Editor's Note: This exclusive editorial content is made possible through a parternship with the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association. The following dispatch is from Tuesday, June 10.
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It got a little hot today. Close to 95. Probably the hottest day of the year so far. The humidity dropped down to around 35 percent. Needless to say the greens were getting a little toasty. We had the guys out there watching them all day. We’ve got five guys with four greens apiece including the practice and chipping greens. They hung in there and were still at it when everybody else was eating dinner at 4:30 p.m.
I met Russell Henley today, thanks to an introduction from the USGA’s Pat O’Brien. They are both from Macon in Georgia and I was going by the second green when Pat called me over. Russell was very positive. He expects it to be tough with guys playing a real mix of chips and putts from off the green. That’s good. That’s what we want. Options.
I’m happy where we have the greens. I watched Ernie Els hit a great shot into the ninth green late this evening. He put it right in the middle of the green. So that was one concern from the day before that I feel like we’re now on top of. Same for the security at the start of the day. It was much smoother getting everybody out there this morning.
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The bunkers are a talking point, for sure, with plenty of questions about where the waste areas end and the bunkers begin. We’ve been working with the USGA on how we rake them. It will be like the Australian method used in the Presidents Cup, with the bottoms raked and the areas around them smoothed. Then you will have all the footprinted areas outside so there will be some definition. Of course, we won’t have control of how the caddies rake them once play begins.
There will be a rules official with each group and the players will be told to call on them when they need to. The bottom line is if there is any doubt, then treat it like a bunker. The good thing is that all the bunkers are inside the ropes unlike Whistling Straits, where Dustin Johnson got into trouble. Honestly, I think come Thursday it will be a non-issue.
I did an interview today with Jim Becker from Epic for GCSAA and sat in on a session in the media center where Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw talked about the architecture of the golf course. (Pinehurst director of grounds and golf course maintenance) Bob Farren was on the panel too with Brad Klein from Golfweek and Jimmy Roberts from NBC asking the questions. It was kind of neat to see.
I also got to see my son briefly. Bailey is 15 and he is going to be a standard-bearer this week, although it might be tough to get him out on the course now that he’s seen the Fair Barn which we are using as our headquarters. Once he saw the ping pong table and the foosball table, he was all over it.
Bit of surprise at about 9 p.m. when I got a call from the USGA operations folks. They want to bring in an emergency generator near the forward tees on the fifth hole. Apparently there’s a seven-foot long rod that has to go in the ground and they’re worried about hitting an irrigation line. I think the bigger concern may be a sewer line in that spot so we will have to see about it tomorrow.
The weather is not looking ideal, with a 60 percent chance of rain tomorrow and more temperatures in the 90s. But the forecast has been changing so much you can’t be sure. We might give the greens a little drink in the morning just in case it doesn’t rain. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. This is a two-week “tournament” after all.
Trent Bouts assisted in the creation of this article.
Kevin Robinson's Day 2 diary
Kevin Robinson's Day 1 diary
