The Pinehurst Takeaways After Week One: Mostly Great!

The real stunner after week one of the U.S. Open(s) is how good the putting surfaces look heading into week two. The health after a week of preparations is astounding, and a huge credit to the Pinehurst maintenance gurus.  As I said on Morning Drive, the only blemishes are poorly replaced ballmarks by the men who don't know how to repair one.

I saw little of the divoting issue that was anticipated, in part because of shrewd course setup variance of landing areas, firm conditions and respect for Pinehurst No. 2 shown by players in practice rounds. Yes, it's going to be brown and dry with high heat this week, and no I don't think the course will be kind to the women, but for now let's look at the big picture coverage.

The takeaways are as I hoped and feared: gradual widespread embrace of brown and the sandy scrub, with expected dissenters, and fairly widespread desire to see some of Pinehurst's turtleback greens deflated. The issue is not so much that any of the prime candidates is unable to function at a rational speed, but instead the totality of the course. There's a relentlessness to the crowned greens that just takes a little away from the beauty of Donald Ross's design. (By no means do I know this course like many others, but after walking it for four days the first, second, sixth, ninth, and fifteenth greens could see the tire pressure reduced and Pinehurst No. 2 would be better for it.)

Anyway, Alex Miceli talked to Johnny Miller for a YouTube video after walking down from the NBC tower following his final US Open and he mentions that “money talks” when it comes to tournament rights. More interesting is that he says he “was getting a little mad” at the Pinehurst greens because they were “too much of a story.” He said he tried to treat this as if they had ten more U.S. Opens and didn’t cry, though he did get choked up in a classy final segment with Dan Hicks.

I wrote about the Cost of Rough at Pinehurst ending up almost as difficult as the previous U.S. Opens here.

According to the USGA’s “cost of rough” stat measuring the gap in scoring between players who hit fairways and those who miss, the final number was .286 strokes. In 1999 the cost of rough was .303, and .368 in 2005.

And by the way, how about we call the rough at Pinehurst what it was: rough. This was real rough. The old rough in golf--long dense, overwatered and fertilized turf--gets a new Delta Tau Chi name of "manufactured and manicured penalty zones."

Okay, too wordy, let's work on that.

John Hawkins took issue with the greens as well, despite joining the list of those awed by the look and character of Pinehurst No. 2.

Hit it thin? You deserve what you get. Common sense must prevail, however, and the fact of the matter is, original designer Donald Ross never woke up one morning to find his precious babies rolling at 15 on the Stimp, or even 11. Crenshaw and Coore were reluctant to mess with Ross’ fabled greens, a decision that proved long on respect and short on logic.

Bradley Klein offered this short assessment and defends the green complexes:

Sure, these greens are severe. Too severe. That’s their point. They are a little more pronounced than Ross designed them in 1935 when he converted these putting surfaces from sand to turfgrass.

There’s now a certain charm – and a mixture of sado-masochism – in watching world-class players struggle with surfaces that drive us normal golfers crazy. I am curious to watch the ladies (and girls, including an 11-year-old) try their hand, starting Monday morning during practice sessions for the U.S. Women’s Open. My bet is they will struggle mightily and curse the place.

The SI/golf.com Confidential team held a good discussion about the week, including this:

LYNCH: Can we really expect courses or golfers to embrace firm, brown conditions when Augusta National is continually held up as the pinnacle of American golf courses? Or when the PGA Tour presents the same monotonous, lush, setup every week that demands only execution, not strategic decision-making? Conserving resources (natural and financial) is appealing to courses, but it's a tougher sell to golfers because they are conditioned to expect what is celebrated on TV. So let’s not pretend that their reluctance to embrace firmer conditions is simply a lack of sophistication. Trump treats TV as reality, which is why the only things running fast on his courses are waterfalls.

SHIPNUCK: They better -- water is going to usurp oil as this century's most valuable resource. Lush, green, overly fertilized courses are going to become increasingly rare, which is fine by me.

GODICH: They should, but many won't. I loved the look.

PASSOV: Admittedly, if you haven't been exposed to lots of British Isles golf, "brown" is an acquired taste. My dad, my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law's dad all agree with Donald Trump. Give it some time. Some courses and regions are better suited to brown than others. Brown sends a wonderful message for our game and for the future of our game. Let it spread quickly and widely, but where appropriate.

SENS: Are we really going to place weight on the aesthetic input of a grown man who wears his hair like that?

Rex Hoggard on the USGA's Mike Davis addressing any fears of a permanent lunar eclipse caused by a -9 winning score.

“The score for me is not a metric on whether it was a good set up for the week. I look at it as how the golf course played,” Davis said.

“I can remember we got some criticism in 2000 because Tiger (Woods) shot 12 under at Pebble Beach. I kind of scratched my head thinking, OK, the best score for the other 155 players was 3 over. So to me we should celebrate what Martin Kaymer did this week. He executed beautifully.”

Shockingly, a man who has spent millions on waterfalls did not care for Pinehurst. G.C. Digital reports that Trump ripped Pinehurst and was engaged by Golf Channel's Matt Ginella and USA Today's Steve DiMeglio regarding his comments. All via Twitter of course.