The cinematic 108th U.S. Open is finally over, 91 holes later. We'll see what time has to say about where this epic ranks amongst the all time greats, but it's hard not to believe that it will go down as one of the all time best major championships.

Sure, Tiger battling a troublesome knee and the pesky Rocco Mediate are obvious storylines, but don't discount how the USGA's course setup played a defining role in generating excitement, interest and challenge over the five days.

If you missed any of the content posted here related to Mike Davis and Jim Hyler's setup of Rees Jones' design, you can review the week's worth of posts here. Thanks for checking in.

I spent most of the day tracking the 14th hole and the fun surrounding the 267-yard tee location. You'll have to wait until next week's Golf World for my full account but it's safe to say the hole succeeded in every way with 71% of the players taking a crack at the green.

Check out what Tiger had to say about laying up on 14 after his round:

14, I couldn't have had a worse number. It was a 5-wood front number for me, but it was into the wind. I can't get a 5-wood there. Now I have to lean on a 5-wood, which means it brings the left bunker into play. I don't know if I can even get it all the way to that left bunker. If I bale right, I have absolutely no pitch. If I hit a cut 3-wood I have a choke down 3-wood and hit a cut. That's not exactly an easy shot. If I overcut I'm in the right bunker with virtually no shot. If that tee would have been on the back part of that tee, I could have hit a 3-wood with no problem. But it was on the front part, and it was perfectly caught between clubs. I said all right, no big deal. I can still make three by laying up. I laid up to a good number, had a little wedge and hit a little hard and ended up making par.

In the meantime, Mike Davis was kind enough to share some exclusive insights into the Tiger-Rocco Mediate playoff course setup.

Third Hole
A front right hole location likely means using the back tee playing around 190 yards.

13th Hole
The hole is going back left, and the USGA is undecided on tee location. It'll either be on the up tee at 539 yards, or the 599 tee.

14th Hole
The hole location will be cut in the front left, not far from today's spot, allowing Davis to keep the tees at the 277-yard spot. Where he puts the markers is still up for debate, but Tiger's remarks make the tee placement a major decision.

16th Hole
The hole is going to be cut center right, so Davis will play the 225-yard right tee nearest No. 15 green.

18th Hole
The tees will remain at the 520-yard area that has been employed the last three days.

I thought you might enjoy a few images of No. 14 this morning after the setup. I'm outta here soon, so enjoy the round and check back in tomorrow for a recap of the tournament.

Oh and watch some of these hole locations, especially No. 17. It's in a bowl and all balls are funneling to it.

The course is set at just (!) 7282 yards.

The 2008 U.S. Open final round will have a tough time topping the epic Saturday show put on by Tiger Woods. Witness to the stretch from 13-18, I've never experienced such loud roars and buzz at a sporting event. Throw in the the setting sun, Tiger's knee acting up and you half expected some guy in a fishing jacket and baseball cap to run onto the 18th green and yell "cut!"

As tough as that will be to beat Saturday in the entertainment department, Sunday's final round setup should afford opportunities for Tiger's pursuers to post red numbers.

Third Hole
This harrowing par-3 goes back to the 142-yard tee, with a hole cut in the front left. In essence the players are playing from one perch to another perch. The fronting bunker is a tough up and down, but a two-putt for the inevitable tee shots not holding the green plateau where the hole is cut will not have an easy two-putt. Great potential for drama here. Especially if that yacht with the massive American flag returns. How beautiful was that?

Fourth Hole
As difficult as No. 3 will play, look for a front right hole location to make this par-4 play easier than it did Saturday when the USGA moved the tee up 40 yards to ease the blow of the diabolical front left hole. A northwest wind turned No. 4 into the third toughest of round 3, yielding just two birdies. Look for players to work balls off of the right greenside hill and light this up.

Ninth Hole
Originally expected to play as much as 60 yards shorter, the length of drives this week means the tee will stay on the elevated complex where a 612-yard sign rests. Still, expect the shorter of the two tees to be used, reducing the yardage by nearly 20 yards and allowing more players to have a go at the green in two.

14th Hole
The USGA's Mike Davis revealed exclusively to GolfDigest.com that the decision has been made to move this 435-yard hole up to a 277-yard forward tee (see photos below). The hole will be cut close to the right greenside bunker. The forecast calls for a north or northwest wind, the same as Saturday. This will make the hole play longer, concerning Davis that more players might lay up than he hopes. However, in pre-tournament discussions with some players and caddies, some have suggested they would be more likely to have a go at the green if there is a headwind to hold up their shots. We'll find out Sunday!

16th Hole
The left tee will be back in play with a back left hole location, providing an all-carry shot that should play in the 200-yard range and look dynamite on TV.

18th Hole
It'll be tough to top Sunday's heroics, but a front right hole location and the use of the 530 yardage again should make things interesting, assuming Tiger hasn't run away from the pack by this point.

(The view from Sunday's final round tee location, followed by the lay-up view. The hole will be tucked close to the right greenside bunker.)

Note the tucked No. 13 hole up front (wowser!).

Highs and lows:

Fairway Hit
Toughest: No. 1, 50.3%
Easiest: No. 13, 79.4%

Cost of Rough:
Toughest: No. 6, 0.479
Easiest: No. 13: 0.179

Greens In Regulation
Toughest: No. 12, 19.4%
Easiest: No. 18. 81.2%

Putts
Toughest: No. 3: 1.80
Easiest: No. 7, 1.52

Overall cost of rough through 36 holes is 0.371, with the field hitting 52.3% of their greens in regulation, 59.5% of fairways averaging 1.66 putts per green.

