I am reasonably OK with everything that happened, except for Phil's disingenuous explanation of his behavior.

Don't any of you say Shinnecock is a dog track -- it is NOT. That course is one of America's national treasures of golf architecture. The USGA was just overthinking it with the setup on Saturday. Once they backed off and let the architecture itself determine play more, the tournament got much, much better on Sunday.

Mike Davis just needs to remember how unforecastable the weather can be in maritime environments like Southampton. If you set things up too close to the edge you can be screwed. Over across the pond, the R&A doesn't try too hard to outguess the weather. As a result sometimes you get windless days and 20 under par at St. Andrews -- but they take a longer view and call it OK.

People call for Mike Davis's head all the time, but they shouldn't. I've actually met the man and he is not an idiot like folks think. He has an explicit mission to fulfill at the US Open, and that's to identify a champion. Whether the score is 16 under par (Rory McIlroy) or 7 over par (Hale Irwin), the Open usually does a very good job of finding that champion.

Even last year at Erin Hills where most people regarded the course as crap, Koepka broke through and won the thing. Seemed like a bit of a surprise, until he went and did it again, in a completely different situation. Sounds like a champion to me.

The US Open is still a championship event, Shinnecock is still a top-5 piece of American golf architecture, and the USGA accomplished their mission this week.