Poulter Reviews The Tape: ''If he goes left corner, left corner, they win the Ryder Cup."

Doug Ferguson talks to Ian Poulter about finally watching the 2012 Ryder Cup that the Englishman played so well in this year.

He concludes that the 17th and 18th hole Sunday pin placements made the difference.

His only criticism of U.S. Captain Davis Love III was the very thing Love already has said he regrets -- the hole locations for Sunday singles. The pin was far right on the 17th and front right on the 18th.

''If he goes left corner, left corner, they win the Ryder Cup,'' Poulter said, noting that most of the Americans favor a right-to-left shot.

Fourth Ryder Cup Question: Can We All Agree That Harvested Rough Is A Silly And Cynical Stain On A Golf Course?

I know that the horror of great players displaying their skill was problematic for a few cynics who want to see these young, rich, athletic men suffer the indignity of a buried ball in bluegrass for daring to not hit every ball to perfection. However, with essentially no rough at Medinah, we may have just witnessed the most exciting and rewarding three days of shotmaking in modern times.

Oh yes, there were 62s that might have been posted if this was a major, but that's a credit to impeccable greens and silly distances the ball flies. Which is why people harvest four inches of lush stuff along fairways and around greens in the first place: to combat distance increases.

Anyone care to make the case that Medinah would have been a better Ryder Cup venue with high rough lining the fairways and surrounding the greens?

Don't be scared...

Third Ryder Cup Question: Did The Course Setup "Backfire"?

I've seen and heard in several places how the course setup (fast greens and no rough) backfired on Captain Davis Love. Before the matches, there had been suggestions the USA had a few tricks up their sleeves while Lee Westwood said he saw the approach favoring neither team.

Now, the match was decided by a point. The U.S. played particularly well in the foursomes and four-balls where they historically haven't been as strong.

The only impact I saw was in the way the setup tactics possibly inspired the Europeans to overcome a perceived obstacle. There may have been many other instances we'll learn about in time from players about little things that were done to aid the Americans.  Otherwise, Curtis Tyrrell and team's beautifully conditioned Medinah seemed to reward shots from both sides and allowed skill to dictate the outcome instead of rough or the actions of PGA setup man Kerry Haigh.

Thoughts?

"The Americans haven't really been using the tees that they'll be using during the matches because they're trying to throw off the European spies."

Michael Collins reports some last minute course tweaks that may just raise the bar on home field advantage efforts: a tree removed and an area of rough on the 10th hole cut so Bubba Watson can find a good lie over a fairway bunker 290 from the tee.

In addition, Medinah director of golf Mike Scully said that a tree was removed Wednesday that would make the tee shot easier on a hole, but he would not specify which hole. Having trees removed is not within Love's rights as captain, and Scully would not say why the tree needed to be taken down.

Medinah has lost several hundred trees over the past year. In fact, the tree on the 16th hole, made famous when Sergio Garcia closed his eyes and blasted a tremendous shot from its base in the 1999 PGA Championship, had to be removed. 

Dave Shedloski talked to the Open Doctor Thursday and Rees Jones about all things Medinah and he says the Americans were careful not to reveal some planned setup ploys during their practice rounds.

"It used to be that the golf course was a certain yardage, and that's what you had. But here they can do just about anything." Jones said. "The Americans haven't really been using the tees that they'll be using during the matches because they're trying to throw off the European spies. I mean, we've heard a lot about players laying up on the 15th hole [a drivable par-4]. A lot of Americans have been talking about that. But Bubba Watson said today he can reach it with a 4-wood. So that tells me he knows something."

We shall see!

Captain Love was pretty cryptic about the setup on Thursday, but I love the jab at the PGA's Kerry Haigh.

Q.  What's your latest thought on the length of No. 15, especially since Mickelson came in and said he doesn't anticipate it being drivable; and also, do you think you'll move around the tee much on the weekend?

DAVIS LOVE III:  Well, it won't be drivable if Phil doesn't hit driver, if he hits an iron off the tee.
I think you'll probably see a variety of things at 15.  You know, it all depends on the wind, too.  If it's cold or windy, not many guys can get there no matter where you put the tee.  The front of the tee is‑‑ I think the shortest you can get it is 285 front, so if it's cold and windy coming in, not many guys out there that will be able to get there.  Maybe Dustin and Tiger and Colsaerts.  But I think you'll see a variety.

