Pat Perez, fresh off the 7-over-par 77 he posted Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, walked into the scoring area and said to no one in particular, but loudly enough to make sure he was heard: “Well, that was fun. Where’s Mike Davis?’’

Mike Davis is the executive director of the USGA, which was responsible for the unnecessary and unruly carnival that took place on Saturday with yet another questionable course setup.

You would have thought, after the way the USGA lost control of Shinnecock Hills in the final round of the 2004 U.S. Open (the last time the championship was played on this venerable venue) that it might err on the side of caution this week.

Not so.

With the ridiculous pin positions on the 13th and 15th holes, given the sunny, dry and windy conditions Saturday, the only thing missing on those putting surfaces were the windmills and zoo animals that adorn the mini-golf facility a couple of miles down Montauk Highway.

Some of the best players in the world putted off those greens with putts made from on those greens.

Perez was one of the players who had a putt roll off the par-5 15th green to some 30 yards away into a collection area, which prompted him to deliver that comment — perfectly seasoned with sarcasm — on his way into the scoring area.

Hours earlier, Phil Mickelson made himself the lead to the story in this tournament so far despite not being anywhere near the top of the leaderboard.

As he watched an 18-foot putt slowly slip past the hole on the 13th green and begin to make its way down a hill, heading off the green, Mickelson — in a meltdown moment only John Daly could appreciate — hustled over to his still-rolling ball and swatted it back toward the hole before it had a chance to roll off the green.

Along with the two-shot penalty for a rules violation, Mickelson walked off the 13th with a 10 on the hole, shot 81 for the round and is tied for 64th entering Sunday’s final round with no chance to complete the career Grand Slam he so desperately wants and for which a U.S. Open victory the only missing piece.

As players came off the golf course in various states of distress, many of them concurred that the USGA had gone overboard yet again, which is astonishing considering how that 2004 U.S. Open has always been remembered more for how badly they botched it than for Retief Goosen being the last man standing with his second career U.S. Open victory.

“I thought we were close to the edge,’’ Zach Johnson said of the course after shooting a respectable 72, “but we’ve pretty much surpassed it. It’s done. It’s pretty much shot. In my opinion, this is one of the best pieces of land in the country. It’s as good as it gets for a golf course. Unfortunately, they’ve lost the golf course.’’

Justin Thomas, after shooting 74 and moving up the leaderboard, echoed Johnson’s sentiments.

“This is Shinnecock Hills, it doesn’t need to be set up to anything crazy,’’ Thomas said. “It’s hard. When [the wind] blows 15, 20 miles an hour, its really hard. And when you get some very, very difficult pins, it’s really, really, really hard. It doesn’t need to be set up tricky or crazy for this place to be difficult.

“Obviously, there’s nothing they can do about it now. I’m sure they wish they could have had some of those pins over.’’

Indeed, in predictable damage control late in the day, Davis made himself available to everyone but the area gas station attendants and bartenders to discuss the situation with a heartfelt mea culpa.

“There’s no doubt, as we sit here right now, that there were some aspects of the setup that went too far in the sense that well-executed shots were not only not rewarded, but penalized, and we don’t want this,’’ Davis said. “Frankly, we just missed it with the wind. The greens got fast and it was too much for the winds that we had.

“I looked at the pin location on 15 and that was where you were seeing well-executed shots not rewarded. We didn’t plan for that and we didn’t want it.’’

When Brooks Koepka, the defending champion whose 16-under winning score a year ago at Erin Hills surely pushed the USGA to tighten the screws this week, finished his third-round 72, he said, “I hope these greens are good enough to play [Sunday], because they’re very borderline right now.’’

Davis promised: “This golf course will get slowed down [Saturday] night. There will be water applied.’’

The question is whether enough water will be applied to wash the egg off the USGA’s face.