"The intriguing thing about all this is that there have not been any low scores accompanying the high praise for Davis’s setups."

Larry Dorman on Mike Davis's role in transforming the Open.

Geoff Ogilvy shot five over par to win at Winged Foot in 2006. Angel Cabrera shot five over par to win at Oakmont the next year. And Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate each shot one under to tie last year. They then each shot even-par 71 in an 18-hole Monday playoff, won by Woods with a par on the first hole of sudden death.

“A lot of that had to do with the weather we got,” Davis said. “Oakmont and Winged Foot were dry and we had breeze. Had it been soft and there hadn’t been breeze, I really think you would have seen under par win both those. So much of it truly has to do with what Mother Nature gives you.”

True. But there are many pieces to the setup puzzle, something the final arbiter on the length of the rough, the speed of the greens, the width of the fairways and the positions of the holes knows well. The temptation that accompanies a decent lie in the rough may, on the whole, be hard to resist.”