... good for wiping away the crap. Quotes I've heard about Torrey:

"A dull course with a view."
"A great seaside site, filled with inland-style holes."
"It had better shot values when it was just a recreational course."
"How did they manage to build a cliffside coastal course in an office park?"

C'mon, man. This is by far the worst site on the U.S. Open rota. There are three (3) decent to very good (but not great) holes on this golf course: 3rd, 4th, 17th. That's it, folks. The rest of them are of the same ilk as, say, the 9th -- 600 yards of DEAD, RULER STRAIGHT par-five.

There is little to no thinking or strategy involved in playing Torrey Pines -- the land and the design simply do not have the necessary complexity to require shot shaping and improvisation. That is why the USGA had to focus on 5-inch think Kikuyu rough in order to make the place stand up to an Open. Ever hit out of Kikuyu? It's not like hitting out of standard 5-inch rough -- balls stick to it like Velcro. MIndless penal conditioning/maintenance is the only way to challenge the players at TP.

It boggles me that the USGA ever returned to this site. I think there have got to be some kickbacks involved from the city of San Diego.

The next two years we will get a refreshing architectural palate cleanser to wash away the memory of Torrey Pines: 2022 at Brookline and 2023 at LACC North.

TCC Brookline has just finished a lovely restoration work to get ready for the next Open. The club is putting back into play some of the holes from the famous 1913 Francis Ouimet US Open which had been left out. I have seen the new routing plans for TCC and it will be a nice back to the future feel.

LACC North is one of the greatest courses never to host an Open. Another restoration has been completed here, this time to put the course back in the shape architect George Thomas left it back in the late twenties. We got to see the new work in the recent Walker Cup at LACC and it looked/performed great!

Both of these golf courses are in a different architectural universe from Torrey Pines, which, like TP, is only good to crap on. Just go to Google Earth and compare the three venues, for heaven's sake. Why is the USGA even playing here?