I'm going to take a stab at the green speed issue. Whether they are rolling 9 or 10.5 doesn't matter. Well, it shouldn't, anyway. What should matter is that the speed of the greens is proper for the contours. Yes, the uphill putts are going to be slower, but did you see how far past the hole those downhill putts were travelling? Imagine a green running 12 on the stupid, I mean stimpmeter, those guys wouldn't have 6 footers coming back, they'd be 12, and there would REALLY be some bitching coming from the softies. Here's where I make the point I'm trying to make. The fact that the announcers are talking about how slow the greens are is TOTALLY irresponsible, and the same goes for the sanctioning body of the event that is doing NOTHING about it. They should be explaining WHY the greens are running slower than normal, not just that they aren't up to normal PGA Tour speeds. The fact that the greens are in terrific condition, and most likely, at least from what I see on TeeVee, extremely healthy, is totally being lost on the fact that the talking heads can't say anything about them other than that they're running very slow. This is a huge problem for the golf industry as a whole, and somebody should be doing something about it...ahem...PGA...ahem...USGA...ahem...GCSAA...
I applaud the efforts of the turf staff, the course looks great, obviously a very successful grow in. And the design looks to be very interesting and a ton of fun to play.