Pebble Beach Planning to Adjust Greens on Nos. 14 and 17
I
t’s not quite Tiger-proofing, but Pebble Beach is planning some changes before the 2019 U.S. Open. The treacherous 14th and 17th greens are expected to be rebuilt before Pebble Beach hosts its next USGA championship. During the 2010 U.S. Open, the par-5 14th hole handed out 36 double- bogeys, and 14 others. And that doesn’t account for the four 9s recorded four months earlier during the final round of the AT&T, including two by players who entered the hole in the top three. “Right now, you can play ping pong and make a 15 on the hole,” said USGA executive director Mike Davis after the 2010 U.S. Open. “What can you do to make the hole play as fair as possible, given you’ve got a 1,400 square-foot green that sits up in the air? I think that’s really what it comes down to.”
According to Golfweek, the plan
is to rebuild the back left quadrant of the green to keep balls from tumbling off, and to recapture a back-right hole location. The 17th green will also be recon-
structed. It slaughtered players down the stretch in the 2010 U.S. Open. When Ernie Els was asked how
you’re supposed to hit the 17th green with a left pin position, he laughed. “I don’t know,” said Els, who played the hole 5-over for the week. “I don’t think I’ve got that shot.” Nobody did Sunday. With the USGA using a 1982 pin placement as a tip of the cap to Tom Watson playing in his final U.S. Open, only seven of 83 pros hit the 17th green, according to the NBC broadcast. The 17th played to a 3.49 stroke
average for the championship, and there was just one birdie—Tim Clark’s hole- out from a bunker—on the final day. Graeme McDowell, Gregory Havret
and Els—who finished 1-2-3 in 2010— all bogeyed it on Sunday. The plan for the new 17th green is to widen the middle portion and flatten the front, although the overall size is not expected to change by much. “It’s not the original design by any
stretch, because that was really flat,” Pebble Beach Executive Vice Presi- dent of Golf and Retail RJ Harper said. “Bunkers were flat. We like the fact that from the tee box, when you’re on the back tee, you’ve got some visuals that allow you to see contour, and that’s what we’ve done over time with some of the bunker- ing. But way back when, it was flat as a pancake, and that’s not the way that hole should look and feel.” The back left quadrant sounds like
it will still be quite challenging, as there are just 14 paces of green for a shot that plays up to 220 yards in the U.S. Open.
–K.M.
The 17th hole at Pebble Beach played to a 3.49 stroke average for the 2010 U.S. Open. PHOTO: JOANN DOST 18 /
NCGA.ORG / SPRING 2014
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