championship, and to award the trophy to the champion. After receiving input from a variety of constituents, including players, fans, volunteers, officials and our broadcast partners, it clearly came across as something that everyone valued, and would benefit from.”"

In place of the 18-hole playoff, a two-hole playoff will begin after the final round, and if a winner is not determined in two holes, players will proceed to sudden death.

Other than extending the torture for players, there was no redeeming value in having the 18-hole, next day playoff, as memorable as they might have been.

Rocco Mediate and Tiger Woods put on a playoff for the ages in 2008, as did Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in 1962. But those are the exception, not the rule. At least, not today.

These days there are just too many business and logistic reasons for not having a playoff of 18 holes on a Monday.

Having a next day playoff is a horrible inconvenience to the paying public who purchased tickets, hotel rooms and airfares to watch a tournament that they anticipated would finish on Sunday. While the final rounds are often nail-biters, when it ends in a tie, the air goes out of the excitement balloon. People leave the course unsatisfied, and many can’t come back the next day for the conclusion. Far too many simply go away annoyed.

That alone should have convinced the USGA to make this adjustment long ago, but it didn’t.

I have watched snippets of playoffs in airports, had pilots announce updates on playoff scores as travelers make their way out of town. I’ve had updates of scoring via cell phone while on a shuttle bus leaving the course or hotel while play is continuing on Monday. To say that’s not the way you want to find out about the finale of a tournament is an understatement.

U.S. Open volunteers are the biggest winners?

A Monday playoff makes it difficult to run the tournament smoothly because the volunteers, who make every tournament run, schedule their time for the tournament week, not for the tournament week plus a Monday. Many take vacation days to volunteer and can’t add another day just because there’s a playoff. That means the tournament is operating at half speed. All golf tournaments, not just the U.S. Open, are heavily staffed by volunteers. Without them no organization could afford to run a tournament. Volunteers are everywhere, from marshals to scorers to transportation to media centers. They make the operating tournaments possible.

For the people who do come out to a playoff, it’s a nightmare of crowd management on site because everybody wants to see the same hole. If there were 40,000 people on a Sunday, for instance, and if a quarter or a half come back the next day, they all want to be on every hole as play proceeds. There’s no spreading the crowd around the course. It’s a mess.

Logistics – and ratings – for TV are no longer a disastrous nightmare at the U.S. Open

The Monday playoff is awful for television networks. They have sold air time and hired crew to work for the tournament with a Sunday finish. Now they have to recalibrate everything to follow two golfers for 18 holes. It is no small feat to accomplish, particularly with the crowds.

A Monday finish adds to the expense of the telecast with a promise of lower ratings on Monday because most golf fans are at work. Because there’s no way a Monday finish gets the same size audience as a Sunday finish, the commercials during a Monday finish have less value to sponsors. Networks can’t recover the costs as easily. It’s a lose-lose for them.

Since the U.S. Open is contested during some of the longest daylight days of the year, there should never be a problem getting a two-hole playoff completed, so long as the USGA is not too greedy trying to slide into near prime time programming.

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They will definitely have to think about moving tee times closer to 2 PM local time than 3 PM in case they need 30 or 45 minutes or an hour of playoff time after regulation play concludes. They have to consider it for the rest of the USGA championships as well, but all are held in the summer with lots of daylight.

Since the U.S. Open has been contested, there have been 33 playoffs. The first one was between Willie Anderson, the eventual winner, and Alex Smith at Myopia Hunt Club in 1901. Anderson beat Smith by one stroke. The most recent was the Tiger Woods/ Rocco Mediate contest in 2008 won by Woods in 19 holes, sudden death after the playoff.

Perhaps the most important playoff to U.S. golf at the time was the Francis Ouimet/ Harry Vardon/ Ted Ray playoff which Ouimet won as an amateur. That spurred interest in golf. (Unfortunately, the movie about this did not accurately portray what happened in the playoff. Ouimet won over Vardon by five strokes and over Ray by six.)

Next: Phil Mickelson to end drought at WGC-Mexico Championship?

Look at the antiquated U.S. Open Monday playoff this way: If the Super Bowl was tied at the end of four quarters on Sunday, would people come back Monday morning to finish up? No. It’s nonsense. The U.S. Open is one of the five “Super Bowls” of golf. It needs to finish on Sunday, weather (and other circumstances) permitting.

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