ESPN Golf Online: 1999 U.S. Open: Bite of Pinehurst tastes good to players

Thursday, Jun. 17
Bite of Pinehurst tastes good to players

By Mike Grady
ESPN Golf Online
PINEHURST, N.C. -- For those who subscribe to the variety-is-the-spice-of-life theory, Pinehurst No. 2 this week is the chili pepper in what has been a bland, repetitive U.S. Open recipe.

WEATHER TO PLAY BIG FACTOR

After heavy rain Wednesday night, Pinehurst No. 2 is getting more of the wet stuff again this morning. There hasn't been enough precipitation to stop play yet in the opening round of the 99th U.S. Open, but the forecast calls for the chance of more rain into Friday before the clouds finally clear.

All this leads to speculation that the tournament could come off as two tourneys in one -- the first half with low scores because moisture will help keep approach shots on the green; the second half on the weekend with scores rising as sunshine hardens the surfaces, allowing more shots to roll into the deep, tightly cropped collection areas.

USGA and Pinehurst officials claim a built-in vacuum system is being used to suck excess moisture out of the greens, and that consistency will be maintained no matter what. But players talk like the conditions they can see and touch mean more to their confidence -- or lack thereof -- of attempting certain shots than anything technological.

"If it rains like they say it's going to, tomorrow will be a pretty good scoring day," Davis Love III said Wednesday. "If it gets bright and sunny and the greens dry out on Sunday, it could get very, very difficult. It's really all depending on the weather right now."

The United States Golf Association ensures that the Open is one of the toughest tests of golf the world's top players endure annually. Long, lush, gnarly rough bordering both the narrow, rock-hard fairways and small, lightning-fast greens has been the method the USGA has used again and again to confound Open entrants.
Sand wedge has always been the club used most often in this tournament -- first to hack a slightly wayward tee shot 40-50 yards back into the fairway, then again near the green to scoop a slightly off-line approach shot out of ankle-deep gunk. If a golfer used sand wedge twice on the same hole, it always meant bogey ... at best. Even using it once didn't guarantee par.
But this year, in choosing 96-year-old Pinehurst No. 2 for its 99th Open, the USGA decided to disguise its method of torture.

The Donald Ross-designed course's elevated greens feature rounded edges that slope steeply away from the greens. These rounded shoulders and large collection areas they lead to are shaved only slightly longer than the putting surfaces themselves, marking a huge contrast to "roughed up" Open courses of the past.
But unless more rain falls into the weekend, allowing balls to stop quickly on the softened greens, this Open could prove devilish on its own merits.
Balls that keep rolling off the edges of the greens will meander into areas that are not easy to chip from. Some of these collection spots are as much as eight feet below the putting surface. Players might find themselves chipping more than once per hole, their first chips sometimes trickling right back to them.
During practice rounds this week, players and caddies noted in their course-map booklets which sides of which greens are to be avoided. There will be a lot of times when players aim their approach irons at the middle part of the green, or even at the opposite side of where the hole is located, because missing for a sure two-putt is much better than going for the flag, missing just barely and being left with a dicey chip or two.
And in shortening the fairway rough to 3 inches, the USGA is daring all players -- not just accurate or brave drivers -- to use their heaviest artillery off the tee and then go for the green with middle irons. Since mid-irons don't hold as well on the putting surface as short irons, players are being lured into the teeth of Pinehurst No. 2's bite.
"I think you'll see bigger numbers for it," said Davis Love III, who played Pinehurst as a youth and in college at the University of North Carolina. "In normal U.S. Open rough, you hit it in, hack it out and hit it on the green and one- or two-putt. But here, you'll get a guy who hits (an approach shot) over the third green, and he'll find himself talking to guys down on the fifth green. ... You could see some interesting stuff."

Tiger woods
Tiger Woods used practice rounds to determine the best places to be on the greens.
Players this week have spent extra time around the greens, trying different chipping methods. Most seem to favor the putter, even when they have as much as 12-15 feet of fringe to run the ball up and over. Other times they use mid-irons and 3- or 5-woods to bump-and-run the ball up the slopes.
"It's going to be real interesting to see how we choose to play different golf shots," said Payne Stewart, who has one victory (1991) and two runner-up showings (1993 and 1998) in 15 Opens. "I think that's what is really going to make the Open here at Pinehurst very special. There's not just one way to play a golf shot out here. There are a number of different ways, and it's however you feel works best for yourself."
That choice of shots, rather than pulling the wedge out of the bag time and again, has the players grinning instead of grumbling.
"Of all the U.S. Opens I've played in, this is by far the best -- by tenfold," said Greg Norman, whose illustrious career includes two second places in 16 Opens. "I think they've done a phenomenal job in the setup of the golf course. They've maintained the integrity of Donald Ross and the way you should play it."
The result is that more players feel they are on a fair course this week. Consequently, more of them think they have a better chance to win this Open than in the past.
"We've all played these type of golf courses before," said Norman. "So right now it's more of an open Open. And it's great that the U.S. Open is that way this year. I hope they stay that way for years to come."
Don't count on it, Greg. Not now that the USGA has discovered how to cook with spices.
"This golf-course architecture lends itself to this setup, where others do not," said Trey Holland, chairman of the USGA's championship committee. "We'll find ourselves going back to similar, if not the identical style (to those in the past), when we go to golf courses that lend themselves to that style. Our focus will continue to be trying to put on the supreme test for the United States Open Championship, and those objectives will not change."