You know, it's different in different formats, and Kerry is‑‑ I think the great thing about what we have seen Kerry set up PGA Championships and Ryder Cups is he gives you a variety.  It's fun; fun to play any course that Kerry sets up.  I'm just glad that I got to Curtis Tyrell and got rid of Kerry's four‑inch rough.  (Smiling.)

Bethpage Greens Receive Overnight Watering...

I guess we'll never know what happened Saturday to make Bethpage's greens speed up so much, but count soon-to-be-former-Ryder Cup hopeful Padraig Harrington to the hyperbole.

James Corrigan and Alasdair Reid reported this quote in a story on the likely European Ryder Cup captain's picks:

“The greens yesterday afternoon hurt my cause,” he said, after an admirable 68 advanced him on three-under. “I don’t think I’ve ever putted on greens faster and it doesn’t look good from outside when you start on with a 64 and shoot 75-75. I’m actually really happy where my game is.”

Something led to the greens returning to more reasonable speeds Sunday after Saturday's mysterious speed-up, and Doug Ferguson says it was water:

After a third round in which several players felt the greens were close to dead and nearly impossible to putt, there was plenty of water on them overnight. High scores were more a product of bad play, and it was difficult for anyone to make up too much ground because conditions were comparable throughout the day.

Saturday: Bethpage's Greens Take Mysterious Speed Jump!

You had to be eyesight-deficient to not notice the increased speed of Bethpage Black's greens on Saturday where afternoon players moaned loudly about an apparent overnight switch-flip.

Bill Fields samples some of the player comments and only leader Sergio Garcia would not question what happened, even though he noticed the difference too.

Yes, that's right, Sergio took the high road! Sort of.

"Was it unfair? I wouldn't say it was unfair," said Garcia. "It was borderline." The Spaniard likened the greens to the infamously dried-out surfaces at Shinnecock Hills during the final round of the 2004 U.S. Open. "You could have a 10-footer and hit what you thought was a good putt and hit it six feet by."

Woods had one of the worst days when he got to the greens, unable to get the speed down. "I felt like I hit good putts, but my speed was awful," he said. "I don't remember blowing putts by eight to 10 feet. So that was a bit of a shocker."

As Garcia put it, "It was easy to make bogeys with good shots."

Doug Ferguson's game story tries to conclude what happened. The tour rules staff is insisting no practices were changed that led players to invoke the "unplayable" and "unfair" words.

Slugger White, the tour's vice president of rules and competition, disputed the idea that course was on the verge of being unplayable.

''The golf course is not unplayable,'' he said.

White conceded a few greens became ''crusty,'' particularly at Nos. 2 and 8, and that the staff was thinking there would be more cloud cover. He went out to the greens after the last group came through and said, ''I saw no issues.''

''Players always want firm and fast,'' he said. ''It seems like when we give them firm and fast, they don't want firm and fast. I hear Tiger say it was too soft on Thursday. And then some guy walks off the tee and says, 'Have you guys run out of water?' Where do you go? We're doing the best we can.''

Watney didn't entirely agree.

''There's firm and fast, and then there's this,'' Watney said. ''I mean, this is pretty extreme.''

Jim McCabe went to the stats and they confirmed something happened. A PGA Tour field just doesn't collectively lose its ability to putt overnight! These guys are that good.

Well consider the statistic for average putts per round. The PGA Tour lists 195 players in this category and only five average more than 30 per round. But Saturday, with warm wind and more sunshine baking out Bethpage Black, of the 75 players who made the cut, 47 took more than 30. Heck, two of them – Pat Perez and Robert Garrigus averaged exactly two per hole, a whopping 36 total – while Justin Rose and Vijay Singh each had 35.

Bob Estes in his post round interview noted that it's a morning v. afternoon issue, suggesting that the greens were withering up.

BOB ESTES:  The golf course is great and I don't know who is in charge of the greens, and they are okay in the morning, but there's too big of a difference to the way the golf course plays in the morning to the way it plays in the afternoon.  I've seen a little bit of both, and the first 14 holes, the golf course played pretty much the way it should.  It was difficult and the greens were still fast, but the last four holes you played, the greens really dried out, you almost kind of‑‑ they are so brown in places‑‑

Q.  Is speed the biggest thing?
BOB ESTES:  Well, they did get a lot firmer.  So at least they are not‑‑ at least they real fairly true but they are just so fast, that a putt that you think is just up near the hole might easily go five, six, eight feet by the hole.

Brandt Snedeker, not usually one to complain, complained.

