Brian,
Some random quotes from 2002 regarding the greens:
“Whoever said these are flat greens is crazy. Maybe they're flat for New York, but they're sure not flat for Texas.” Bob Estes
“The greens are flat and generous in size, but that doesn't mean it makes it any easier.” Mark O’Meara
“… and from what I've been told, the greens are pretty severe. But I don't know what kind of pin locations they'll have.” Tiger Woods
“Well, they call them flat, but I haven't had a straight putt yet. They are very slippery, and they have got such a good surface on them. Plus, we haven't been here before to read them.” Nick Faldo
“I think somehow, somebody wrote that they were easy and they were flat, and they are not… You know, there are some greens that are flat, but they are flat on top and they might roll off, like roll off the back or roll off the side or have a false front. But the 11th green is severely tilted; 12th green is severely tilted. There's just a lot of them. One green has a false front and then it's fairly flat, but even the flat ones, are punch-bowly, where you can put the pin up towards the side of the green and you are starting to come up the side of the slope and you chip up the short-side, it's going to roll past the hole. If you put the pin in the middle of the green, there's probably four or five greens that you can call flat, but if you put them on the edges, none of them are flat. You always see a few bombs, but they are going to be so fast that -- they are Augusta speed right now, so they are tough to putt already.” Davis Love III
“That green [15] is bordering on silly. There isn’t any place to hit it up there.” Hale Irwin
“But it isn't silly difficult anywhere except the 15th green. That green wasn't meant to be played at this kind of green speed.” Butch Harmon
“I mean, the 15th green is the most severe green I've ever played in the United States. It's more severe than anything at Augusta.” Davis Love III
“When you have a golf course that’s 7,200 yards, and you have fast greens, you can’t have undulations in the greens, unless you want to see guys shoot 80. If the greens had undulations, it would be darn near unplayable. I think it will be an awfully good test.” Jim Furyk
“There will be a lot of putts made this week - for par.” Hal Sutton
BY the way, sll these were from before the Open began. At that time they were stimping at 13+. By Sunday they were 15+...