The top quotes from the week of the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, including some pointed comments from Johnny Miller and a Twitter spat between Rory McIlroy and Steve Elkington.
The top quotes from the week of the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, including some pointed comments from Johnny Miller and a Twitter spat between Rory McIlroy and Steve Elkington.
“I told [caddie Jimmy Johnson] walking up to the 18th green, ‘Let’s try to be a part of history.’” – on his eagle at the par-5 18th and his historic third-round 63 Saturday
“I wish he was calling it just to hear what he would have said.” – referring to Johnny Miller, who shot 63 to win the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont
“Taking nothing away from 9 under par – 9 under is incredible with U.S. Open pressure. But it isn’t a U.S. Open course that I’m familiar with the way it was set up.” – comparing Thomas’ 63 to his own
“For one, the greatness of my round is the 63 in the last round of the U.S. Open to win by one. Everything else is way secondary. If somebody does it tomorrow to win the U.S. Open by one, that’s the specialness of my round. And secondly, Erin Hills isn’t exactly Oakmont.”
“The course wasn’t designed to be soft, and if it was going to be soft, it should have been 26- or 27-yard-wide fairways. That’s what made it easy. The guys weren’t afraid to bomb it. It was never that way in the U.S. Open. It was always about really tight fairways and having to be a great driver. This went totally against the tradition of the U.S. Open.”
“A 63 for a par 72 is a heck of a score, even if it was the Milwaukee Open.”
“If we’re being honest, yeah, we’re human. We know we’ve had some issues the last two years. I think we’ll look back at those (events) with a lot of fond memories. But yes, there are some things that of course we had some issues.” – on the importance of a holding a controversy-free U.S. Open
“It affects the whole organization. By that I mean that anytime your competency comes into question that affects the people that are doing our equipment testing, the agronomic people on the greens section, our people in dealing with the history of the game and helping to grow the game. So of course, we want to avoid those things. But sometimes things happen.” – on the impact of years of public criticism
“We have 60 yards from rough line to rough line. You’ve got 156 of the best players in the world here, if we can’t hit it within that avenue, you might as well pack your bags and go home. These are the widest fairways we’ve ever played in a U.S. Open. Even the first and second cut is another 10 yards on top of that. So if you’ve got 50 or 60 yards to hit into and you’re complaining about the fescue that’s wider than that, I don’t think that’s an issue.” – on the length of the fescue and the course setup at Erin Hills
“Rory is so bored playiing golf...without Tiger the threshold is prolly 4 majors with 100mill in bank.” – via Twitter, on Rory McIlroy’s missed cut
“@elkpga More like 200mil... not bad for a “bored” 28 year old... plenty more where that came from.” – in response to Elkington
“New (sic) you were a money guy. Jack won 18 and never mentioned his total cash..It was 5 mill.” – replying to McIlroy
“That’s why jack designed 100’s of golf courses... and it’s knew... mustn’t have taught grammar in the 50’s....” – replying to Elkington