BRANDT SNEDEKER:  Yeah, you just can't hit greens out there, I don't care what anybody says, the greens are pretty much unplayable for the most part.  You can't keep the ball‑‑ you can't hit them.  Just really, really tough test.  You're going to miss greens and I got up‑and‑down when I had to which is great, made a bunch of key, par‑saving putts and I felt like I played as good as I possibly could play today and I was very happy to shoot 68.

Q.  Can you give us more detail on the conditions, because when I was following you, 15, 16, 17, 18, it appeared to get colder and the winds whipped a little stronger?

BRANDT SNEDEKER:  It did, and unfortunately I think they got the greens a little too firm, they lost a couple of par 3 greens coming in and 17 is unplayable right now, unfortunately.  It's a great hole but you can't possibly hit one close there, so you have to play to edges of greens, backs of greens and get up‑and‑down from there.  The wind whipping around makes it tough on some holes.

Ian Poulter melted down on Twitter, calling the setup and greens a variety of things. First this one:

I played poorly today & no excuse for my play I was rubbish. but I do know my job & trade & the golf course today was borderline unplayable.

And this which will lead to a fine, and thus, a charitable donation:

The worst course setup I have ever played in 13 years on tour. They have ruined what is a great course, greens like concrete stupid pins.

Ian is just thinking of the little people:

I'm just personally disappointed that spectators pay good money to watch players have good shots punished because poor setup. End off....

Finally, this from Tiger:

TIGER WOODS:  Some of the greens have grass, some of them are a little bit on the dirt side.  They are just slippery.  Some are quicker than others, some had more grass than others and others a little more dirt.

Those things were quick, and even though uphill putts seemed a little bit on the quick side, you know, all week this putting green over here has been a foot faster, maybe a foot and a half faster than we do on the golf course, and all of a sudden that putting green is actually slower than the ones on the golf course, and that was a bit of a shocker, at least to our group.

Q.  Do you remember a course changing this much over 24 hours?

TIGER WOODS:  Mm‑mmm.  Mm‑mmm  (shaking head no).

Update on Saturday, August 25, 2012 at 08:56 PM by Geoff

**The third round highlights, which are now only available through PGATour.com and therefore, appearing in this smaller and less attractive viewing window:

"So at least we don't have to play this golf course with this much wind with balata balls. That would have been interesting."

Some of us get frustrated with Tiger press conferences because he either intentionally holds back his golf knowledge or doesn't make the effort to take a question and use it to show off his insights. And of course, some insights he obviously must keep to himself to retain an advantage.

But Friday was an example of Tiger showing off his knowledge of the course while explaining why, in the nicest possible way, the golf was just a little goofy with the meeting of wind, mud and paspalum. Woods is the co-leader at -4 with Vijay Singh and Carl Petterson.

The Golf Channel video version is here, and the transcript here. The key portion worth reading:

Now, as far as‑‑ yeah, we've played in wind like this and we've played links golf, but it's no big deal because you can bump the ball on the ground.  You can throw it 30 yards short of the green and let it roll on the green.

Here, you just can't do it.  You've got to throw the ball in the air.  That's what makes it difficult is that it's a linksy‑type of feel, in which you can't use the ground at all.  Paspalum, as well as the rain, it just negates all of that.

And then when you get around the greens, some of these shots would be nice to be able to bump it but you can't do, that either, because it's too sticky.  You might be able to play some kind of driving one ‑hop‑stop shot but even then you're taking a chance.

It's just, one, you can't short‑side yourself out there, you've got to leave yourself on the fat side and give yourself some room.  And then some of these bunkers are not bunkers.  They are, you know, like either hard pan or mud.  A shot that Keegan played today on 16 was unbelievable, because it was mud down there.  And that's what can happen in some of these spots.

I had a spot on 8 today that where my feet were, I had no sand, but where the golf ball was, it was a ton of sand.  Luckily we are able to take practice swings and try to get a feel for it but it's tough out there.

Q.  Last week when you were here, and again earlier this week, you seemed to suggest you wanted some wind.  Wondering, though, if this is a little bit more than you would have hoped for?  Obviously you want it tough, but this is pretty brutal?

TIGER WOODS:  This is tough.  This is‑‑ as you said, at times, it is a little bit brutal out there because you're playing so much drift.  Even if you hook it or slice the golf ball, it doesn't matter.  It's still drifting back at the end.  And even with these new golf balls that go so much straighter, they are still drifting a lot.

