Does Rory have the staying power to tame Merion?

Mike Davis is the USGA’s executive director, the man charged with creating the sort of mayhem usually served up to us each year during the US Open championship.

His brief is not to protect the players or for that matter the final score. Instead it is to provide the players with the toughest playing examination possible, (as befits the status of the US Open) namely a course that best tests the players’ skills, nerves and temperament.

Once set up, he allows Mother Nature run its own course. Golf was never meant to be a perfect game played in a perfect world.