The
102nd California State Amateur has come to a close and crowned
another deserving champion. Cory
McElyea of Santa Cruz, California, fresh off his experience at the U.S. Open,
capped off a wonderful week at Monterey Peninsula Country Club with a 3 and 2
victory over Fresno’s Bryson Dechambeau.
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| Sometimes Getting Up Early Is Worth It... |
This
was the first State Am that I had direct involvement and while it was an
incredibly exhausting week, I couldn’t have had more fun. The week was not without its Rules
incidents, including the disqualification of the defending champion. It was more notable, however, for the
unique course setup options that I was permitted and able to utilize.
Look Both Ways Before Crossing the Road
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| Just Some Deer... |
When
a public road defines out of bounds, the Committee has two options: they can either allow players to play a
ball that crosses the road and comes to rest on another part of the course, or
not. Decision 27/20 tells us that
a ball which comes to rest on another part of the course is in bounds unless
there is a Local Rule in place stating otherwise. This week, that Local Rule was in place, and a ball that
crosses a public road was out of bounds, even if it came to rest on another
part of the course. The exception
to that, of course, is when the layout of a hole requires the player to hit
across a public road to reach the putting surface or fairway (Hole #4 on the
Shore Course and in the final round Hole #14 of the Dunes course).
On
the first hole of his first round, defending champion Kevin Marsh hit his
approach long on the first hole of the Shore course, and his ball rolled across
the road onto another part of the course.
At this point the Rules required him to proceed under stroke and
distance. He played the ball. At this point, he had played a wrong
ball and was required to correct the error by proceeding under stroke and
distance with an additional two-stroke penalty. He holed out and continued on. And now… he is disqualified.
The
Committee did not find out about the incident until the next day, however, when
it was reported to them by a fellow-competitor from a different group. Upon the completion of the round, Marsh
was asked about his play on the first hole the previous day and he confirmed
that he had played the ball from across the road. He was then disqualified. It didn’t have a huge impact on him, as he did not play well
enough to be close to the cut line, however he had been selected for the SCGA’s
team competition and was not able to post a score for them. Again though, the NCGA had that
competition wrapped up fairly well.
Bunkers and Sandy Areas
Monterey
Peninsula Country Club is one of those unique places that winds through sand
dunes. It has both regular bunkers
and sandy areas that are considered through the green. At Kiawah Island for the PGA Championship, in order to
avoid confusion, the PGA made all sandy areas through the green. For the California State Amateur,
however, we clarified the difference between bunkers and sandy areas. Part of the reason for this is that at
MPCC, some of the sandy areas are actually more like hardpan, and are actually
used as cart paths on many holes.
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| Sandy Area Cart-Path on 13th Hole |
So
for the 102nd California State Amateur, bunkers were enclosed sandy
areas with rakes and through the green sandy areas did not have rakes. This was the defining difference and
that was the guideline officials used.
On the 11th hole of the Dunes course, there are two sandy
areas directly adjacent to each other.
The first is completely enclosed and had several rakes. The second was also completely enclosed
but was not prepared by maintenance and did not have any rakes. Even though they are ten yards apart
and both enclosed, the first area is a bunker and the second is a sandy area
through the green.
“The Mercedes was Trying to Help”
During
the 12th hole of the final match, Bryson Dechambeau hooked his tee
shot left and onto the road next to the hole. As we learned earlier, public roads define out of bounds and
so Dechambeau was out of luck. We
had two forward observers who were able to see the ball come to rest out of
bounds and it was well-known that Dechambeau’s provisional was now the ball in
play. But wait!
A
silver Mercedes came driving along the road managed to catch the ball under its
front tire shooting it back onto the golf course! The ball was in bounds! At least that’s how it appeared when Dechambeau finally made
his way down the fairway.
In
many events, and certainly during friendly weekend play we don’t have forward
observers, and Dechambeau may never have seen that the silver Mercedes had moved
his golf ball. Decision 18-1/3
tells us that if it is not known or virtually certain that a ball has been
moved by an outside agency, the player would be correct in playing it as it
lies. Had there not been any
witnesses, Dechambeau may not have had to play his provisional. In this one case, however, it was
unfortunate to have spotters ahead who were able to see the original spot that
the ball came to rest.
Course Setup Philosophy
Those
who know me, know that course setup is what makes my job enjoyable. I love being able to set hole locations
and move around teeing grounds to test golfers and make the tournament more
enjoyable. I tend to err on the
side of scoring opportunities, however I have been known to put in some “take
your par and run” holes as well.
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| Tucked Hole Location from Forward Tee |
This
week I was in charge of setting the tees for the match play rounds, and helped
select the quarterfinal/semifinal hole locations. In match play, drivable par four holes become incredibly
interesting, and the idea of risk-reward takes on its proper meaning.
This
week, the 8th, 11th and 16th holes were moved
up in various rounds to provide opportunities to reach the green and create
scoring opportunities. The 8th
hole was by far the most interesting.
From the forward tee it played 280 yards and all 8 players took 3-wood
or driver to attempt to reach the green.
Two players held the green, most impressively was Cory McElyea in the
semifinal match against Pace Johnson.
McElyea hit 3-wood to about 5 feet and holed the putt for eagle. He went on to win the match in 19
holes.
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| 14th Hole from 15th Teeing Ground |
The
most fun hole to setup this week was by far the famous par-3 14th
hole. The stroke play rounds had
used the traditional gold tee, about 177 yards to the center and over the
ocean. It is a spectacular hole. But with extreme winds on the second
day, we moved the tee to about 149 yards and a friendlier angle for Wednesday
and Thursday. For Friday, however,
we wanted to use an incredibly tucked hole location. So we moved the tee to about 120 yards and watched how great
a short hole can be with the right setup.
Saturday
was the best though. I had come up
with the idea while setting tees on Tuesday morning and had started pushing the
idea to those who needed to listen.
When we were selecting hole locations with the Assistant Superintendent
on Thursday, we asked if we could do it.
We wanted to play the 14th hole from across 17-Mile Drive at
the back tee for the 15th hole (Lasered at 160 yards). The Assistant loved the idea and he asked his boss. The Superintendent loved the idea, but
needed approval from the General Manager because it involved hitting across a
public road. Finally we got the
approval with the caveat that we would have to run traffic control while the
two players hit.
The
move was a big hit amongst officials and players, albeit with mixed reviews
from some spectators. It may be
the only time that hole is ever played that way in competition, so I’m very
proud to have done it for our State Amateur.
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| 14th Hole from Traditional Teeing Ground |
What
that did, however, was create to completely different angles of approach and
therefore, two different paces were necessary. So I created the hole location sheet with the paces for the
two different angles.
Interestingly enough, from the 15th tee angle, the hole was
dead center – ten paces from each side.
From the traditional back tee that was used in the afternoon, the hole
was only 5 paces off the right. It
was incredibly tricky and it nearly launched a complete comeback from
Dechambeau. Dechambeau, down 5
with 5 to play birdied the iconic hole, and followed it with another birdie on
15 (the tee for which had been moved up to make the par 5 reachable for the
first time all week). After a
perfect drive on 16, Dechambeau failed to capitalize and McElyea made a great
sand save to halve the hole and win the match.
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| Final Round Hole Locations |
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