So at least we don't have to play this golf course with this much wind with balata balls.  That would have been interesting.

R&A Presser Wrap Up: Forget Portrush, Lytham Draining, Slow Play Killing Game, Twitter & Polo A Fine Partner

Team Ralph Lauren, a.k.a. the Royal and Ancient's Peter Dawson, Jim McArthur, Johnnie Cole-Hamilton and Malcolm Booth held court sporting great Polo sweaters fresh out of the package (the standards today...manufacturer creases...dreadful).

Some highlights from the annual R&A press conference. Starting with the British press letting no mundane detail slide by…

Q.  Do you have more bunker rakers than usual?  If so, could you put a number on the bunker rakers, and also can you tell us where these bunkers are that are causing concern?

    JIM McARTHUR:  Good questions.  Peter?

    PETER DAWSON:  No, I don't think we have more bunker rakers than usual.  Each group has a bunker raker that walks with them, and that should be adequate for the purpose.  The bunkers that are causing concern at the moment are on the 16th and 17th holes in particular, and there is some concern also on the 14th and on the right of the 2nd green.

    When I came here myself ten days ago, thereabout, on a Friday evening, it was much wetter then after the cloudburst than it is now.  And two days later of good, drying weather you would think the golf course was in normal summer condition.  It was very firm and there was no standing water anywhere.

Dawson called fairways ranging from 18-28 paces on windy linksland...reasonably generous.

The champion on Sunday I doubt will have won from the rough.  I think he'll be winning from the short grass, so there's a premium on hitting fairways this week, obviously.  But if you stray a long way off the fairways, and the fairways are reasonably generous.  If you stray a long way off, then you're going to be penalized.

I later asked about that as a few players who know the course have grumbled about narrowness.

Q.  You mentioned that the fairways are generous.  Some of the players have noted that the course is narrower than last time and some of the landing areas are under 20 yards.  Why has it been narrowed, and does it concern you if we get some of the high winds forecast that it will be too narrow?

    PETER DAWSON:  I don't believe it's factual that it's been narrowed since last time, I just don't think that's the case.  I don't know where that comes from.  We have not narrowed any fairways here that I can think of in the setup of the golf course.

It seems the security this week is being handled by the same security firm under fire for their handling of London 2012. And we know how that's going.

JOHNNIE COLE‑HAMILTON:  All the managers, the supervisors, the guys in charge who we've been using for many, many years are back with us.  The numbers that myself and my team asked for are all here.  We have no issue whatsoever with the group force coverage of the golf course.  As I understand it, it's a separate part of the business, and it's the event's item.  We have no issue at all with the coverage that we've got, and everybody is present and correct.

Here's your first of a few answers on Royal Portrush-as-Open-venue-in-the-future questions that spell its doom.

The Championship Committee looks at many, many factors in determining the course choice for The Open Championship.  And we'll just have to see how we go.

    There is a great deal and a huge amount of money would need to be spent, in my estimation, to make Royal Portrush a sensible choice. 

It requires The Treatment! Go on...

That's not a criticism of Royal Portrush; it's a wonderful golf course.  But the commercial aspects of it are quite onerous.  And obviously The R&A would need to be sorting those things out as well as just simply the logistics of the whole affair.

    It's going to take some time to come to a view, and the view may be no.  We'll just have to wait and see.  I can't give you a time scale.

    JIM McARTHUR:  Not before 2016.

Or ever!

And another blow to Portrush hopes here from Dawson:

We don't feel short of Open venues now, let me say.  We're not rushing to look for more; we don't feel that pressure.  But what did impress hugely about the Irish Open was the logistics worked well, the traffic flows and all of that.  But above all, I thought the enthusiasm of the spectators was something not to be forgotten, and that's a very strong point.

Some fantastic stuff here from McArthur, in stark contrast to the other governing body and the tours when it comes to understanding the role of slow play in the game, as influenced by tournament golf.

I have to say to you, we are intent on doing what we can to improve the pace of play in golf.  I mean, I think we feel that particularly maybe not so much at professional golf but certainly amateur golf that slow play is, in some ways, if not killing the game, is killing the club membership because of the time it takes to play.  And whatever we can do in our events, and bear in mind that we are not seeing the players week in, week out.  We see them two or three times a year, professionals once a year, amateurs two or three times a year, we're doing whatever we feel we can in the circumstances to contribute to improving the pace of play.

