You can blame the weather or you can blame superior equipment technology, but frankly, the U.S. Open should not resemble a weekly PGA Tour event. This is the national championship of golf. The USGA—golf’s governing body—insists that this should be the toughest event played every year, yet McIlroy cruised to victory. I even heard someone refer to it as a “rout.”

Where were the 4-irons? The 5-irons? I would have taken a utility club. Anything other than a wedge.

Sandy Tatum, a former USGA president, once famously said, “We don’t want to embarrass the best players in the world, we want to identify them.”If you ask me, identifying the best players means putting drivers, long irons, and fairway metals into their hands when a course is playing to 7,600 yards. Not a wedge, at least not until the third shot.

All week long I heard that weather was the cause of the softer greens and fairways. That’s fine: then move the tees back. But no, the tees were moved forward. Was this supposed to be part of the “play it forward” initiative? I think the USGA may have targeted the wrong audience.

And why were the greens so soft? I didn’t see torrential rain this week, even though it was humid and hot. Still, it wasn’t nearly the level of precipitation we saw at Oak Hill (1989), Oakland Hills (1996), or Bethpage (2009). And it couldn’t have been a surprise: Washington, D.C. in the middle of June. The city was built on a swamp. Were they expecting the State of Washington?

The greens at Congressional were built to USGA putting green specifications, and Sub-Aire systems were installed underneath every green. So explain to me again why they were so soft. And if they were soft why would you move the tees up and put wedges into players’ hands?

Did I not get the memo?

Curtis Strange, himself a two-time U.S. Open Champion (1988 and ‘89), commented, “This is not the U.S. Open I played in” after watching McIlroy miss the fairway with a tee shot by 25 yards, finish in a perfect lie in the rough, then hit wedge and make par. Someone should ask Curtis if he was able to “graduate” out of the rough 20-plus years ago. (But be careful: He might bite someone’s head off in response.)

Taking nothing away from McIlroy’s wonderful victory, the USGA needs to re-think its excessive manipulation of course set-up. The U.S. Open should be the toughest test of the game. Again.