Thanks, Daryl. I looked at weather.com this evening, which said it was blowing NW 20 mph right now, so the wind must have picked up, as 20 mph is a significant challenge. 10-12 mph is very manageable.
I'm sure you enjoyed watching the players play the course. Thanks for checking in.
Yes, it did get a little breezy toward 5pm, but nothing like being at Pac Dunes or Ballyneal. Tumble Creek has extremely wide driving areas so wind was not a big deal off the tee. The par 3s were a bit tricky as 3 of them play cross wind. Those greens were tough to hit and hold. It seemed a lot of shots were lost around the greens with missed judged pitch shots. Either woefully short or running far past the hole. One exception was eventual qualifier Cheng-Tsung Pan from UofW. His short game was excellent with pitch-in birdies on 11 and 16 in the second round after ending up with very tough short side lies.
Daryl: Did the USGA set up the course? Were the greens faster than normal? Were they faster than they should be for the design of the greens? Anybody else with knowledge of the courses and setups for the Sectionals should feel free to chime in, but I'm curious about the USGA's involvement in the course or lack thereof.
Jim,
Many times during the day that exact question was asked of our GM and Super. Truth is that the course was only slightly harder than a normal Monday in early June.
Greens quick, but only slightly more than normal. I didn't hear an exact stimp reading but they were pretty much the same as the week before for the members play. The greens are tricky. Not as wild as Ballyneal or Pac Dunes, but with the elevation there are some big breaks. Lots of ways to get fooled without local knowledge. Not uncommon to have a lengthy putt with 3 breaks that are puzzling to read.
As for around the greens, if I had to guess I would say they used less water in that area than they might in a normal spring. The goal there was to avoid balls coming in short of the green and biting too much. The surrounds played more like a transition from fairway to green. Faster and firmer than the fairway, but not as f&f as the green. Members are loving that and asking the Super to try to have it play that way all year.
Bunkers are medium depth with fairway bunkers not quite a full shot penalty.
As I said before, fairways are generous, but that is for a good reason. Balls far off line are going to be lost in the forest. You might be looking at an 80 to 90 yard wide landing zone, but left or right of that is gonzo. Watching pretty much all day, I only say 2 lost balls and heard about two others.
Tees were all the way back on every hole but one. That made sense because even from the back it was only 7100 yards. (also that's at 2000 feet elevation) The USGA did change the 515 yard par 5 15th to a 485 yard par 4. It played downwind so, with the players length it was a manageable par 4. That change made the course a par 70 layout for the tournament. Prior to the tournament the chatter here was that since the course is so short, that the players would light it up. Did not work out that way!
Wind was a factor for some that struggled to keep the ball down especially on par 3s. I personally don't t think the wind was the issue even though the Golf Channel seemed to want to use that as the reason for higher scores all day. Winn McMurry's hair stayed perfect all day so it could not have been that bad!