Everyday Setup for US Open Venues

[Phil Benedict]

I was looking at the Oakland Hills thread noting several comments about how fiercesome the rough is in the normal course setup.  Do courses that host the US Open (or PGA for that matter) typically feature tight fairways and high rough in their everyday setup?  If yes, is this done to protect their reputation as stern tests?  Has this influenced the way courses that don't host majors are maintained?

 

[Matt_Cohn]

I think the most frequent response will be that fairway widths tend to remain narrow and are not re-established to their original widths after those championships depart.

[Pete Lavallee]

Phil,

Although Toerrey Pines has of yet only served as a PGA Tour site the fairways have been permanently narrowed to ridiculous widths. The 9th hole on the North Course, a shortish par 5, is less than 20 yards wide, as is the long par 4 15th on the South! No fairway is greater than 30 yards wide at any point with the average at around 25 yards of width. Rather than expand and contract the fairways for that one week of the year they remain at PGA Tour width year round. Hey, maybe that's what the public is clamoring for.

As far as the rough, thankfully they cut it a week after the Tour leaves town down to about 1 inch. The Monday after the tournament is reserved for a possible rain delay and if one does not occur there is a lottery for Monday play on the Tournament layout. I have had the opportunity to play several of these and am very gratefful we don't play out of rough that deep on a regular basis. Even if you know exactly where to start your search in the rough it sometimes takes the full 5 minutes to find your pellet. The pace of play would be unbearable at a public course with this depth of rough. I suspect it would add at least a shot or two to the course rating as well.

[Adam Clayman]

Phil, I've personally seen three to four examples that reverse the conditions to pre-pro tourney status. It can take some tiime, though. As misguided as the Oakland Hills examples appears, I can understand why it happens.

Pete, Is the new Kikuyu rough established?
 How horrible is it to find? Will it go dormant in the region?

[Pete Lavallee]

Adam,

The Kikuyu monostand experiment was a failure. Although they have increased the percentage of Kikuyu in the fairways by turning off the water during the summer and keeping the carts to cart path only. There are large areas around the greens where there was no Kikuyu. They imported a $1MM of Kikuyu sod this spring and laid it mostly in the collars of the greens. There never has been a high percentage of Kikuyu in the roughs anyway, the yearly overseeding leads to a mixture of grasses there. The decision was made the week after Oakmont to overseed for the US Open. Apparently they couldn't get a high enough percentage of Kikuyu to please the USGA folks. In the last two years they have not overseeded for the Feb. Buick to help the Kikuyu recover sooner in the spring, trying to help establish more of it sooner for the Open. I haven't been out there recently so I can't say if they overseeded this fall. For that they use annual rye which is very wispy at best and will not last through June. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that they would be overseeding with a perenial rye for the US Open.

[Phil Benedict]

Pete,

Are they playing the Buick at Torrey Pines this year?  I assume the answer is yes.

[Pete Lavallee]

Phil,

In their original agreement with the USGA they were going to play round one and two on both the North and South and then finish the tournament the last two days on the North. The Century Club was sure they would be able to get a Reestoration of the North. However local golfers turned out in force to rebel against any changes to the North Course, especially if it made it any harder; most locals feel the South is waaay too hard now. So since it's not been Reestored the USGA is going to allow the Buick to finish on the South the last two days.

[Phil Benedict]

There is something been there/done that about playing the US Open on a regular tour course.  I know Pebble!  Takes some of the intrigue out of it.  I suppose the most interesting thing to gauge is how the Open setup differs from the tour setup.

This is not Torrey Pines bashing.  Never been there and don't have an opinion other than the pond and fountain on 18 are pretty cheesy.

[Jerry Kluger]

Phil: Not too hard to figure out what the USGA will do - grow the rough higher and make it a par 70.

[Phil Benedict]

Phil: Not too hard to figure out what the USGA will do - grow the rough higher and make it a par 70.

Is it a par 71 or 72 for the Buick?  I read somewhere that the 18th is going to stay a par 5.

[Pete Lavallee]

It has always been a par 72 for the Buick. The original plan was to make it par 70 for the Open converting the 6th and 18th to par 4's. The City of San Diego spent $40,000 recontouring the landing areas on 6 and 18 for this purpose (you would have thought Rees could have done this in the $3.2MM reestoration). After a USGA visit following the Open at Oakmont it was decide that 18 would make a lousy par 4 so it will still play as a par 5; apparently there will be no need to rerecontour that hole. One would then have to either convert the 9th at 630 yards to a par 4 but that would make he front a par 34. A new tee has been addded to the 13th which will stretch the hole to 600 yards, with a 250 carry over the barranca on the tee shot. So it is unlikely this hole will be shortened to a par4. The plan at this point is still par 71 for the Open. I recall reading an article that Rees was actually dissapointed that it would not play par 70.

[Jerry Kluger]

Pete: Bethpage had some pretty long carries - I believe they were even longer than 250 yards.

[Pete Lavallee]

Jerry,

I seem to recall the carry to the 10th fairway at BB to 250 yards also. In calm conditions I suspect every participant in a US Open can accomplish that. It was the bad weather that made the carry at the 10 impossible for some.

This new tee at the South has never been used yet so we have no idea how it will play. The hole is downwind 97% of the time, so it shouldn't be a big problem. The downside is that there really is no bailout; you have to make the 250 yard carry as a thick stand of trees keeps you from playing short and right. The barranca is thick with native and playing out of there is virtually impossible. It will make the hole much more exciting, as now players might even have to hit fairway woods to reach the green in two.

[Matt_Cohn]

I wish they'd play it as a 72 just to prove that the sky won't fall down.

I don't think a 250 yard carry at 13 will make anybody flinch unless there are freak weather conditions - not anybody who should be playing in a US Open, at least!

[Phil_the_Author]

Jerry and Pete,

During the 2002 Open at Bethpage, the carry to the Fairway was 251 yards. I did an analysis of the driving distances there as every one was recorded. For the entire 4 days, only 6% of all drives failed to travel at least 252 yards, and that includes the 17% that didn't on Friday during the heavy rain and winds.

Complain all they want, the problem for the players wasn't one of distance off the tee, but rather of their drives being straight and landing in the fairway...

[Jim Sweeney]

Phil:

The grasses in the fairways at US Open courses are generally bent, and the rough grasses are rye, fescue, or bluegrass, or some combination. It is a very expensive proposition to strip out the rough grass and plant and establish bent after the tournament is over. Therefore the fairawy widths tend to remain, though the rough is obviously cut lower.

THe 18th at Torrey will be a par five and the grass around the pond will be shaved, which will make the risk/reward choice interesting (though I'm not real keen on the idea of the shaved bank, personally.) It's a good bet that the fountain/circulator will be turned off during the competition.

One of the set up decisions under consideration, as has been reproted in the golf press, is to have the primary rough be thinner, though still in the 5-6 inch range.

[Pete Lavallee]

Just played Barona Creek today. They narrowed their fairways by 10 yards on each side for the Natiowide Championship, they are still around 40 yards wide though. They have kept them that way, don't know if this will be permnent as its just overseed.

[Sean Leary]

Prairie Dunes  (US Senior Open Venue) is returning the fairway widths to pre Senior Open widths.  PD is also slightly reshaping a couple of fairways....

[Kyle Henderson]

The Course @ Wente Vineyards usually rewidens a bit after the Nationwiude Tour comes through, but not all of the way back to pre-tour stop width. Many of the fairway bunkers are ludicrously isolated from the short grass. Anyone who hits them will do so on the fly and be buried.