"Pebble Now an Intimate Meeting of Land and Sea"

Steve Elling (here) and Doug Ferguson (here) both focus their final preview stories on the tight mow along the cliffs, and include player compliments on the move. It's an awesome improvement to the course, though I am concerned about how it will impact the event.

Here's a rundown of the holes and the potential issues.

Hole 4: Looks great and definitely brings the cliff edge into play. Couple that with an awful fairway bunker added to narrow down the landing area, and I think you'll see more players try and drive it closer to the green.

The sixth hole's meeting with the sea (click to enlarge)Hole 6: The loss of two trees coupled with the tight mow has transformed this hole into one of the most beautiful on the course. It's amazing how the simpler hazard edge and opening up of the view into the massive cliff takes this hole to another level.

Hole 8: The fear that someone might drive through the fairway seems unfounded here. The cut is not very tight in most places down the right side where a drive could roll out with a good wind. The only real tightly mown spot is far up the left side where someone will have driven it ridiculously far past the intended distance. The fairway is not very wide and frankly I find that more of a concern than the tight mow by the hazard edge. Tom Watson talked about this fairway width issue today.

Hole 10: Definitely in play, and if the fairways dry out more there's a chance this will come into play in shocking fashion to some players. But right now the fairways have a decent amount of thatch and moisture so I don't see anything too strange happening here. There also seems to be a very light intermediate cut to help stop some balls.

Hole 18: The situation I'm most concerned about. To be clear, I love the look, I love the concept, but there is a slight ridge down the left side, 10-15 feet from the hazard edge. It's not a natural ridge, but appears to be more of a product of poor finish work from various projects to shore up the seawall. There's a good chance of a drive down the left side teetering on edge, but well struck and seemingly well placed, hitting this and kicking into the hazard.

The other issue is the marking of the hazard. There are several large flat spots where a player could get a full stance and find their ball in the hazard, even though it's fairway cut. I will try to find out from Mike Davis why this was painted that way throughout the course, but on several of the above mentioned holes there is a very good chance someone will be on a level fairway lie and not be able to ground a club. I'm guessing there is a good reason, I just don't know what it is.

 Where the land meets the sea, No. 18 (click to enlarge)