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

[EdZ]

the route is as follows:

Front nine: 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3

Back nine: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 1, 2, 9

I certainly wouldn't change to this for everyday play, but for match play this is a really creative and crowd pleasing option.


The final nine holes have a great balance of difficulty and birdie chances. 16, 1, 2, and 9 are holes you'd expect to birdie, or eagle. The longer hitters have a good chance on 18 (played as the 15th), although that depends on the wind. Those that can carry over the tree have a wedge in, and some downwind help. Not as easy to judge the wind on the second, but plenty of green to hit a knock down to most pin positions.

I find it interesting that on 9 (played as the 18th) the guys seem to have trouble hitting the fairway. it is one of those visuals that are 'wide open' but the bunkers on the right (combined with the wind you can't feel) put many much farther right than ideal. The left side of that fairway is always harder ground.

I'm looking forward to how fast the greens can get. Especially when the wind picks up later in the day. The breaks are not what you can see. Mostly moving toward the 8th tee (played as the 11th).