7,086: Short

Ron Kroichik offers a hole-by-hole preview of Harding Park. The headline for the story: "Harding might be short but it's big on challenge." That's right, 7,086 yards in heavy air has become short. Damn those workout programs!

PGA Tour officials hope rail-thin fairways, thick rough, slick greens and rows of cypress trees will present a suitable challenge. It's entirely possible the players will overpower Harding and post low, low, low numbers. Or maybe the refurbished 80-year-old layout will quiet skeptics and produce a winner at, say, 10-under-par.

Because, after all, resistance to scoring is the mark of a great design.

Seve's joke about fairways eventually disappearing is looking more prophetic every day.