New Venue, New Approach

By Ron Whitten
Photos By Stephen Szurlej June 2008

Hard to believe the USGA ripped some pages out of its rule book for this year's U.S. Open, but it did.

No, not that rule book. The Rules of Golf still apply. We're talking about the rules that decree that U.S. Opens must be played at grand old clubs founded no later than the Roosevelt administration -- preferably the Teddy Roosevelt administration -- and that courses must be set up to protect par at all cost, using ankle-deep rough; brutally narrow fairways; hard, fast greens; and tee markers pushed back to the fence lines.

The greens will be firm and fast for the U.S. Open, but that's about the only page that will be followed.

When the Open is played June 12-15 at the South Course at Torrey Pines Municipal near San Diego, the fairways will be mostly the same width as they were for the PGA Tour's Buick Invitational in January, the rough won't be much deeper than it was for the Buick and, though the tees will be pushed back, making Torrey Pines the longest Open course by more than 300 yards, they won't be way, way back. Torrey can be stretched to 7,643 yards, but many of its back tees won't be used.

What's going on? A revolution, thanks to the ascension two years ago of Mike Davis to the position of senior director of Rules and Competitions for the USGA. Davis, a strong player, has a more sympathetic ear for the plights of the world's best players than did his predecessor, Tom Meeks. Compared to the late, legendary USGA dictators Joe Dey and P.J. Boatwright, whose course setups frustrated players, Davis might seem like an apostle of appeasement, especially when he says, "We don't want to penalize the long-ball hitter. If they can hit a ball 340 yards, good for them. We're going to give them an advantage."

But a U.S. Open under Mike Davis isn't about identifying (or rewarding) the biggest bashers in golf. It's about testing every player's complete game. He's pretty sure you don't do that by funneling every shot into narrow parameters. You do it by posing a variety of situations and options that let each golfer play to his strengths when he can -- but exercise his imagination when he can't. Thus, the fairways at Torrey Pines will be 29 to 34 yards wide (in an age when 24 yards has been considered sufficient off the tee), framed not by uniformly long rough but by bands of progressively higher cuts.

"The theory of graduated rough [which Davis introduced at Winged Foot in 2006] is that the first cut of primary rough takes away some spin and distance control, but not as much as for those who are wild off the tee," Davis says. "In theory, we like the concept. But that primary cut was slightly more dense at Winged Foot and Oakmont [2007]; it came out far more penal than what we wanted. Guys just had to hack it out."

That led, in part, to winning scores of five over par the past two years.

"At Torrey Pines, my guess is the primary rough [a mix of Kikuyu and ryegrass] will be 2¾ inches deep, certainly not more than three," Davis says. "None of the rough should be perfect. After Oakmont, I sent a memo to superintendents, saying, 'If you think the USGA is looking for incredibly consistent, dense rough, you're mistaken.' We like the idea of a bit of inconsistency in the rough, to give the guys different kinds of shots."

Likewise, rough around the greens will be mowed in concentric steps, and the approach areas in front of greens -- of Bermuda grass rather than the Kikuyu elsewhere on the fairways -- have been aerified and top-dressed as if they were greens, making them as firm as possible. Davis wants players to be able to bounce shots into greens, should they choose to do so.

The greens are pure Poa annua and as healthy as they've ever been. When mowed very tight, subtleties and tricky breaks in the surfaces become noticeable. But Davis doesn't want them too tight; he doesn't want them near-dead on Sunday afternoon.

"You need a margin of error if it gets windy," he says. "I'd rather get them fast during practice rounds and back off a bit during actual play. Last year, Oakmont's greens were close to 15 on the Stimpmeter early in the week, and we backed them to the low 14s for the championship. We had to use the most conservative hole locations at that speed. We want Torrey's greens no more than 13."