"Before they had the fairway up the left side of 11 where it should be, now it's over to the right over here."

Tom Watson was pretty upfront about his dislike for the fairway contour on No. 11 and he was correct to question it.

And you've got to think about putting the ball in the fairway at 11. Before they had the fairway up the left side of 11 where it should be, now it's over to the right over here. That's where you would kind of normally hit it, now you're aiming too far to the right and you're still fanning it off to the right, now you're in worst position.

Some background: 11 is one of those holes always written off as ordinary and I believe set up properly. It's a wonderful example of an architect getting the most out of an awkward transition from the ideal portion of the property to the stretch of land that returns you to the clubhouse.

Its strategy is simple: Drive it left over the bunker and flirt with a small canyon fall off (sadly now bordered by cart path), and you open up the best angle to the green. Drive right and you must play over bunkers, which, after years of build up, make the approach quite difficult. By eliminating the left area of fairway, there is no real strategy.

However, after looking at the sparse left rough today and watching one player roll it up from there while a player in the middle of the fairway caught the bunker backslope and saw his ball take a horrible bounce to the back of the green, the best way to play the hole remains up the left side into the rough.

It's one of the rare instances I've seen Mike Davis take strategy out of the golf course. Thankfully he's injected so much into the rest of the layout that the occasional blip is no big deal.

Here's the view from the fairway, followed by the left rough view.