Furyk, Watson and Snedeker talk conditions

I got a few more player interviews done today.

I avoid the press conferences where everyone gets a typed transcript of what a player says. I prefer one-on-one interviews with players on the course. I believe they're more useful and honest.

I grabbed Furyk after his practice round today at 3 p.m. EST. A colleague (from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and I interviewed Bubba Watson on the practice range at 4:25 EST. And the Brandt Snedeker talk was a quick one while he signed autographs at 4:45 EST.

Jim Furyk

"(The course is) better now, it was really wet and sloppy (Tuesday) and ripe for scoring. It’s improved a lot more than I could have imagined in just one day…

The problem is, if they get the teeniest bit of rain, it’s going to start flooding up again. I don’t know, in Florida, if we get three or four inches of rain, not a big deal. We drive carts down the middle of the fairways the next day. It’s different types of turf. It’s retaining water.

I feel bad for (the maintenance crew) because I know the worse the weather is, the more problems it causes for them. I’m sure they’re kind of running 24/7 this week, trying to get this golf course in shape. We appreciate all their hard work.

Bubba Watson

The conditions are going to be what they’re going to be. It’s golf. You’re going to have wet conditions, you’re going to have dry conditions. Obviously, we’re going to have wet (conditions) this week.

(Thursday) looks like rain, hopefully it doesn’t. I want to be done with my round before the rain gets here and let the other guys worry about it. I’m waiting to see what happens. You have to be ready for anything. It’s a grueling game, especially at the U.S. Open.

The greens are soft. It doesn’t mean it’s going to play easier, it’s going to play softer. It’s still Merion. It’s still got high rough.

I don’t see the course drying out. It’s still wet. We could play the ball down right now. If the rain comes, I don’t know if the USGA plays the ball up, but… it’s one of those where you just have to play it.

Brandt Snedeker

The course is playing pretty good. It finally dried out, all that stuff. It’s all gonna change tomorrow.

I’m very surprised (with the progress of the course.) They’ve done a great job. The greens are good and fast.

The rough is thick. It's U.S. Open rough… the rough is thicker right now, because of the water… they haven’t cut it… it’s getting long and thick. It’s going to be longer than normal because of the length of the golf course.

Tour players comment on Atlanta Athletic Club conditions

As always, these are all 1-on-1 interviews straight from my voice recorder to you -- you won't find these sound bites anywhere else. Here we go:

JIM FURYK:

(The course is) perfect. I don’t think we’ve played a course in this good of shape all year, to be honest with you.

The greens are a touch on the firm side, they’re pretty quick. It just makes sense, with the heat they get here to go to Bermuda. Probably for a lot less hassle and a lot less budget, you can have better greens and they’re really nice.

Bermuda’s a thicker blade of grass, it grows sideways so it gets a lot of grain… Bermuda’s gotten so good now, they can make it a thinner blade of grass, it doesn’t have as much grain even though it has some… they’re beautiful, they’re nice greens.

You have to go stand on a fairway and see, they look like carpets. It’s some sort of zoysia I’m not familiar with, Diamond zoysia? Zoysia’s usually a wide blade of grass, this is a little thinner, zoysia can get real thatchy and spongy, and this is not either. It’s as good of fairways as I’ve ever played on, ever.

GRAEME McDOWELL:

The golf course is great, fast and firm fairways, not a lot of rough but it doesn’t need it. You miss a fairway and it takes that bit of control out of your hands, coming into some firm and fast greens. Greens all pitch back to front, so the golden rule here is: over the back is no good.

It’s a good test without being ridiculously tricked up. It’s a good, fair test. The back nine is much, much stronger than the front. The front nine is quite straight forward, the back nine is strong.

The fairways are like carpets, they’re just perfect, they’re just perfect. Obviously the guys do a great job here.

AARON BADDELEY:

I played this morning. The conditions are unbelievable. The fairways are the best I’ve ever played. They’re unbelievable, like carpet. The type of grass… it’s a creeping grass, so a really tight coverage on it.

The greens are good, they’re quick. The greens are short… so there’s not much grain, it’s good.

They knocked down the rough a little bit, not much. It’s not like you can’t get it to the green, you just can’t control it. Definitely an advantage to keep it in the fairway.

I think it’ll be hot on Sunday. What do you do? But when you have the right type of grass you can get the course to be dried out and firm if it doesn’t rain.

JERRY KELLY:

(The golf course is) fantastic, this is the best grass we’ve probably ever played on. This Champion tifdwarf is a fantastic Southern course grass for the greens, and we haven’t ever seen anything like this Diamond zoysia, it’s fantastic.

GARY WOODLAND:

(The fairways are) perfect. They’re awesome. I was up here three weeks ago and they were beautiful then as well.

The rough was a little bit… it was getting bad. I think it was similar to what it was now. I think it got bad last week and they backed off a little bit. You’re just going to have to drive the ball in play, plain and simple. It’s hot, the ball is going to be going far, you won’t have to hit a lot of drivers, just keep it in play.

It depends on conditions, and it depends on how they set it up. If they set it up long and tough, I think single digits score will easily win this. But if it gets soft out there and they play it up a little bit I think you can score pretty good.