"Arnold’s had his hand in everything that we have been doing since we were invited by the USGA to do this again and signed the contract back in 2004."

Adam Schupak talks to RJ Harper about the state of Pebble Beach post AT&T and pre-U.S. Open.

Q. I understand there was an extensive review of the old archives and photos. What did your team learn from that?

A. First of all, Arnold Palmer’s one of our owners, and Arnold’s had his hand in everything that we have been doing since we were invited by the USGA to do this again and signed the contract back in 2004. The first task was to go back and take a look at what was the original intent of the golf course. We found the ocean was somewhat removed from play in many areas. You could play away from the ocean and never have a chance to even feel the ocean come into play. So many of the obstacles that we moved or bunkers installed, trees, etc., were pushed closer to the ocean so that the fairways would run a little harder to the coast. That was the original intent of the golf course design, no question, just to hug the coast line.

Interestingly, that version of this latest "restoration" effort differs from the version Alan Shipnuck wrote about this week:

For the Pro-Am the rough was barely a 5 o’clock shadow, but, importantly, the fairway shapes and widths will not change between now and the Open. The sexiest change the USGA has made for the Open is to push Pebble’s 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th fairways to the precipice of the Pacific while eliminating flora that might prevent errant balls from tumbling into the abyss. Pebble has always been a quintessential second-shot course, its tiny greens surrounded by so much trouble; now off the tee "it’s a little more dramatic, a little more dangerous," says Faxon.