Final-round conditioning, set-up notes

As the final day of the 2010 U.S. Open tees off, it appears the status quo rules, at least when it comes to the conditioning and maintenance at Pebble Beach.

The USGA's official update on course conditioning and set-up is out, and the information on green speeds, rough and water management reads almost the same as the notes on the third round. The set-up portion of the notes are interesting, at least to me. The highlights:

• The par-3 seventh (shown here from the top row of the bleachers, courtesy of the USGA) will play just 92 yards, with an extremely wide teeing ground to give players options on the angle they want to take at the flag
• A "player-friendly" hole location on the treacherous 14th
• The tee on 18 was moved up in the hopes of encouraging more players to take the same route that Tiger Woods did on Saturday and go for the green in two.

Here's the full report:

COURSE SETUP: ROUND FOUR OF THE 2010 U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP, PEBBLE BEACH

The following are details on the course setup for Round 4 of the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, from Mike Davis, USGA senior director of Rules and Competitions:

Weather Forecast for Sunday (provide by Greg Quinn with Thor Guard Weather) — Sunshine today starting mid-morning and through much of the afternoon. Winds will be light and variable through mid-morning, becoming north-northwest at 8-12 mph between late morning to early afternoon. Winds will increase to 10-15 mph between about 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. coming mainly from the northwest.

Green Speeds — Today’s speeds are very consistent with what they have been for the last seven days – mid-13s in the early morning, which should settle out in the mid- to high- 12s by midday. 

Rough — Given the dry weather and very little growth, the rough has not been mown since Wednesday.

Water Management — Today’s golf course will be a similar firmness to yesterday. Lighter hand-watering was applied to all greens last night to replenish the moisture lost yesterday. The putting green approaches are still very firm (firmer than the greens), so the bounce-in shot will again be a significant factor in today’s play.     

Hole-by-Hole Information
Hole 4 — Tee markers moved up 13 paces to measure 318 yards to the center of the green and 325 yards to the back hole location. The hole should play downwind.

Hole 5 — 205 yards to a back-right hole location. Properly played tee shots should “feed” back to this location. This hole should also play downwind

Hole 7 — 92 yards; the front portion of the front teeing ground was used in combination with a back right hole location in the “finger” that juts out. There should be a right-to-left wind. Additionally, we spread the tee markers out 13 paces (normal width is five paces) to allow player to choose their angle of play, e.g., choose the left side of the tee to better play to the flagstick or choose the right side to play away from the ocean.   

Hole 12 — 203 yards to a far-left hole location. This hole should play into a headwind. 

Hole 14 — Tee markers moved up 30 paces and kept on the right side of teeing ground to allow players the possibility of carrying the last drive-zone bunker on the right (roughly 270 yards, but into the prevailing wind). However, this will require the player to curve his ball rather dramatically from left to right, due to the cypress trees that block this angle of play. The hole location is in the back right of the upper-left quadrant – the most player-friendly location on the green. 

Hole 17 — 219 yards to the approximate final-round hole location from the 1982 U.S. Open. The hole should play with a right-to-left wind.

Hole 18 — Tee markers moved 30 paces forward to play 513 yards to the center of the green. The hole should play dead into the wind and therefore the tee was shortened to encourage a bit more risk-reward. The drive zone is narrower at and beyond the two fairway trees, which will bring the ocean on the left and rough on the right more into play. The hole location is front left, just two or so paces beyond the false front portion of the green and only several paces from the hazard on the left.