Unfortunately I didn't get to see very much of this year's US Open, but just looking at the numbers the USGA's obsession with making the course as difficult as possible to ensure that noone shoots a low score has some adverse effects.

Firstly, the golf seems to become incredibly dull. Congratulations to Michael Campbell for playing extremely composed and steady golf but rounds of +1,-1,+1,-1 is hardly inspirational watching is it? The mantra of "hit the fairway, hit the green" to avoid rough so onerous that it almost guarantees a bogey (or worse) results in extremely conservative golf.

Worse still is that it can become a little embarrassing to see the best players in the world really struggling. Athird place finish of +5 just seems wrong to me. For me, a fair par for the best field of players in the world would be where the cut is made as this implies that the average player in the field shot even par. Ok, so this might mean that the winner shoots -15 or so but surely this is a better indication of who played the best golf over the four rounds as there's at least a chance of recovering from a couple of bad holes if the course yields a few birdies.

I'd be interested to hear all your views.

Paul