Rory’s McIlroy’s record breaking win at an unusually placid Congressional last year has not been a primary catalyst for any change in thinking by the USGA in their plans for the golf course, although it's safe to assume that the reigning Hong Kong Open champion's historic scoring will not come anywhere close to being bettered at Olympic. "One hundred and eleven US Opens have been played and he [McIlroy] not only broke the record, but he broke it by a good bit," Davis pointed out.
But how does the USGA feel about that?
"We have a great, great champion in Rory McIlroy," said Davis. "I don't care what the conditions were, Rory would have lapped the field whether it was firm and fast or soft the way it ended up being all four rounds at Congressional. So I think we were very, very pleased about Rory as our champion but I think the one aspect we weren't overly happy with was it was so soft. No blame directed at Congressional, we just got rain every single night ... that's how much Mother Nature can affect things."
If the rain stays away, Olympic should provide another classic US Open test. But with its track record of creating heroes out of underdogs, don't be surprised by anything. Spencer Levin to beat Phil Mickelson in a play-off, anyone?
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