Mike Davis knew the questions were coming concerning the most recent time the U.S. Open was at Shinnecock Hills, so he planned a goofy little play on words.
“We’re happy we have a mulligan this time,” Davis, the CEO of the USGA, said Monday out at the venerable track on Eastern Long Island, where the national championship will return in mid-June after they bungled the course setup in 2004. “It was certainly a bogey last time, probably a double-bogey. It’s great to be back to one of the greatest courses on the planet, and I think that if you can’t tell, we are incredibly excited to be back.”
Back 14 years ago, it was Davis standing beside the seventh green during Sunday’s final round monitoring the grounds staff watering the putting surface that had become almost entirely unusable. Putts were rolling off the surface as the grass wilted underneath the glaring sun and wind.
Davis was not the man in charge of setting up that golf course and wouldn’t take over that position until 2006. But now, in his current role, he hopes he has learned from the black eye of that day.
But the prevailing memory still will be what happened on the seventh green on that Sunday, and it’s going to take quite a bit to erase that.
“We had a situation where on some holes, and particularly the seventh hole itself, we were watching well-executed shots not being rewarded,” Davis said. “In fact, in the case of seven, we saw some well-executed shots actually being penalized. I can assure you, that was not what the USGA wanted.”
And now they get, well, a mulligan.