I noticed the same thing. I hope they watered them and hand watered the edges. You could tell how much they dried out as the day went on by how far the cup liners dropped below the paint line. During the morning rounds there was no gap but by the late day rounds it was almost a quarter of and inch below the paint.
I know that Pat probably has the place right were he wants it. However, to me the course looked on Thursday PM how I would want to look on Saturday PM. I just hope they aren't a few days ahead of schedule. It will be interesting to see how things hand in there to Sunday. It must be the perfect combination of cool air and dry conditions. Seemed like most of the players wore long sleeves all day long and plenty of spectators wearing light jackets all day. This is all in favor of the course making a good recovery over night.
Yesterday started out a bit cool and foggy, but by mid-day it was sunny and quite warm...shirtsleeve weather. I took off my sweater at noon and never put it back on again. Stayed that way unti I left at 3:30 or so. Don't know if it cooled down later, but there was zero fog in the area yesterday afternoon/evening.
I live just a few miles from the course out near the ocean and this morning has dawned perfectly sunny and clear with no hint of a breeze and no evidence whatsoever of the fabled "marine layer". This usually translates into a pretty toasty day (at least by our standards - probably in the 70's.) I don't think we're going to see much in the way of moisture in the air today at all, even right by the coast. This could result in some pretty aggressive drying out of the course as the day unfolds.
We don't get too many "hot" days like this in a row at this time of the year. Generally two or three days of still, warm weather is all we are "allowed" before the vacuum cleaner in the Central Valley turns on and starts sucking in the cool, moist air off of the ocean, bringing in the fog. The arrival of the fog is always preceded by the arrival of a brisk on shore breeze. So far, nothing. Totally still.
Time to break out the sun screen. : )