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Rough and ready

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Posted: Wednesday June 14, 2000 04:44 PM

PEBBLE BEACH -- Wow, I can't believe this weather. It was so beautiful here on Tuesday I was compelled to blow off my afternoon responsibilities and go play golf in Carmel Valley with a couple of the boys. Before I ditched the national championship I did learn a few things, however.

The best part of Open Tuesday is the press conference. The USGA somehow browbeats a dozen or more players into filing into the vacuous media tent and doing Q&As. I audited, in order, Tiger, Sergio, Duval, Vijay, and Watson. In one of the great upsets in golf history, Singh provided the most interesting quotes. The motif of all the interviews was the course conditioning, and like Pinehurst a year ago, there is almost unanimous praise for the USGA. (Too bad. Listening to the bitching about the bluecoats has always been one of my favorite parts of the tournament.) As you may know, the USGA had decided a long time ago to grow the rough to a very manageable three inches, allowing for more creative shotmaking into Pebble's tiny greens. However, the rough at Pebble Beach is very, very dense. At the height of three inches the ball was still sitting up, as if on a tee. A number of players reported this back to Far Hills, N.J., concerned that the great course's reputation would be torn asunder by very low scores. The rough is now four-to-four-and-a-half inches -- not as long as you'd normally get, but dense and gnarly. Watson termed it "impossible," but the other players found it far more playable.

It's clear that Pebble needs a very penal rough, because, says Singh, "I've never seen a golf course play so fast and short." During Monday's practice round Singh hit a sand wedge second shot into No. 9. That is the 900 yard par 4, a.k.a. the toughest hole on the course. Today he laid up with a three-wood off the tee and still only had a nine-iron in. With the fairways so baked by the 80 degree weather, they're getting an insane amount of roll. If the conditions don't worsen -- and there is nothing in the immediate forecast that says they will -- then you can throw out all those predictions about -3 winning the tournament. The victorious score will be much lower, in the -8 range.

Anyway, as you can probably tell by my narrative, or lack thereof, I never got out of the press tent. I had been planning to walk the course in the afternoon, but then I got shanghaied into teeing it up. So I solemnly swear that today I'll tour the grounds and report back with dazzling insight and observations. Of course, I just heard there might be an open slot in a fourball at Spyglass.

Sports Illustrated golf writer Alan Shipnuck will take you On Tour each Wednesday at golfplus.cnnsi.com. Click here to send Alan a question or a nice, friendly comment.

 

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