"It appears the USGA is still learning how to properly prepare Chambers Bay for tournament play."

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In reading Sean Martin's follow-up story on Chambers Bay and its setup for the U.S. Amateur, it's hard not to wonder why this event has become a guinea pig of sorts for the U.S Open.

It appears the USGA is still learning how to properly prepare Chambers Bay for tournament play, somewhat understandable since this is the first national championship being held here.

There were concerns Saturday, two days before the tournament started, that the course was playing too firm. The USGA increased its watering after that, but it may have been too little, too late. Chambers Bay is built on sandy soil that doesn’t retain moisture well, especially in dry, windy conditions, Davis said.

The grounds crew placed twice as much water on the course as originally planned on the eve of Monday’s first round, then watered again Monday morning.

“Our hope was that amount was going to get us through the day. It didn’t,” Davis said. “It played very well (Monday) morning, even early afternoon. We really did feel that somewhere between 2:30 and 4 o’clock (Monday), it just got too firm on us.”

All of Chambers Bay is covered in fine fescue, which can handle extreme dryness better than most grasses, and allowed the USGA to push the course to the limit.

“On these greens, depending on the quadrant, we’re seeing 3 to 5 percent moisture, which is incredibly low,” Davis said. He was expressing concern, not bragging. “If you did this on bent grass or poa annua greens, these things would be dead. But the fescue just goes dormant.”