FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, June 16th, 2018

NOTABLE QUOTES: GOLF CENTRAL LIVE FROM THE U.S. OPEN – SATURDAY PRIMETIME

Golf Channel Notable Quotes

Golf Central Live From the U.S. Open

Round 3, Saturday, June 16

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Southampton (Long Island), N.Y.

 

**Sunday’s Golf Central Live From the U.S. Open coverage from Shinnecock Hills Golf Club airs from 8-10 a.m. ET on Golf Channel, and continuing in primetime from 7-9 p.m. ET.

**Media also can access notable quotes via @GolfChannelPR on Twitter or by visiting www.nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com.**

 

U.S Open Leaders After Saturday’s Round 3

Daniel Berger              +3        -4 on Saturday

Tony Finau                  +3        -4 on Saturday

Dustin Johnson           +3        +7 on Saturday

Brooks Koepka           +3        +2 on Saturday

Justin Rose                  +4        +3 on Saturday

Henrik Stenson           +5        +4 on Saturday

Kiradech Aphibarnrat +6        +1 on Saturday

Jim Furyk                    +6        +2 on Saturday

Patrick Reed               +6        +1 on Saturday

 

On Saturday ’s third round at the U.S. Open and the course conditions

David Duval – “U.S. Opens are meant to test your physical abilities and your mental abilities as well. We all know that playing earlier usually has an advantage over playing in the afternoons on the weekends. Golf courses tend to dry out, tend to change a little bit, tend to speed up. My question is, they say how they [USGA] liked it how it was in the morning. Well, you know it is going to change. You know it is going to speed up. Well, if you like it then, doesn’t that mean you are probably not going to like it in the afternoon if it is set how you want it at 8 or 9 in the morning? That is my question that I have a little bit of a problem with.”

Duval – “Talking to some of the players and caddies as we were waiting to go on the air, they were scratching their heads. I believe it is not up to the player to dictate how golf courses get setup. They are meant to test their skills on these golf courses. But, you have to have a little bit of leeway, a little bit of cushion in how you set them up in case things happen like this today.”

Frank Nobilo – “What they had on Tuesday and Wednesday was the U.S. Open we all wanted to see. But tomorrow, they will see their fourth different golf course, and the fourth different setup.”

Nobilo – “We took a step forward this week coming back to Shinnecock, but today, we took half a step back.”

Brandel Chamblee – “Two out of the last three U.S. Opens have been called into their integrity questioned. It doesn’t happen in any other major championship, but is happens here.”

Chamblee – “We are 14 years down the road from 2004. They promised us it wouldn’t happen again. Well it happened again. Promises didn’t hold water.”

Chamblee – “This tournament got turned inside out today. The bottom became the top. The top, in many cases, almost became the bottom. The integrity of the championship was certainly called into question. We won’t forget this day for a while.”

Rich Lerner – “If the PGA TOUR’s brand is ‘Live Under Par’, the U.S. Open’s is ‘Die Over Doubles.”

Lerner – “If the players are griping, and some are, it’s a U.S. Open. If there is a controversy, and we have one, it’s a U.S. Open. If guys are fist pumping for bogey, and they have been, it’s a U.S. Open. If’ you’re 6-over going to the final round and you have a chance, it is a United States Open.”

 

The USGA’s Mike Davis and John Bodenhamer speaking with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis

Mike Davis – “Long history of the U.S. Open being a tough test of golf. We want it to be a complete test of golf. Today, what we saw was really a tale of two golf courses from the morning to the afternoon. I would tell you that all of the members of the team that set the course up felt good about where things were when we left that 18th green this morning. The fact of the matter is, it got too tough on us in some areas. And by that what I mean is that we really want to test execution, but what we don’t want to see is where well executed shots are not only not rewarded, but in some cases are penalized. We saw a few examples of that today, and that is not what we wanted. Frankly, if you cut to the chase, what happened is that we got more wind than we thought we were going to get. These greens dried out by the end of the day and you had less friction on them. With the speed of these greens, they just shrink, and they shrunk today. I guess what I would say is that it was a very difficult test of golf this afternoon for the players and the scores showed it. I would also say that looking into tomorrow, we are very confident that we can slow the golf course down. We are going to get the same predicted winds tomorrow as today. So, we will slow the golf course down. We put water on this course last night. We put water on it this morning, and what was clear is that in some places we just didn’t put enough.”

John Bodenhamer – “We’re golfers too. I understand that feeling. It was incredibly difficult out there. Shinnecock Hills is a difficult test. As Mike said, we felt very good about the test this morning. I think the scores that were returned earlier in the day were reflected on that. It was a very good, strong, tough test. As the day went on, it became that much tougher. Whether we lost the golf course or if it was over the top I’ll leave that to others to opinion on.”

 

On Phil Mickelson, T64 at 17-over par (11-over on Saturday), and 10 on the par-4 13th, which included a controversial two-stroke penalty

Chamblee – “There is a big difference between using the rules to your advantage and taking advantage of the rules. I have never seen anything like this. No disrespect to Kirk Triplett or John Daly, but they did not then or ever hold the position in the game that Phil Mickelson holds. This was Phil Mickelson disrespecting not only his position in the game, but also disrespecting the game. He disrespected Andrew Johnston today. He was meant to be able to compete out there in an environment that was conducive with the traditions of the game, and he didn’t get it.”

Duval – “It was baffling to see what happened. I don’t really buy the argument from Phil on trying to take advantage of the rules, because really it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. If he wanted to use the rules to his advantage, he should have just declared that an unplayable and putted again.”

Duval – “I am still kind of stunned by the whole thing today on what happened, like everybody is. It just doesn’t look good. It doesn’t look good in the national championship, to start trotting after a golf ball and swipe it back up the hill.”

Nobilo – “To me it was quite straight forward. I think he should be DQ’d. I’ve been DQ’d. He is not using the rules, he is deliberately breaking the rules.”

Nobilo – “It is much simpler than what it turned out to be today. We would have benefited from it, the game would have benefited from it, and everybody would have learned from it.”

Lerner – “This was not an especially happy birthday for Phil.”

Chamblee – “The USGA gave him a birthday present.”

 

-NBC Sports Group-