Torrey Pines Update

Tod Leonard looks at Torrey Pines, 368 days out from hosting the U.S. Open.

Torrey South is currently a wildly stitched quilt of many shades of green, brown, yellow and white. The rough is burned out from a chemical, applied intentionally, that killed all but the kikuyu grass. A few Torrey pines stand in huge crates, ready for transplantation. Tractor tracks are imbedded in mud near a few holes.

There hasn't been this much construction on the South since the course was completely redesigned by architect Rees Jones in 2001 to attract the Open. But it has to look worse before it gets better.

And they might as well order the rye grass seed now, because kikuyu rough isn't going to fly... 

The biggest concern, Davis said, is whether the kikuyu rough will be healthy enough by the end of the summer that he can commit to it for the Open. Otherwise, they will have to overseed the rough with rye before the tournament to enhance the thickness.

“The reason I can sleep at night is knowing that we have that rye as an option,” Woodward said.