Ryan Moore goes on anti-USGA rant after U.S. Open

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Toward the end of his eight-minute, anti-USGA rant Sunday, Ryan Moore was asked if he would play at any future U.S Open.

“Probably, just to torture myself,” he told a handful of reporters off the 18th green. “I get angry, and it makes me hate golf for about two months, and then I’m OK again.”

Moore shot a solid two-over-par 73 on Sunday to put himself in position for a top-40 finish. But to hear him tell it, Moore got little out of the experience other than extreme frustration.

“I feel like instead of difficulty, they just go for trickiness, to be honest,” he said.

Moore was particularly critical of the par-five 14th hole and its fast, slopey, raised green. It’s where, in the second round, Zach Johnson made a nine, and Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Y.E. Yang each carded an eight after chipping adventures.

“It would take not much to make that green at least halfway reasonable, and they refuse to do it,” Moore said of USGA officials. “I think they go for a spectacle; they want some hole to draw attention and make everybody look stupid, I guess. It doesn’t reward good golf shots like Augusta (National) does, and I don’t understand why you’d have a tournament that doesn’t reward good golf shots.”

Moore also slammed the par-three 17th, which plays 208 yards into a bowl-shaped green. When the pin is back-left, it is nearly impossible to hit.

Some players aim for the front bunker. Graeme McDowell called it both “one of the greatest holes in world golf” but also “borderline unfair.”

Said Moore: “It’s completely unreasonable, just a horrible golf hole the way they set it up. I honestly don’t think I could have stopped a 7-iron on it (Sunday).”

Moore hit what he called his “highest, softest” 4-iron, but it did not stay on the green. He scrambled for par.

“I don’t know what they’re trying to demand,” Moore said. “If you can’t even hit a shot that can stay on the green, where’s the skill involved? I just don’t understand.”

Moore, 27, who graduated from UNLV with a degree in communications and public relations, had been something of a USGA golden child.

In 2004 he won the U.S. Amateur and his second U.S. Amateur Public Links. (He also won the Western Amateur and the NCAA individual championship in 2004.)

“I’m sure all of this is going to get printed and they’re going to hate me, but I’m OK with that,” Moore said. “I’ve won three of their championships.”