Kevin Na took the blame when Erin Hills cut its fescue. The golf course superintendent’s crew was following a weather plan before the 2017 U.S. Open.
On Sunday, June 11, 2017, four days before the U.S. Open, Kevin Na posted an Instagram clip of losing a ball in the fescue at Erin Hills. When Fox Sports’ Ken Brown put a ruler into the deep fescue that week, it read 25.5 inches, about two feet, just past a primary rough of three to four inches. Na’s caption called it almost unplayable and carried hashtags for the USGA and its chief executive, Mike Davis. Hurdzan Golf Design, the course’s own architects, answered with “Dear Kevin, don’t hit in the rough, problem solved,” and Rory McIlroy said the players had 60 yards from line to line. Then on Tuesday the mowers went into the fescue on the 4th, 12th, 14th and 18th holes, and the coverage connected the two.
The maintenance side of that week tells it differently. Superintendent Zach Reineking’s crew ran more than 100 acres of fine fescue rough on a walking-only course, and when they cut the tall grass they baled it and traded it to the local Amish community for furniture. On the Sunday Na posted, the wind blew 15 to 20 miles an hour with gusts to 30, and Davis came out of a meeting with the superintendent and his grounds staff saying they would have to put a good bit more water on the golf course. Then an inch and a half of rain fell Monday night into Tuesday morning. Reineking had already warned the USGA that the tallest fescue would lay down if the rain came, and Darin Bevard, the USGA’s director of championship agronomy, put it in four words: “It would be unplayable.” The USGA called the cut a prescribed plan based on weather. Na said it straight on Wednesday: “Them mowing the fescue has nothing to do with me.”
The Open that was supposed to be too hard went the other way. The course got more rain and less wind than the plan called for. Dustin Johnson, McIlroy and Jason Day missed the cut, Justin Thomas shot 63, and Brooks Koepka won at 16 under, tying McIlroy’s U.S. Open record to par, with 31 players under par for the week. Augusta National mows its second cut at an inch and three-eighths; the USGA was counting on grass at Erin Hills, and once the rain laid that grass down and the crew cut some of it back, the wide fairways were doing most of the talking. In 2020 the course began converting its fescue fairways to bentgrass, and Reineking pointed at heavy clay and silt loam soils that just don’t drain fast enough.
Chapters:
0:00 Kevin Na’s Lost Ball in the Erin Hills Fescue
0:29 Ken Brown’s Ruler Reads 25.5 Inches
1:46 Zach Reineking and the Erin Hills Crew
2:50 Why the USGA Needed a Quiet U.S. Open
3:31 Sunday Wind and the Superintendent’s Water
4:01 An Inch and a Half of Rain Monday Night
4:49 Tuesday Mowers on Holes 4, 12, 14 and 18
5:40 Kevin Na: It Had Nothing to Do With Me
7:05 McIlroy, Johnson and Day Miss the Cut
8:06 Brooks Koepka Ties the Record at 16 Under
9:19 Augusta’s Second Cut vs 25.5 Inches of Fescue
9:58 Why Erin Hills Converted Its Fescue Fairways
Sources:
Golf Channel, Na: video wasn’t intended to rip Erin Hills: https://www.golfchannel.com/news/article-golf-central-blog-na-video-wasnt-intended-rip-erin-hills
Golfweek, what’s up with the fescue cutting at Erin Hills: https://golfweek.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2017/06/14/us-open-whats-up-with-the-fescue-cutting-at-erin-hills/76647838007/
Wisconsin.Golf, Mike Davis on the wind and the extra water at Erin Hills: https://www.wisconsin.golf/news/men/pro/2017-us-open/usga-s-mike-davis-says-strong-winds-have-dried-out/article_e3aacaf8-4ecb-11e7-a8c3-3326cd1e691b.html
ESPN, Bob Harig, at neophyte course Erin Hills, prepare to embrace the unknown: https://www.espn.com/golf/usopen17/story/_/id/19626147/golf-2017-us-open-neophyte-course-erin-hills-prepare-embrace-unknown
PGA TOUR, Koepka cards first major, ties U.S. Open record: https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/daily-wrapup/2017/06/18/koepka-cards-first-major-ties-record-u-s-open
Wisconsin.Golf, Erin Hills converts its fairways from fescue to bentgrass: https://www.wisconsin.golf/courses/turf-war-using-a-novel-approach-erin-hills-will-convert-its-fairways-from-fescue-to/article_8a63cd36-9546-11ea-9b0c-7fcdfaad37a9.html