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Golfweek's complete U.S. Open coverage
By BRADLEY S. KLEIN
Senior WriterSAN DIEGO – Opening day at the U.S. Open. No doubt Torrey Pines South Course will look great from the air – if that morning cloud of a “marine layer” blows off and reveals the natural beauty of the place. But players of U.S. Open caliber don’t look at scenery. They look at details. And here’s some of what they’ll be looking at and dealing with as the bell rings.
Everyone’s been talking about how, at 7,643 yards, this par-71 layout is the longest ever for a U.S. Open. But the USGA will be taking off anywhere from 100-200 yards each day as it utilizes alternative tees. For Thursday’s first round, the course is playing 7,458 yards.
Players don’t care about length; they care about width. Witness Phil Mickelson’s move of not even carrying a driver. Obviously, for Round 1 he has decided it’s more important to be in the fairway than to be long.
The morning weather is cool, and the afternoon likely will have moderate winds (6-10 mph) from the west (the ocean).
The course is not playing impossibly hard. There likely will be a half-dozen rounds in the 60s. For the end of the week, there’s a good chance that the winning score will be 3-5 under par.
The fairways are not ribbon-thin, averaging 26-30 yards wide. The kikuyu turfgrass is a bit slow, meaning that the fairways play what one USGA official described as “sticky wide.”
For all the bunkering out there, all of it is insulated from the main playing lines by two – two! – different layers of rough. You cannot roll the ball from fairway to bunker, and approach shots into greens can barely roll in as well, they’ll have to be flown in. While the bunkers have been fluffed up and the sand made to play softer than usual for a PGA Tour event, they just aren’t that much of a hazard.
The roughs also are playable. Even the USGA concedes that the past two years, at Winged Foot in 2006 and Oakmont in 2007, it got carried away with unremittingly punitive rough. Not this time. Officials carefully “graduated” the rough heights, depending upon the distance from the fairway.
And it’s not exactly consistent. In fact, it’s patchy and mottled, with multiple textures and colors, because there are three grasses out there (kikuyu, ryegrass and Poa annua). The rough will allow the option, or possibility, of not only getting it back into play but of having a full shot into the green.
Not that getting it close will be easy. Thursday’s hole locations are tight to the edges, with 15 cups cut within 8 yards of the green edge.
The most interesting hole locations are on the par-3 third hole, where the forward (147-yard) tee is being used in combination with an extreme back-left cup that brings the barranca into play.
Equally vexing will be the par-4 14th hole, 435 yards to a back-right hole location; anything tugged slightly left and landing even 1 yard over the green will tumble back down the shaven hill into barranca-oblivion.
The par-5’s are readily accessible today. The 13th hole is playing downwind and only 539 yards Thursday and will be easily reachable in two. Expect another birdie fest at the par-5 18th hole, 551-yards to the easiest hole location on the entire golf course, middle right. The hole placement there is well back of the pond fronting the green and will encourage bold second shots.
Bottom line on Day 1: a golf course that can be had. Biggest obstacles will be slow play, probably 5 hours 20 minutes. Player habits aside, it’s as much due to the course set-up and the handful of bottlenecks that inhibit spectator and player flow.
Welcome to Day 1 of the U.S. Open.
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Bradley S. Klein is a
Golfweek senior writer. To reach him e-mail
bklein@golfweek.com.
Posted: 6/12/2008
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