"Pebble Now an Intimate Meeting of Land and Sea"

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Steve Elling (here) and Doug Ferguson (here) both focus their final preview stories on the tight mow along the cliffs, and include player compliments on the move. It's an awesome improvement to the course, though I am concerned about how it will impact the event.

Here's a rundown of the holes and the potential issues.


Hole 4: Looks great and definitely brings the cliff edge into play. Couple that with an awful fairway bunker added to narrow down the landing area, and I think you'll see more players try and drive it closer to the green.


The sixth hole's meeting with the sea (click to enlarge)Hole 6: The loss of two trees coupled with the tight mow has transformed this hole into one of the most beautiful on the course. It's amazing how the simpler hazard edge and opening up of the view into the massive cliff takes this hole to another level.


Hole 8: The fear that someone might drive through the fairway seems unfounded here. The cut is not very tight in most places down the right side where a drive could roll out with a good wind. The only real tightly mown spot is far up the left side where someone will have driven it ridiculously far past the intended distance. The fairway is not very wide and frankly I find that more of a concern than the tight mow by the hazard edge. Tom Watson talked about this fairway width issue today.

 

Hole 10: Definitely in play, and if the fairways dry out more there's a chance this will come into play in shocking fashion to some players. But right now the fairways have a decent amount of thatch and moisture so I don't see anything too strange happening here. There also seems to be a very light intermediate cut to help stop some balls.

 

Hole 18: The situation I'm most concerned about. To be clear, I love the look, I love the concept, but there is a slight ridge down the left side, 10-15 feet from the hazard edge. It's not a natural ridge, but appears to be more of a product of poor finish work from various projects to shore up the seawall. There's a good chance of a drive down the left side teetering on edge, but well struck and seemingly well placed, hitting this and kicking into the hazard.

The other issue is the marking of the hazard. There are several large flat spots where a player could get a full stance and find their ball in the hazard, even though it's fairway cut. I will try to find out from Mike Davis why this was painted that way throughout the course, but on several of the above mentioned holes there is a very good chance someone will be on a level fairway lie and not be able to ground a club. I'm guessing there is a good reason, I just don't know what it is.

 Where the land meets the sea, No. 18 (click to enlarge)

"As they waited to hit, neither Watson nor Woods exchanged glances, much less niceties, their cold shoulders turning the tee into an outdoor icebox."

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Karen Crouse on the lack of Stanford brotherly love when Tiger Woods and Tom Watson shared the 10th tee Wednesday. Thanks to reader Tim for this.

As they waited to hit, neither Watson nor Woods exchanged glances, much less niceties, their cold shoulders turning the tee into an outdoor icebox. The distance between them was accentuated when the golfer Jason Gore made his way to the hole and received a warm hello and a hug from Woods who, like Watson, has won a United States Open here.

Standing between Woods and Watson like a buffer was another Stanford golfer, Joseph Bramlett, who was playing with his childhood idol, Woods, two days after going through graduation ceremonies. It was three generations of Cardinal golfing royalty sharing a moment that could have been captured only by the widest of wide-angle lenses.

"Woods was feeling so comfortable he let loose with a few quips Tuesday, although the obsequious press corps laughter that used to accompany his humor has largely dissipated."

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If my spellbinding Tweets didn't capture the mood of the Tiger Woods pre-U.S. Open press conference, Christine Brennan's piece in today's USA Today should do the job.

Woods was feeling so comfortable he let loose with a few quips Tuesday, although the obsequious press corps laughter that used to accompany his humor has largely dissipated.

You've heard the one about the tee shot he hit on the gorgeous 18th hole 10 years ago, the shot that went into the Pacific?

"I hit it halfway to Japan, yeah," he said.

When asked to choose the sites of the four majors he would love to play in a season, he said, "I'd probably pick St. Andrews all four times."

Tiger was getting into a days-of-yore groove relatively early in the news conference when, out of nowhere, a journalist dared ask a newsworthy and legitimate question.

"On the basis that all our professional lives are affected by our personal lives, can you tell us if you've got any resolution one way or the other with Elin yet?"

"That's none of your business," snapped the man who once willingly posted family pictures on his web-site to sell an image that ultimately was a lie, clearly suppressing every ounce of his new kinder, gentler, Buddhist nature.

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.