Narrow Thinking At Torrey North

I don't think the fairways have been narrowed the on the North Course at Torrey Pines, but the rough is way up thanks to our rain/heat weather combo in the last few weeks coupled with the Tour's decision to keep the rough higher on the North to help offset what is an otherwise pushover for the players. Tiger after round one today:

Anthony and I were talking about this all day to day. These are some of the hardest fairways to hit on TOUR. One, they're angled because they're banked, and they're the narrowest we've seen, and the rough is four or five inches, so it's tough.

Doug Ferguson noted the intentional difference in his game story:

The North Course is not the pushover it has been in past years because of some new length, and not just in distance. Along with being some 90 yards longer, the rough was allowed to grow and is thicker than the grass found on the South Course.

"I didn't know the North was as long as the South," Ben Curtis said after a 70. He knows better, but it felt that way if tee shots did not stay in the narrow, canted fairways.

I guess I've liked the stark difference that has developed between the two Torrey layouts, with the North the scoring day and the South the U.S. Open-style course. But apparently that was a form of injustice and had to be remedied.