Congressional Opens To Reviews

AP's Ben Nuckols writes about the re-opening of Congressional and its new greens. I thought this was interesting:

Ben Brundred Jr., co-chairman of Congressional's U.S. Open committee, declined to say how much the changes cost. He did say that members paid to rebuild the greens and that all other costs were split between Congressional and the USGA.

"Awkward" Tees At Congressional

I have to confess it's been a while since I looked at Congressional very closely but today's AT&T National first round was an eye-opener. The list of cringe-inducing sights is too long, so let's just hope they do some tree and bunker work before the 2011 U.S. Open. To call the bunkers there two-dimensional would be unfair to two-dimensional bunkers.

Rex Hoggard blogged about this change, which actually sounds like it fits with the rest of the course:

The Blue will close shortly after this week’s event and the greens rebuilt, but some new tee boxes that the U.S. Golf Association may use have already been installed, at Nos. 9 and 15 for example, giving players a glimpse at what may await in ’11.

“(Nos.) 15 and 9 seemed very awkward because they move away from the way the slope is,” said Jim Furyk, who has played in the last four Tour events played at Congressional (’97 U.S. Open, ’05 Booz Allen Classic and ’07 and ’08 AT&T Nationals). “They both slope left to right and the tee is going back to the left, which makes the tee shot a little bit more awkward.”

Speaking of awkward, that hill behind below the new 10th tee, old 18th green site. They will find a way to put people there in the U.S. Open, right? It looks a little strange right now with just a television tower. Actually, that's the least of Congressional's issues.

"It's a very complex thing, but it's also necessary"

Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post looks at the plans for redoing Congressional's greens and talks to superintendent Mike Giuffre.

"But it comes down to the fact that that grass has performed poorly for us in the summertime the last six or seven years. It hasn't putted like we'd like it to. We need a change."

And so close to the U.S. Open.