Hazards....not so cut and dry

One of the big things everyone is talking about here at Pinehurst is what is deemed as the boundary of the hazard. 

Almost all of the bunker hazards have these "fade to black" edges that are going to cause some players to question are they in or are they out. Remember what happened to Dustin Johnson when he played at Whistling Straights a few years ago? He "assumed" he was not in a hazard and it cost him the tournament. In speaking with a rules official about the clearly non-defined edges of some hazards he said it would be a judgement call by the course official. This is coming from a guy who is the head of his country's rules committee and has done multiple Opens, British and US. Look for there to be rules officials all over the course to answer the question, "am I in or not?"

On other news, the course is still drying down and is baking in the 90+ degree heat. Here are a couple shots I took today to give you a perspective of conditions. 

In this pic you can see the maintenance staff hand watering the greens in the back ground. 

Another important note to remember is that the women are playing their US Open next week, right behind the men. It will be very interesting how the USGA will manage the course in anticipation of back to back Opens. One way I observed that they are managing the course is with what is called a Clegg meter. This device measures the firmness of a surface as compared to other areas. 

It's hard to see but in this picture they are measuring the impact point where most of the players shots hit the green to see if it is drying out too much. Too dry and the green becomes a rock, too wet and the players can throw darts at the flags. 

The relative values of the Clegg meter are only good at telling you what is acceptable for a specific location. There are no "rules" on what is an acceptable range for maximizing playability. The USGA literally goes out and has players hit balls to a spot and then measures the firmness. Then they either say it's too wet and they want it firmer or not. 

To give an example of how unkept the hazards are, in this picture there is a pine tree growing out of the face of the bunker. 

I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be acceptable in most places. The good news is that I haven't observed a player unable to advance the ball out of the srub areas this far, but I've seen lots of them in it.