The Wall Street Journal's John Paul Newport profiled Mike Davis in his Saturday column. This tidbit concerning an alteration to Davis' initial hole plan caught my eye:

With the green speeds finally up to the goal of 13½ feet on Wednesday, Mr. Davis altered five of the 90 locations. "In every case it was to make them easier," he said. On the 18th hole, he moved one location a pace to the right because he deemed it unnecessarily taxing for players putting up and over a nearby ridge to stop the ball near the hole.

After two rounds with a 74.982 scoring average the operative word is fair. But a few players dug a little deeper to offer course setup related compliments and insights.

Rocco Mediate, currently T2, commented:

It's so hard. The greens are so firm. They're not really firm, they're not real, real firm yet, but they're plenty. You see the scores -- a lot of guys said this golf course will play much easier for a U.S. Open. If somebody gets to 3-under, it's 3-under par, and it's not going to get easier on the weekend. It seems like they always run first day is easiest, second day is a little harder and it keeps going.

Q. How do you compare this to other Opens?

ROCCO MEDIATE: This is the best. It's perfect. Nothing is wrong. The pins are all good. He put 18 up two days, I like to see that. 13 was way back today. I think that's great. And the 3 and 16 changes, I think that's a great idea. They're doing a great job. I think most of the guys will say the same thing. I haven't heard any complaining this week.

Luke Donald said:

This year, I love the set up of how it's been set up. It's been very fair. I think if you are a little bit off target, it's still giving you a chance to get to the green and make par that way.

If you're way off, then usually you're in some pretty bad rough and have no chance of getting there. So the course setup has been very good this year, and I think that that obviously helps make a great U.S. Open venue. But it's really just a matter of having a good solid golf course and setting it up in a hard but fair.

Geoff Ogilvy said:

You can change the score so much where you put the tees and the pins. If you have all the par-5s back, you have a third on the back tee, and you tuck the pins, under par is a phenomenal score. But if you put some tees like yesterday and have some pins in the balls, and all of a sudden there seemed to be quite a few birdies out there yesterday. So the setup man has complete say over what we shoot, I think.

Q. Have you ever seen a Major course where they could control the scores so much without a sprinkler involved?

GEOFF OGILVY: It's awesome. There probably has been a lot of courses in the past, they just haven't ever done it. There's plenty of par-5s we play at Majors that you can forward at the tee. At Augusta they don't do it, because they got rid of the old tees.

Oakmont you could have easily moved 12 up a hundred yards last year. And you could do it most places.

Here they're actually doing it. I changed on the third tee forward today, which they obviously -- it's going to be into the wind, they want people to go for it, and it's going to move it up another tee.

The third hole is a unique hole, it's a cool hole from both tees. You can make it a wedge or 5-iron, which is cool. You can probably do it on nice courses, but now they've just started doing it, which is just cool, I think.

After round two, that's what I overheard Pat Perez telling a group of reporters in the "flash" interview area near No. 18. Th tone was mildly whiny mixed with a nice dose of perplexed.

He was explaining why the course was playing so tough. Or perhaps we've found out that 7,600 yards on kikuyu is actually a nice simulation of how golf used to be played...about 15 years ago.

I checked in with Mike Davis to hear what he thought of Friday's second round and surprising paucity of low rounds.

"I really don't know," Davis said. "Overall the course was longer today, but I'm surprised that the players are not hitting as many fairways as I thought they would."

Davis says he's "happy" with the first two days because the setup provided the "opportunity to make birdies" while remaining U.S Open-stern.

Davis was in surprisingly good spirits despite having his briefcase stolen from his hotel room, costing him his passport, credit cards and laptop. San Diego Police are investigating and have received confessions from two suspects but have little confidence that they will be able to recover the stolen goods.

Asked if he would take out this extreme inconvenience against the players or hold it against Torrey Pines' chances of hosting a future U.S. Open, Davis laughed before kindly sharing some exclusive information going into Saturday's third round. The latest setup twists are by far the most radical of the week and sure to generate plenty of discussion.

(Note: as part of his and Championship Committee chair Jim Hyler's more open-minded approach, these ideas are subject to change.)

I can't offer photographs today, my computer crashed and I'm on a loaner. You can go to the USGA's site for excellent views of all holes.

Third and 16th Holes
Both tees will be set up at the traditional pads they were situated on for round 2, with right hole locations on both.

Fourth Hole
Saturday may see the week's biggest twist to date on this 488-yarder clinging to the cliffs. Davis plans to cut the hole behind the front left greenside bunker. Because this is an upper-tier quadrant that's virtually inaccessible with a long iron, the tee will be pushed forward 40 yards.

The only players who know about this possibility are those who quizzed Davis about his setup over the last two weeks. I know that includes Tiger Woods and Geoff Ogilvy, who are both on page one of the leaderboard.

The shift at No. 4 should provide an interesting and unexpected decision for most of the field. With fairway bunkers that are 289 yards to carry but only 238 to reach, Davis hopes to entice a few players to create a short iron second shot.

11th Hole
This is not the most exciting one-shotter on the planet. Actually, it's downright dull. But Davis is going to offer a back right hole that contrasts nicely with Friday's back left location In addition, he is considering placing the tee markers forward about 15 yards on the massive tee used by everyday Torrey golfers. He's also planning to use the tee space to set the markers toward the left, allowing a creative player to work a shot off the large green tier in reverse Redan-like fashion.

12th Hole
Playing as the toughest hole after two rounds, look for the tee to go up nearly 30 yards, reducing the yardage from 504 to 477. The shorter yardage will bring a back left hole location, the toughest on the 33-yard deep green.

13th Hole
Saturday play goes back to the 539-yard tee so expect plenty of players to go for it. Davis is eyeing a dicey front-center hole location that may bring the steep bank into play. Look for plenty of excitement here.

18th Hole
Davis ended up moving the tees even more forward on Friday and will keep them at around the 535 yardage that players saw Friday (and still had trouble with).