Wow!

Awesome..  I was hoping to see this course receive a major (Isn't a Senior Open scheduled).  I'd be excited to see a little wind kick up and see how the pros deal with it.

Hopefully try to see it when I trek down to charleston this january.

Congrats Mike.

Jeff

I am a big fan of the Ocean Course and if the wind is blowing it will really present a worthy test no matter what equipment is being used by the pros 7 years from now.  No doubt there will be some who compare it to Whistling Straits and in my judgement they will only compliment each other.  

Jerry,

I agree.  I will say, I think The Ocean Course is a better golf course though.

Where is Mike Vegis when you need him ?

All the PGA bigwigs were at the Ocean Course today.  I had the great pleasure to meet Pete and Alice Dye today.  When I asked him if he was Pete Dye, he joked that it depended upon if I liked the course.  I absolutely love the course.  It is as hard as hell, but absolutley awesome.  The fairways have been narrowed, and forgot to ask him what he thought of the narrowing.  I spoke about how much I love the Dye Fore course and they commented about how they were there yesterday working on the new course and that it is coming along well.  The Ocean Course can be seen on the Golf Channel this week.

The Ocean Course can be seen on the Golf Channel this week.

When will it be on TGC? Just tonight on Golf Central?

It too is one of my favorite courses.

Great course and I'm glad to hear that The Ocean Course is getting some Major recognition.  I agree that it's a better course than Whistling Straits and if the wind kicks up, it will be a blast to watch.

Here's the announcement

http://www.pga.com/news/pganews/pgaofamericatournamentnews/kiawah_2012pga062305.cfm

Strange that Roger Warren (current PGA President/Director of Golf at Kiawah) is not mentioned in the release........

Mr Vegis...

Could you post the yardages for each hole from the 7937 tees--that would be great!  I don't believe that information is contained on the yardage book.

I only posted the yardages as a possibility of the card of the course for 2012 given the current proclivities of the USPGA in course set-up.  Further, I assumed none of the par 5s would be reduced to par 4s either, especially considering the USPGA didn't do that for Whistling Straits 16 last year and both courses were designed by the same guy.

Lastly, did I read correctly that you used to work for the most suave and socially appropriate Don Ritter??

Mike S:

It might be that the PGA didn't want to highlight the fact that Roger Warren is actually the Director of Golf at Kiawah.

We've been pitching this to the PGA since long before Roger got here.  I put together the original pitch book that went to both the PGA and the USGA back in late 2001 and early 2002.  Our former managing director, and the Chairman of the company that owns the resort has made numerous trips to the PGA over the past few years to lobby for this.  Plus, Roger did not have a vote in the matter as his current position prevented it...

Mr Vegis...

Could you post the yardages for each hole from the 7937 tees--that would be great!  I don't believe that information is contained on the yardage book.

I only posted the yardages as a possibility of the card of the course for 2012 given the current proclivities of the USPGA in course set-up.  Further, I assumed none of the par 5s would be reduced to par 4s either, especially considering the USPGA didn't do that for Whistling Straits 16 last year and both courses were designed by the same guy.

Lastly, did I read correctly that you used to work for the most suave and socially appropriate Don Ritter??

Yes, I was Legislative Director to the mad scientist for 5 years, mostly working on what was then the Subcommitee on Telecommunications and Finance.

I don't have a rundown of the exact yardages but what I can do is give you approximate yardages from the caddie yardage books we have:

#1 -- 395 - Par 3
#2 -- 555 - Par 5
#3 -- 390 - Par 4
#4 -- 488 - Par 4
#5 -- 207 - Par 3
#6 -- 480 - Par 4
#7 -- 579 - Par 5
#8 -- 197 - par 3
#9 -- 502 - par 4
Front Nine: 3,793 Yards

#10 -- 439 - Par 4
#11 -- 576 - Par 5
#12 -- 466 - Par 4
#13 -- 481 - Par 4
#14 -- 219 - Par 3
#15 -- 466 - Par 4
#16 -- 605 - Par 5
#17 -- 221 - Par 3
#18 -- 477 - Par 4
Back Nine: 3,950

Total: 7,743.  Obviously, I'm reading the book right because the USGA measured it at 7,937 from the back tees.  Here's their slope/rating certification for the back tees:

Course rating 79.6.  Slope 155

Front nine: course rating-39.0. Slope-151
Back nine: course rating-40.6.  Slope-155

Mr Vegis:

Thanks for the total max-out back marker yardage. Kind of frightening to know the shortest par 4 after the 3d is 439 yards.  At that point, there would be a decided advantage to starting the championship on Thursday on hole 1 rather than hole 10.

I volunteered for Ritter's last campaign in 1992.  By that point in time, he basically became a caricature of the incumbent he defeated in 1978, Fred Rooney.  His son, Jason, graudated high school (Solehi) the same year I did, 1989.  Richard Fenno from the University of Rochester would have had a field day with Ritter towards the end of his run in Congress.

At least the USPGA has two dummy runs coming up to test various set-ups and philosophies before 2012.  I suppose the CPC is the Amateur and the Senior USPGA is the Senior Open to the USPGA crowd.

Last question--how will the humidity and/or precipition affect the quality of the course in mid-August?