But it needs to be a concerted effort, not just the R&A, not just the Tours, but the golf unions and other golf organisations to, I think, come to a coordinated effort to improve the speed.

And I think we should ‑‑ personally I think we should be aiming in club amateur golf for three and a half hours maximum for a threeball, perhaps elite amateur four hours.  These should be maximum times, and we should be trying to improve these at all times.

You go Jim!

Of course, the R&A also has to stop adding back tees and suffocating setups that slow down play, and also make it so that not ever par-5 and a shocking number of par-4s are driveable, therefore clogging up courses.

Dawson on Twitter, rescued sturdily by spokesman Malcolm Booth.

Q.  Peter, do you have any concerns about the players' and caddies' use of social media, such as Twitter, given that it seems to be causing more and more travesty in other sporting fields?  Will you be monitoring this Championship?

    PETER DAWSON:  Malcolm, can you take that?  This whole subject is entirely beyond me, I must confess, why people feel the need to Twitter, but I'm old‑fashioned.  Malcolm, I will hand this question to you.
Q.  Do you have an account?

    PETER DAWSON:  I couldn't afford it.

    MALCOLM BOOTH:  Well, we do monitor Twitter.  We have our own Twitter handle that is pretty successful out there.  And of course, we keep an eye on what the players and caddies and connections throughout the game of golf are saying.  I can't say I've noticed a huge influx of tweets from the golf course, and I suppose if that started to happen we might take a look at it, but we haven't observed that at this stage.

In an refreshing twist, the R&A is more bullish and proactive then the other members of the Five Families when it comes to people watching coverage on their phones, but they also understand the limitations of current technology. Booth again:

But for the first time people up and down the UK will be able to watch the BBC's domestic coverage wall‑to‑wall Thursday through Sunday on our apps and website, and in America they'll be able to watch ESPN's coverage on our website, and I think that allows us to work closely with our television partners to engage with our audience globally.

    And then on a local level, ultimately that will lead to people being able, we hope, to watch television pictures on their mobile devices in the grandstands.  That's not something that we will expect to happen for this week, because they'll be reliant on a 3G network, which will only have a certain capacity to watch video, but we hope they'll be able to get live scoring on their devices, as will you, we hope, as you walk round the golf course, but there is every chance that the 3G network ‑‑ we'll have to see how that works.

    But over time, as we see how this performs, it's going to become a much‑valued tool to spectators and media around the golf course, and we're very optimistic that it can be a real enhancement at the championship. We're trialling Wi‑Fi on one of our grandstands on 18 to see what the capabilities are of putting Wi‑Fi out in a manageable way out on the golf course, where it actually performs well.  And that's something we'll observe over this week, and see what we can do for future years.

And finally, a question about Team Ralph Lauren's matching sweaters! This should make for fun reading in the tabloids tomorrow.

Q.  You're all looking very smart.  Was there a bidding war to outfit The R&A?  Just how much did Ralph Lauren pay to take over the merchandising tent?

    JIM McARTHUR:  Peter, could you answer that for me, please?

    PETER DAWSON:  Well, I'm not sure we're all looking very smart.  No, we're delighted to have Polo, Ralph Lauren as a patron of The Open Championship.  And it goes without saying that when you have that sort of commercial relationship, you do expect officials, referees, volunteers, et cetera, to be clothed by them.  And that's terrific.  Their support of the game of golf, not just here, but other events has been strong, and we're delighted to have them as a partner.

    In terms of the financial number, that's obviously confidential and would actually depend on the outcome in the merchandise sales this week, anyway.  So I couldn't give you a number even if I wanted to, which I don't.

    Q.  How many complaints have you had from other merchandisers so far?

    PETER DAWSON:  Personally I have had none, but I would be surprised if there weren't some flying around.

Update on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 08:47 AM by Geoff

**John Huggan on my Team Polo's performance Wednesday.

Update on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 09:02 AM by Geoff

**Rex Hoggard on how the pace of play situation will be enforced by the R&A, with "words of encouragement."

“We have a pace-of-play policy which we intend to apply stringently,” said Jim McArthur, the chairman of the R&A’s championship committee.

Officials will allow for rounds of 4 hours, 30 minutes for Thursday and Friday’s three-ball groups and 3 hours, 45 minutes for the weekend’s two-ball times, which are ambitious by PGA Tour standards.
After an initial warning, or words of encouragement, players will be penalized a stroke for the second bad time. The third bad time will lead to a two-stroke penalty and a fourth penalty will result in disqualification.

