Hey_Porter

DISCLAIMER: I KNOW there is no legal answer to this question, and that anything proposed will be technically illegal and technically cheating. But it happens enough that even the most rule-nitty among us should be able to give a solid answer ;). To make us all feel better, let's assume this is a non-tournament situation and that you will not be posting the score. Ok. It is a relatively common occurrence for a player to hit a drive that looks safe (i.e., no one thought a provisional was needed), but somehow ends up out of bounds. It is also fairly well accepted that in non-tournament play it is ridiculous to go back to the tee and re-hit, especially when there are people behind you. You drop one, either near where it went out or in the fairway where a "usual" drive would end up. Here is the question: after the drop, what do you lie, and what are you hitting on your next shot?

Wait, you got invited but didn't play? Does not compute.

I don't know if this is a myth or is just being told incorrectly, but he couldn't have applied and been turned down because there is no such thing as an application process at Augusta National. Invitation only, no applications accepted.

Interesting article in this month's Golf Digest. In sum, the USGA is making a concious effort to make the course a little more playable than recent Open Courses. This doesn't mean easy by any means, it just means that rather than a 14 or 15 on the stimp, they are only going to shoot for 13, and they might be nice enough and leave a cut of rough that is actually playable. Plus, it sounds like they aren't going to play Torrey at its longest, so the 7,600 yard number that is quoted in every discussion of the course might not be the actual distance. Plus, you can't forget that while the greens are fast, they physically aren't as bad as the greens on other courses. Sure, there will be some bad pin placements, but Torrey isn't Pinehurst or Oakmont when it comes to borderline-unfair greens. I still am not sure if I could do it, but all of the above needs to be taken into consideration.

The added distance would probably do me under. I shot an 87 there last week, and while I could have played a little bit better and a little bit smarter, that was a close to best score I could put up there with my "normal" game. I was only able to score that by hitting a good amount of fairways, especially on the back, and just plain being on with my 5 wood and long irons and hitting a decent amount of greens. Adding the extra yardage would force me to play my driver off the tee, which would lead to a quite a few more second shots out of the rough. Even if I were to hit the fairway I would be forced to hit more 5-woods and 3-woods and not hit as many greens. The rough is just as frustrating around the greens as its just as deep and impossible to make a good "feel" pitch.

A little bit delayed, but some of my pics are below. I mostly went for scenic pics, and I wish I had taken a few more to show how bad the rough was. Loved the shot on number three. That was actually one of my lucky and few up and downs (that and #12; I could play 12 a hundred times and par it 10 or less). Pin was back left and I drew it a little too much left and off the green, but it got caught up in the heavy rough. Grip it and rip it chip to five feet and an easy ( ;) ) tap in for par. Hope y'all like the pics. The fifth and sixth picture are of #13. If you watched the Buick you know about this, but for the Open they built a new tee box that forces you to carry the canyon that you see in the fifth picture, a carry of over 260 yards. The tee box was fenced off, so this pic is from behind the usual tournament tees; the new box is back quite a bit and off to the left of where this pic was taken. The sixth picture is looking back towards the tee box. It's gonna be brutal.

Like I said, pretty much all of my doubles were from having trouble getting out of the rough. On the second shot of the day on #1 I managed to get my hybrid down to the ball and hit a pretty good shot; that was enough to make me (stupidly) think I could do that every time. Most of the time you can't even get a 7 or an 8 on the ball. That's weird about the players card, I must have got lucky and caught an employee who didn't know. I actually assumed I would have to pay the out of town price, but when the guy taking the reservation quoted me the price it was the local rate. I even said "oh, we both get the local rate?" and he said yes. They didn't even ask for my brothers local card when we checked in.

Played from the whites, which play about 6600. Not many of the courses I play come close to that, so it was plenty long for me.

