This report comes to us from Pinehurst #2 courtesty of Dave Koster, scratch golfer, North Carolina resident, and friend of The Sand Trap.
Pinehurst is a special place. There is no doubt about it. I have been there only one other time. I played #5 and got to enjoy watching a good friend of mine play a game of croquet at their famous courts. That was during a cold day in December a couple years back. My second trip was different.
Fast forward to June 2005. The word of the day: Hot. Well, maybe there are two words of the day. The first is ‘Hot’ and the second should be ‘Water’. One was in high demand and the other was not. I think that you can guess which one is which. That’s enough about the weather and reminiscing about times past. On to the good stuff.
The sign reads “Welcome to the 2005 U.S. Open Championship.”
What I Saw
The greens on No. 2 are amazing and unbelievable. Those are the terms I use, but some of the players might use more descriptive four-letter words. I saw multiple guys drop a ball on hole #5 and watch it roll off, down a swale over 30 yards away. It will be interesting to see what it is like during the weekend as they are not expecting any rain here to soften conditions. The groundskeepers were out in force keeping water on the greens and the fringe areas to keep them from browning out. There are many areas around greens that have already succumb to the heat, but overall it looks great.
The rough at No. 2 is pretty thick. Again, many players were dropping balls to see what types of lies they will get and practicing to see how the ball will come out. It looks like there is a mix of grasses at work, but mostly the Bermuda is in full force.
Jim Furyk, a U.S. Open champion in 2003, got in some practice on Wednesday.
As for the players, there was a Tiger sighting on the range. Since his practice round started at 7:00, I didn’t get to catch any of his round. The word is that he quit early again today. He is not the only one. A lot of players didn’t even show themselves at all during the heat. I wanted to find Ernie Els and see him for a few holes, but he was nowhere to be found. The same can be said for Vijay. Another word of the day: conservation. It looked like a lot of the players were spending most of their time on the practice green and the range.
I almost forgot… I saw David Duval practicing by himself. He made a birdie on #15. Let’s hope it isn’t his last for the week. I for one am rooting for him to make a comeback.
The greens at Pinehurst – as on nearly every Donald Ross design – are best described as “convex” or “inverted saucer.” Not content with false fronts alone, Ross designed false edges all around, making the green smaller than it appears.
What I Felt
To be honest, it was a bit strange. There were no roars or cheering to be heard. Every once in a while there was a spattering of clapping for someone making a nice putt or shot, but for the most part, the guys were hitting a couple shots and spending oodles of time around every green playing shots from the swales, bunkers and other interesting areas. It was fun watching them chip and then throw away the wedge to use a putter and then again switch to a hybrid club. I feel that there will be a wide variety of clubs used this weekend in the same situation.
Putting is important, and the U.S. Open tests putting nearly as strongly as does The Masters. Expect the stimpmeter to measure out a few 13s this week!
Next report: Tomorrow’s opening round. Plan is to follow Els, Maruyama and Leonard for a while then park myself to watch a bunch of players… all while conserving energy and spending $14.50 on a couple of hot dogs and drinks.
Photo Credits: © 2005 Dave Koster. All rights reserved by photographer; used with permission.
Thank you very much Dave for being so gracious as to take these pictures for us. I always love this kind of up close coverage. You are definitely going to have a great time at the U.S. Open this week.
Thanks again.