So...has Pebble lost some luster?

[John Moore II]

Watching the open made me want to go back more than ever.  I've never figured out why so much hate on this site for such an awesome place.  If money were no issue I'd be on a plane tomorrow.

I have no hate (since I can be sure that those comments are directed partly at me due to my mostly unkind words from the last 3 days) for the course itself. The course is a great course, top end for sure. However, I do think it is becoming somewhat obsolete as a US Open venue; just like any number of other major championship venues that have fallen by the wayside due to lack of length. Sad to say, but true; and they don't have the room to lengthen the course more than 100 yards or so. They simply need weather to make this course difficult without trickery.

[Jud_T]

Watching the open made me want to go back more than ever.  I've never figured out why so much hate on this site for such an awesome place.  If money were no issue I'd be on a plane tomorrow.

Dale,

There's no hate for the course here.  Just a lot of bickering whether it's an 8 or 9 on the Doak Scale.  The combination of some average holes and the steep price of admission relative to, say, the Bandon courses, keeps it off the very top of some folks' must play list.  Nobody would argue that the best holes there aren't some of the best in the world or that at the very least it's a VERY good course and worth playing at least once in your lifetime....

[Bill_Yates]

JK Moore
Less relevant for the US Open game because it's too short?  

It is relevant for the long hitters - they all lost!!  A few of them lost precisely because they hit driver when they should not have.  And let's not forget that the USGA is planning to come back again, in nine long technology-advancing years.  

[Matt_Cohn]

Maybe it's just that I can't think of a single shot from the Open that I'll remember in a month, other than Tiger's 3-wood. Perhaps I should have said that the tournament didn't add to the legend and lore of the course at all.

[Steve Kline]

More interested in Pebble now than I was before the Open.  With the exception of 14 green and possibly 17 I found the presentation of the course very appealing.  I also found that I was in a much better position as a viewer to appreciate each hole than during the AT&T broadcast. The course looked better and the playability was far superior to what I have come to associate with PB from watching the AT&T.

Exactly how I feel. I like the brown look in the first photo much more than the all green look in the second photo. The brown on a golf course adds a textural dimension that an all green course doesn't have in my opinion.

[Andy Troeger]

Jud,
I think for most folks the discussion is between 9 and 10. I'm sure some give it lower scores, but I think that's the exception overall. Its a 10 for me, although I agree that #17 green could stand to be enlarged.

[Steve Kline]

Maybe it's just that I can't think of a single shot from the Open that I'll remember in a month, other than Tiger's 3-wood. Perhaps I should have said that the tournament didn't add to the legend and lore of the course at all.

How many shots do you remember from the other Opens there? I wasn't old enough to watch the '72 or '82 Opens but one shot is replayed from each. I did watch the '92 Open in its entirety and the only shot I remember was Tom Kite's chip in - because it's showed over and over. From 2000 I remember Tiger's second out of the rough on six. From this year we remember Tiger's 3 wood on 18. The only odd thing about that is that of the shots I mentioned it's the only one that wasn't from the winner.

[Matt_Ward]

Bill Y:

Mea culpa on my part.

Gents:

PB is still PB -- you just can't play to small greens with that kind of pitch and have them running the 12+ category. Once you do that the next thing to bring in is the sideboards and the clown's mouth.

[Pete Lavallee]

Matt,

The USGA shoots for even par as a winning score every year; every player in the field would have gladly taken even par and take his chances. Guess what, even par won! Now if +3 or +6 won, then you could say the set up was over the top. Don't forget there was only one player was under par in 2000.

[Garland Bayley]

Pebble hasn't lost any luster. But, whiners Tiger Woods, and Ryan Moore have.

[John Moore II]

Bill Y:

Mea culpa on my part.

Gents:

PB is still PB -- you just can't play to small greens with that kind of pitch and have them running the 12+ category. Once you do that the next thing to bring in is the sideboards and the clown's mouth.

But Matt, didn't they do this same thing as Shinnecock in 2004? What does that say? Since I've beaten Pebble to death...Isn't it possible that the members at Shinnecock feel that without the ignorance in set-up seen in 2004 and this year at Pebble, it isn't possible for them to have a 'respectable' score given the current length of the course? And perhaps they don't want to lengthen the course anymore just to host a major championship every 10 years or so?

[Bill_Yates]

The press just reported that after the Open, Pebble Beach bookings are up by 40%. 

Lost some luster?  Well those that count, the paying public and the USGA committee selecting PB for the 2019 championship don't think so.

[Jim Hoak]

I'm biased, so I won't answer the question directly.  But Pebble is now looking like it did before the Open--fairways are going back to the old way, moving away from the ocean cliffs, greens are greening, rough is comeing down, etc.
I assume that everyone saw the USGA e-mail that came out 2 days ago, stating why the Pebble greens looked spochy during the Open.  The lack of water on the greens to keep them firm and fast caused the differing strands of poa to be different colors.  With a little water, they now are back to how they were.  During the Tournament, they played much truer and smoother than they looked on TV.  The USGA stated that their goal was the playing conditions, not the beauty of the green color.  I agree with them.
Bookings are up, tourists are arriving, the weather is great (until the August fog, at l;ast), so you know where I stand on the question of any luster lost.