OK folks, I just got back from spending all day at the course. I am BEAT! But here is my report.
First, let me answer Scott's question.
I keep hearing how difficult CB is playing, and you reiterated that again with the bloodbath statement. In your opinion, is this a positive or a negative for the USGA as well as CB? You've got the best amateur players on the planet making the trip and the average score is over 80. Seems like something's amiss to me.
Scott, now that I have seen it in person, I can safely say Chambers Bay is USGA's wet dream come true. The course and the setup is so flexible, USGA can basically dial in whatever number they want the field to shoot. And you don't have to rely on any adverse weather for tough conditions. Even with no wind, you can setup the course to play extremely tough or extremely easy.
Take a look at today's example. After Sat/Sun bloodbath, Mike Davis showed his gentler side today. The fairways and greens were watered heavily overnight. For the morning at least, the greens were very receptive. They also moved up a bunch of tees. #10 played as a drivable par 4 at about 320 yards. On #5 they used the short green on the left which also made it drivable at about 310. So, you had three, count’em, THREE drivable par 4’s on the course (including #12). When is the last time you saw that at a USGA event? Also, #4, par 5, was shortened to play at about 530 yards and with the firm fairways, most players were hitting 6 to 4 iron into the green and birdies were aplenty.
I believe the course was only about 7200 yards today and played about 6 to 7 strokes easier than it did over the weekend (a sentiment shared by the players). There were birdies everywhere, and I dare say the players had a good time today.
But that does not mean the course was just a pushover. The true links nature of the course really played havoc with the players. Here are a couple of prime examples.
During the morning playoffs to determine the final 6 players, I was standing at the 2nd green. The green slopes right to left with a sideboard on the right side and a falloff on left. The pin was on the very left plateau about half way up the green. Time and time again, players tried to work the ball right to left on their approach, but all of the balls landed on the right side, on the green which meant that it was not going to get enough roll to the left as there is a small slope. And they all ended up putting from about 50 to 60 feet away and half of them ended up three putting (once it goes over the ridge, it goes downhill).
The actual correct play is to hit it about halfway up the sideboard on the right and use it to propel the ball to the left side. It is a REALLY easy shot as you have a big margin for error, but nobody dared to aim that far away from the pin.
Another example - I was marshaling at the par 4, 16th hole towards the end of the day. We had an unusual wind at the end of the day as it was blowing from the north (about 10 to 15 mph) which is a strong tail wind for what is already a pretty short hole. The closer to the bunkers on the right you go with your drive, you have more straightforward approach. However, if you miss to the left there is a big downhill ridge between you and the green. About half of the players had an approach shot from this angle. The correct shot is to aim about 40 to 50 yard short of the green, let it bounce on the flat part of the ridge and then let it roll down to the pin in the middle of the pin.
But nobody, I mean not a single player played the correct shot. They either flew it on the green and bounced in to the sand on the opposite side, or flew it too far and end up in the collection area on the left of the green, or (as most did) land about 10 to 20 yards short of the green on the left, hit the downslope and shot across the green (in the bunker). They had about 10 to 15 yard long big flat landing area about 40 yards short of the green, but instead they kept trying to hit a shot that required landing within about 2 yards of the target!!! This one kid had about 140 yards to the green. I can hear him conversing with the caddie and both agree that they needed to carry about 120 yards, while I was going crazy (silently) saying to myself “NO! you need 100 yards max, not 120!” What was even more amusing was the caddie shouting out “That is not fair!” after ball ended up in the bunker on the opposite side just like I thought it would. I think a designer giving you a 10 to 15 yard target to hit from about 100 yards out it more than fair. Just because you chose to hit a more difficult shot, does not make it unfair.
This was going on all over the course. If you hit the correct places on the fairway, they hit a fairly straight forward approach shot and had a good shot at birdie. But when they were out of position, it required creativity to get it close and these players failed to do so time and time again. Nothing makes these players more uncomfortable than forcing them to shoot away from the pin, but that is EXACTLY what is required at Chambers Bay.
And I think that is just awesome.
And as to that “perfect” 4 iron to the 9th green... If you are hitting a 4 iron to that green, then either you are about a short a hitter as Garland or you are aiming for the back of the green by the cart path. For most players, that is a 6 iron shot landing just short of the green and letting the sideboard on the left and the contour of the green feed the ball to the middle. Almost every par three green at Chambers requires you to hit short of the green to hold right now and there is room to do so (may be except for #15, but they moved the tee up for that), if you choose not to play it correctly, you deserve whatever result you receive.