Haven't seen many trip reports on here, but thought I'd give one a shot. I was in San Diego this past weekend visiting my brother and was able to play Torrey Pines South on Monday. Because my brother is a resident, not only were we able to get a tee time (when I called to get the tee time in early April all of the non-resident tee times were booked for April), we also played it for $40 each. Sweet deal. I shot an 87, which, being an 11 handicap, I was VERY happy with given the conditions of the course. The 87 DID include one mulligan on a flubbed tee shot on a par 3, but other than that, everything was putted out, no lie was fluffed, etc. Looking back on my round, I can easily see how things could have been a LOT worse. The rough was INSANE (cart shed guy said it was about where it will be for the Open), and you could easily lose a ball since in most areas you have to be right on top of it before you find it. Despite being in the rough plenty, I managed to not lose a single ball. The rough was the most frustrating around the greens. Most of the greens had the fairway run right up to the front, but on all other sides there was barely any fringe, and third-cut-length rough right up to the green. Makes chipping VERY difficult as you pretty much lose feel and don't know how much strength to use. Even more important to scoring better than I expected was the fact I only three jacked once. I'm a pretty good lag putter, and even on short putts I prefer to drop it in rather than jam it through, and this strategy really seemed to work. Plus, I was lucky and never really got in really bad spots on the greens. I can only think of one really long putt I had that had really atrocious break, the kind where I usually just grip it and rip it, but I somehow managed to get it close. Finally, I was hitting my long irons and fairway woods REALLY well. I actually only just added a 3 wood and 5 wood to my bag, and without those I would have been totally lost. I'm not a long hitter, and several 200, 200+ second shots on the par 4s, especially after I did the right thing and ditched the driver (which I'm usually pretty accurate with). I hit a couple of greens with the 5 wood that I wouldn't be able to pull of again if you gave me ten whacks at it. As for the course, it was in great condition. I already mentioned the rough. Most places had just two cuts, but some places had three. The first cut looks ok until you get a ball into it and realize how dense it is. You might have a little bit more control than you would in the second cut, which was dense AND deep, but you still have the issue of actually making solid contact and getting it out clean. Like I said, you can easily lose a ball in the third cut. I found at least five balls in the rough while looking for mine. Greens were FAST. It's hard for me to give a real good impression because I don't play fast greens so have little to compare it to, but the cart shed guy (keeper of all info) said that they were running at 10, and they expect to have them at 12-13 for the US Open. Fast enough for me, that's for sure. Everything just kept rolling! Lot of work was going on preparing for the Open. They the framework for the bleachers up at what looked to me to be every place they would have them during the tournament, except for 18. Judging by the massive square footprints around 18 green, it looks like they had them up and took them down for some reason. They had a lot of folks working on the landscaping, and a bunch of giant tents up already on the boundary between the two courses and on the North Course (the back nine is already closed on the North). That's about all I can think of. If anyone is interested, here is how my score card looked (it's from memory, but looking at http://www.torreypinesgolfcourse.com/southcourse.htm I'm pretty sure this is how it played out; I'll check the card later). The doubles were without exception where I got caught up in the rough. My only three putt was actually a bogey (#16). I started using my 3 wood on the back. More accuracy= less rough = less doubles. 1- Double 2- Par 3- Par 4- Double 5- Bogey 6- Bogey 7- Double 8- Bogey 9- Par = 45 10- Par 11- Bogey 12- Par 13- Par 14- Double 15- Par 16- Bogey 17- Double 18- Par = 42 I will upload some pics later if people are interested.

Ha. We have an 8:00 tee time, and I certainly wouldn't mind if the winds were pretty calm. I plan on the course kicking my tail. I am a former 6 handicapper who didn't play for 5 years, and currently play to an 11. I think the good news is I am hitting my driver long and accurate, so hopefully I can hit a decent number of my second shots from the fairway and not the rough. Regardless, I also plan on having a blast. I'm big on photos and have done other trip reports on other forums before finding this one, so I'll plan on doing one when I get back.

We do have a tee time for the South. The conditions you describe are for the South, or the North? I'm assuming South.

I'm playing Torrey Pines on Monday, and don't know what to expect. The US Open is still a month and a half away, so I don't expect Open conditions, but other than that I have no idea what to expect. Will the greens be closer to Open speed, or "regular" speed? Will the rough be insane? Obviously someone who has played the course recently would be the best help, but info. on how courses generally prepare would be appreciated as well.

The other day I experienced the absolute worst. It was laughable. League is a two-man scramble, match play format. I knew it was going to be bad when one of our opponents pre-shot routine consisted of no practice swing, but the most waggles I've ever seen before a shot. EVERY TIME, EVERY SHOT. It was cart path only and they were in a cart, but if we were away, or even pretty equal, they wouldn't even leave their cart until we were finished, and would then take forever to discuss the shot (even if it was straightforward). The worst of it was towards the end when we were a couple yards off the front of the green with a front pin and they were way off the back. We were at our ball before they even pulled up in their cart, and had already decided that we were going to go ahead since we were so far behind the group in front of us. THEY STAYED IN THEIR CART UNTIL WE WERE DONE. AAARRRRGGGGHHH.

I think any negatives regarding club membership (save for cost) are going to be course specific, and difficult to pin down generally. The biggest positive for me was being able to play whenever, and not really have to think about it. The way I play now (not being a member), I generally have to plan it all out specifically and know I have enough time, because I'm not going to waste the money on 18, or even 9, if there's a chance I won't get it all in. When I was a member of a club, my favorite thing to do was to jump out an hour or so before sunset and play as many as I could. The course was usually empty, and I just love that time of day for playing the game.

I was actually pretty disappointed with the drainage the one time I played the south when it had been wet. The other times I've played it (I have played both south and north twice), the courses were excellent, however. Honestly, I would seriously suggest Portland to anyone wanting a golf vacation. The weather is fantastic during the summer, and there are at least six courses I would rate "excellent," three of which would fit the bill for those not wanting to spend a ton. For those who don't mind spending over $75 for a round: The Reserve Pumpkin Ridge I actully like Pumpkin Ridge (Ghost Creek) better than either of the Reserve Course, but for value I would lean towards The Reserve. Peak season Reserve is only $88, while Pumpkin Ridge is $150. Pumpkin Ridge simply isn't worth almost twice the Reserve. Cheaper courses, but still excellent: Stone Creek - Absolutely fantastic course, easily the best value I have ever played. Just a flat out fun course with a lot of character without being gimmicky at all, plus, they keep it in EXCELLENT shape for a public course. Quail Valley Again, just a great course for the money. Heron Lakes Portland muni, two courses. I actually like both courses, but the Blue is higher quality, better set up, and way more challenging.