Since it got the bump, I can report on the first day, which was really fun (as was the big dinner Thursday night with the teams and a lot of the membership, which had to sneak off to the grill for alcoholic sustenance).
Northwestern is the leader, at +6, followed by Florida State at +8, Texas at +12 and Illinois at +13. Had a couple 68s and a 69 too; these guys are good!
The interesting thing for me is how the course played differently this year than last year. Last year, we had huge rains the week before, and the place was soggy and slow. We moved a lot of tees up, and scoring was pretty good. This week, everything is firm firm firm and fast. We didn't have much wind today, and don't have much rough because we have a lot of guest play in September and they wouldn't finish if there was rough so we have really good scoring conditions. We also have the best field ever -- 7 of the top 10 teams and 14 of the top 30 ranked players. I expected fairly low scoring, but guess what? Scoring is higher this year - course average was 75, even though drives are rolling forever and guys are blowing it past most of the trouble on the course. Walker Cuppers Brendan Gielow, Peter Uihlein and Morgan Hoffman shot 72, 75 and 77 (bit of overkill, probably). Tells me that firm, fast and sloping greens are what do it.
The course is open in the afternoons after play clears the front 9, and I played it in the afternoon. Wooooo. I don't know from stimp readings, but the greens seemed really fast to me. The words that come to mind are "fiery" and "crispy".
The best part of the whole thing is the participation in the membership. Aside from the continual fellowship, each team has a member pick them up at the airport and chaperone them through the event. We handle scoring, do ball spotting on a bunch of holes, do some transport, and generally make pains of ourselves in big funny hats (joking about the hats). I don't know what Conway did at the Western Am, or what Skokie does at the Windom, but having significant membership participation adds immeasurably, and can cause the membership to really take ownership of the event. The CDGA also supplied officials on each hole, which earns the thanks of all involved. Special thanks to the sponsor of the event, Cleveland/Srixon, which supplied tons of stuff, a fitting lab, and all the trimmings.
This thing is open to the public, so if you got nothing to do Saturday or Sunday, c'mon down.
Jeff