I understand why sports fans become attached to the home team, even when 90 percent of the athletes have no local connection. As Jerry Seinfeld said, "We root for laundry," but the laundry becomes so familiar that we become emotionally attached.
I have no idea why people would become similarly attached to a golf course. Back in 1970, the U.S. Open was brought to Hazeltine National far too early in the golf course's existence. The players ridiculed it as a corn field spoiled by the drilling of 18 holes.
The feelings of the U.S. Golf Association and the Hazeltine powers-that-be were hurt, but I don't recall a great angst within the public -- or a need to come to Hazeltine's defense.
As it turned out, Dave Hill and the rest of the critics were right, and Hazeltine underwent major changes before the USGA considered bringing back the Open. The USGA even required a test run -- the 1983 Senior Open -- before Hazeltine landed a very successful second Open in 1991.
The folks in the Pacific Northwest (including e-mailers and Twitter responders) seemed to be much more defensive when I started ripping on Chambers Bay as a tricked-up mess after a watching a few hours of first-round nonsense last Thursday,
Why the emotional attachment to a golf course -- scenic and nonsensical -- for people who had nothing to do with the decision to build Chambers Bay?
Defend Russell Wilson for blowing a second straight Super Bowl title with that interception, OK, but a completely homemade golf course that had nothing to do with the Pacific Northwest's reputation ... I don't get it.
I did enjoy getting this e-mail from a Tacoma-area businessman who happened to listen to a radio podcast in which I was ranting against Chambers Bay as a worthy host for the U.S. Open. (Be sure to check out the link at the bottom, of a Chambers Bay-smooching local TV guy):