It Never Rains In California: Your Future Open Venue Weather Roundup

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This post is for all of the USGA Committee folks and staffers who don't have time this week to study the USA Today weather page.

Looks like we're not missing a thing in DC this week, and the same goes for Pinehurst. Hot and weather warning central!

So why couldn't we have had this with Bethpage last year?

There's acceptable weather in Pennsylvania for their two upcoming Opens at Merion and Oakmont, but alas, you can't air those Opens in prime time.

They would have sold a lot of rain jackets and sweaters at Chambers Bay in 2015, but the weekend is at least promising.

Needless to say, San Diego and San Francisco are the only two without any thunderstorms in the forecast.

First Pebble Beach Impressions

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I walked all 18, but to save you a cart or caddy fee, I'll just stick to some things that stood out.

Overall, the course appears to be in excellent condition with fairly benign rough in most places other than the immediate bunker surrounds, which are extremely severe. Most of the setup touches look excellent, and Jack Nicklaus's 5th hole has aged quite nicely. Thanks to exploding bunker sand and time, it has settled nicely into an old looking hole. Plus, look for the tees to be moved around the 5th to liven things up.

That said, here are a few other observations and images. (You know the drill, click on the image to enlarge.)

The third hole (below) has long been one of my favorites and while I've seen images and aerial flyovers of the new bunkers, to actually get to see this atrocious addition in person was particularly disheartening because it has stripped a wonderful bit of subtlety from the course. Prior to the bunker installation, drives not drawn around the corner would run through the fairway into rough, leaving a hanging flyer lie with OB lurking over the green. Barring a really terrible lie, the fairway bunker shot is now easier to control and the scarier elements for the elite player largely eliminated. Plus, they are woefully out of proportion for the hole and look more like beamed in Bay Hill bunkers than Pebble Beach originals.

Davis Love tees off on the sixth (below), which has been dramatically improved by the decision to move the fairway closer to the ocean. However, the swath of rough leading into Arnold Palmer's poorly-scaled new fairway bunkers leaves a lot to be desired. It'll be interesting to see how players attack this, but I'm guessing that in benign conditions there will be a lot of three woods off the tee, which was probably the desired effect of the new bunkers (you know, to offset today's improved player athleticism and force a longer club into this reachable par-5).

Below is the previously mentioned rough leading into the fairway bunkers. It didn't stop one player from reaching the sand though:

You have to be comfortable with heights to sit at the top of No. 7's huge grandstand (below). But the view is worth it.

The much talked about 10th fairway (below), where the tight mow next to the hazard will be worth watching as predicted. My first impression is that the slippery slope into the rocks will only be a factor if the course gets extremely firm and fast. Either way, it's an amazing hole. Big newsflash there.


The best angle to approach the 11th (below) is unfortunately bathed in rough.
 

More than the mown-down turf leading into the world's largest water hazard, the tight turf leading into Pebble Beach's fairway bunkers figures to make a difference along with the extreme fescues on the outer edges. Expect to see a meaningful role played by Pebble Beach's bunkering this week.

"But then you run the risk off the tee that if you overcook it, you are headed into the ocean."

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Stuart Hall looks at some of the key holes and changes to Pebble, and though I'm anxious to see many things, this is the best description of what figures to be a unique situation at No. 10. I should be able to say more about it in a few hours!

In a word, Miller describes the hole as "brutal" and suggests it may be harder than its brethren.

The 10th fairway will have something of an optical illusion. The drive zone will reach 65 to 80 yards in width at various points, the rationale being that the fairway cants so severely to the right that the drive will not play that wide. And because the fairway is snuggled along the cliff line, players must be wary, especially since the best angle into the green is from the right.

"You want to get your ball as close to the ocean as you can because, No. 1, it's flatter down there and, No. 2, you have a much better angle into the green," Davis said. "But then you run the risk off the tee that if you overcook it, you are headed into the ocean."

Q&A With Frank Hannigan

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Former USGA Executive Director Frank Hannigan was part of the first three U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach and kindly answered a few questions on the eve of this year's event.


GS: It's hard to fathom today that it was a leap to take the Open to Pebble Beach in 1972. Was it really that risky?
 
FH: The USGA had played US Amateur Championships at Pebble Beach.  The place was virtually empty.  Odd, but it seemed remote and inaccessible.   So we inserted a clause in the agreement stipulating we would get $250,000 as our share of admissions no matter what. In 1972 $250,000 felt like real money.  The attendance turned out to be fine.


GS: Besides Jack's 1-iron shot Sunday, what else do you recall from the week?
 
FH: Bing Crosby's brother called to ask for a cart for the great man.  Grace Kelly may not have been able to say no to Bing Crosby, but I could. On Sunday two anti-Vietnam war protesters chained themselves to a tree in the drive zone on 18. They just sat there.  

A marshal on the tee with binoculars informed the players.  So Arnold was seen on television using the binoculars and some idiot called in to say that Arnold was using an artificial device and should be penalized.   


GS: In 1982 you were in the booth with Peter Alliss on 17 when Watson chipped in. Is that correct? And what was your role with the USGA at that point?
 
FH: I was then the assistant director, the #2 bureaucrat. I sat in a booth with Peter supposedly to say pithy things.  Crazy.  It was like putting a hack with one piano lesson to play with Horowitz.

 
GS: You were with ABC in 1992, what was that like when Monty came in and Nicklaus told him he had it won and just about everyone else thought he had the thing wrapped up?
 
FH: Nicklaus congratulated Monty on winning the Open while we were in a commercial and then Monty told everyone in the  press tent what Jack said. Nearly half the field was still on the course. I did not regard it as a prediction but rather Jack sneering that everybody else was choking so badly that Monty's score might hold up.