The President's Cup - Harding Park - SF, CA October 8-11, 2009

[EdZ]

Just finished watching the first day, and I have to say it is such a pleasure to see the best players in the world play a team competition on the course I grew up playing! My high school is literally across the street from Harding, and we played a majority of our matches there.

The course looks like it should be straight forward, but as the guys saw today, those greens have some subtle breaks that are very tough to see. Looked like a pretty typical day, with just enough breeze to keep you paying attention.

Some interesting changes to the layout, which make a lot of sense for a match play event, keeping the key holes on the back nine earlier in the round (they are playing the 18th as the 15th, after starting on 10 and finishing the front nine on the 3rd).

The greens are a bit like Pebble in that you have to be aggressive and 'hook' your putts to keep them on line. If your stroke is more of a block/straight back and through move, you'll have trouble holding the line on the 6 footers. Horizontal hinge action is key.

Remember what Homer said - only the putter can be hooded to any advantage - and that certainly holds true of the Harding greens.

Go get 'em guys! - EdZ