And Yet More Observations From Rainy Lytham...

Longtime readers know I have a simple rule to determine whether a major championship course setup crosses the goofy threshold: if the fairway landing area off the tee and then leading into a green is narrower than the green complex itself, you have a stinker.

Sadly, more than a handful of key holes at Lytham and St. Annes have been vandalized by paint cans, with a few fairways reaching an unprecedented 18 paces wide, which is as narrow as anything I've seen in the modern age of trying to stifle distance advances through setup.

On a positive note, I spent some time with the holes furthest from the clubhouse and the stretch of eight, nine and ten is magnificent. Meanwhile, the splendid weather drawn up by the Blackpool Tourist Board means the course will never be too fast and firm, making the silly fairway widths slightly more palatable. But if the wind blows, that's another story. Look at longshot bets if some wind creeps into the forecast.

On an even more positive note, I've never seen a club with a greater and more sophisticated devotion to its championships than Royal Lytham. As you'll see below, they have some of the simplest and best displays celebrating past championships that I've ever seen. Pity that the golf course here, so clearly loved by its members and treasured by players for generations, will be tainted this week by a combination of Mother Nature and regulatory ineptitude.

Here are just a few photos from a another gorgeous day in this summer beach resort town. Cheers!

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USGA's Davis On Tee Shift: “In the case of Sunday it certainly made them think at a very important time in the championship."

Jay Coffin on USGA Executive Director Mike Davis' Morning Drive appearance where he talked about bouncing the trophy ceremony heckler and the 16th hole setup Sunday.

“We think one of the elements of the test for a national championship is the ability to react at the moment to a golf course setup,” Davis said when he joined “Morning Drive” on Tuesday. “While we don’t want inconsistencies with green firmness or green speeds we like the idea of mixing up teeing grounds because it really does make them think.

“In the case of Sunday it certainly made them think at a very important time in the championship. In some players case it made a difference.”

Toms On Olympic Setup: "Maybe some of the longer hitters have to throttle back a little bit to get the ball in the fairway, so it just evens everybody out."

David Toms makes an interesting comment about why he's able to compete so far through 36 holes at Olympic where he shares the lead with Woods and Furyk. From Jim Moriarty's Golf World Daily item:

"The ball is chasing out so it's not too long for me. Maybe some of the longer hitters have to throttle back a little bit to get the ball in the fairway, so it just evens everybody out."

The driver has definitely been an afterthought so far (Tiger has hit his seven times in two days/28 opportunities), but I would contend that the discouragement of the big stick is a product of the fairway contours as much as the firmness.

Video: Dissecting Olympic Club's 14th Fairway

Olympic Club is an awkward golf course even with wider fairways and no rough. It makes you feel awkward and requires some awkward shotmaking. And I say that in the nicest way possible having played competitive rounds here. We don't have enough courses like Olympic that make players feel uncomfortable.

That said, one of my favorite holes has long been the par-4 fourteenth which has many classic strategic elements. It "fits the eye" of a right handed golfer hitting a draw, but more than that, it was always so fun to turn a drive over to position yourself down the left side for the best angle to attack the green, flirting with trees and junk left. The more you played safe to the right, the tougher the second shot became due to the wind direction (behind and from the right), slope of the fairway (right to left) and tilt of the putting surface (right to left).

So I was a bit shocked to see the fairway contour, which has been moved left virtually under the treeline, leaving nearly two fairways worth of rough down the right. The move is made, in part, because of the advances of equipment since the last time the U.S. Open was there. Drivers turned over would probably get players to a downslope that would leave them with flip sand-wedge.

Nonetheless, Bubba Watson summed up the problem with the setup:

Next hole, 14, they moved the fairway over. I hit it in the middle of the fairway, but had to slice a 9‑iron about 40 yards just to hit the green. It just doesn't make sense.

Those are the two holes that really are in my mind that we don't even know how to play. Me and my caddie were going over them, me and the other golfers were going over them, talking about it on the putting green. Not sure what's going on with those two, but you try to make your pars and get out of there. That's the only two spots that I see that are iffy on the whole golf course. The other parts of the golf course are just tough. Just a hard test of golf.

In the first video, here are some thoughts on the stunning amount of rough, which I recorded as Lee Westwood clipped overhanging trees from a lie on the left side of the fairway. Strange stuff.

I move back toward the tee for video #2.