If the 2013 Open was this week

[PCCraig]

If the course is fast and firm, and the new groove rule has the effect that many think it will have coupled with the greens at Merion, I can't see it giving up more than 5-under.

The #1 to defend against the pros isn't length, its at the greens. Long courses with flat greens are harmless when wet.

[PCCraig]

Rob:

I have only played something like 15 rounds of golf so far this year.  But they were good ones:

Crystal Downs 4 times; Pacific Dunes 2x; Old Macdonald 3x; California Golf Club; Cherry Hills; Common Ground; Mid Ocean; Somerset Hills; Pine Valley (Short Course and main course); Merion East; Stonewall (both courses); and I'm playing Lancaster this morning.

I'm sure that there is somebody playing a lot more good courses than that ... but my average round on the Doak scale this year is 8.40.  You'd have to be a member somewhere pretty good in order to beat that average.

Not a bad six months!

[Scott Warren]

If I give my own stuff a 6.5 on average, and the others 8 to 9's then my score is appears to be 7.2 on the Doak Scale.  Still not bad.

Didn't Tom give Deal a 6?

You're one hell of a GCA if your average course is half a point better than Deal!

[Jim Colton]

Rob:

I have only played something like 15 rounds of golf so far this year.  But they were good ones:

Crystal Downs 4 times; Pacific Dunes 2x; Old Macdonald 3x; California Golf Club; Cherry Hills; Common Ground; Mid Ocean; Somerset Hills; Pine Valley (Short Course and main course); Merion East; Stonewall (both courses); and I'm playing Lancaster this morning.

I'm sure that there is somebody playing a lot more good courses than that ... but my average round on the Doak scale this year is 8.40.  You'd have to be a member somewhere pretty good in order to beat that average.

I've played 9.5x rounds at Ballyneal, but now I regret playing one round at Kemper Lakes to bring down my average (how did that course host a major?) Does that put me above 8.4?

On topic, I think any course would be susceptible to low scores with that much rain, but I'm sure Merion will hold up well for the US Open in 2013.

[PThomas]

I happened to play Merion this morning.  The greens were still soft from all the rain, though not as soft as Pine Valley's yesterday.  [PV was the greenest and softest I've ever seen it.]  However the rough at Merion was downright nasty -- my forearms still hurt ten hours later -- and the fairways are pretty narrow and there are only the two par-5's.  So I think the winning score this week would have been -6 to -8.

I did hear some crazy rumors about possible set-up ideas for Merion, which I won't repeat because they may just be caddie gossip.  If true, it will be that much harder to shoot -8.

some i just played with also played Merion recently and said the same thing:  he couldn't believe how narrow the fairways were

[Tom_Doak]

Realized today I forgot my round at Yeamans Hall in my accounting.  Damn, even that one brings down my average.

Mike S:  I was just out on both courses at Stonewall, and they look pretty good to me.  But I calculated my average by weighting the totals for multiple rounds played on Crystal Downs and Pacific Dunes and Old Macdonald, which made the average higher than if I'd just counted each course once. 

Jim C:  Maybe you're ahead.  I'm not saying.  But I am going back to Crystal Downs on Monday just in case.

Jeff B:  When the first edition of The Confidential Guide came out, three golf professionals in London (one of them a good friend of mine) had a competition to see which of them could amass the most Doak Scale points in the next calendar year.  The fact they were all pros around London produced some very impressive totals.  Still, I didn't mean to start anything here ... I'm actually getting kind of sick of all the rater types bouncing around so many highly rated courses and skipping out on the cool little places that get 5's and 6's in my book, even if I am not to the point of Tom Huckaby who gets giddy just playing a "3".

[Tom Huckaby]

Tom D - there's still hope for you.

 

[Wayne_Kozun]

"The USGA should (be) much more flexible and host their biggest events in more optimal times during the year.  Why they are stuck in having the US Open in June during high humidity and thunderstorms is beyond me.  Why not change the dates to mid May or late September??"

Didn't they say during the coverage that this is the first time in 30 years that the Open didn't finish on Sunday.  That is pretty hard to beat if you ask me - May or September are rainier months in the places that they hold the Open - look at the trouble the Memorial has had with weather in May - a few years back they had severe rains 3 or 4 years in a row.

[Kalen Braley]

"The USGA should (be) much more flexible and host their biggest events in more optimal times during the year.  Why they are stuck in having the US Open in June during high humidity and thunderstorms is beyond me.  Why not change the dates to mid May or late September??"

Didn't they say during the coverage that this is the first time in 30 years that the Open didn't finish on Sunday.  That is pretty hard to beat if you ask me - May or September are rainier months in the places that they hold the Open - look at the trouble the Memorial has had with weather in May - a few years back they had severe rains 3 or 4 years in a row.

I guess "they" forgot about last year and all the other Monday playoffs.. 

[David Stamm]

Since they are playing at Cromwell this week, I'll say about -20.