Phil Mickelson ripped the Highlands Course with some fairly pointed comments Thursday after shooting 1-over 71 in the first round of the PGA Championship.
When asked if he enjoyed the course, Mickelson said: "It's not fun. It's not great. It's not exciting. There's no intimacy. It's just long and it's hard, and that's what it is."
While Mickelson praised the tournament set-up, saying it's a great site because there are hard and easy holes, he criticized the four par 3s, which he played in par. He took the side of the Atlanta Athletic Club members, saying the lengths don't "let the average guy play." The par 3s were played at 200, 185, 253 and 181 yards on Thursday.
"Now we have no problem playing these holes, but when you put water in the front and a bunker in back, and you give the player no vehicle to run a shot up, the member can't play and that's why membership participation on this golf course is down like 25 percent," he said.
Mickelson was wrong on that count. Members played 3,600 rounds in June compared to 2,400 the previous year, according to Tom Adderhold, tournament general chairman, who added that members play from tee boxes based on their handicaps.
Damaged greens
Greens on the 14th and 17th holes were scarred slightly in bizarre mowing incidents Wednesday night. Ken Mangum, Atlanta Athletic Club director of grounds, said he couldn't explain how the scarring occurred.
He surmised that rotating brushes on the front of the mowers that pull the grass up before cutting instead grabbed and dug into the greens. Groundskeepers quickly filled in the areas with new sod. The problem was neither mechanical nor operator error, according to Mangum. The brushes were removed from all mowers, and the greens were cut again Thursday morning with no damage.
"Last night we felt like our hearts had been ripped out," Mangum said.
The areas are being treated as ground under repair for the tournament. The damaged areas shouldn't affect pin placements for the rest of the tournament.
"I think we'll be fine the rest of the week," Mangum said.
Players surveyed said the scarring didn't affect their rounds.
Jacket scores
After a productive first round at the Bridgestone Invitational last week, Stewart Cink said he got rattled by a couple of bad shots in the second round and couldn't get going. He was determined that he wasn't going to fade away if he hit a few bad shots on Thursday.
The bad shots happened as expected on a hot and fast day at the Highlands Course, but Cink kept his focus, firing a 1-under round that included five birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey. The Georgia Tech grad was six shots behind leader Steve Stricker.
"I just kept plugging," said Cink, who lives eight miles from the Atlanta Athletic Club.
He started with birdies on 10 and 12, followed by a bogey and double bogey on 13 and 14, and another bogey on 16. But Cink followed through with his plan and bounced back with birdies on 4, 5 and 6.
"I hit a couple of pretty decent tee shots that ended up in bunkers with a couple of bad lies," he said. "But I righted the ship from there on out and I was proud of it."
Bryce Molder, another former Tech player, shot 4 over, Matt Kuchar finished 1 over and Cameron Tringale finished 4 over. Kuchar said he had to explain to Lee Westwood what a Yellow Jacket is.
"The mascot thing, he wasn't sure," Kuchar said.
Stevens start
Local pro Craig Stevens shot 6-over 76 in the first round, including a double-bogey 6 on the tough 18th hole. His round included birdies on 12 and 13 and bogeys on 3, 6, 9 and 15. He also had a double bogey on No. 8.
"The greens being where they are you cannot miss," said Stevens, a pro at Steel Canyon in Sandy Springs. "I got up and down several times today. I didn't play all that bad, just missed a few, and we'll just go tomorrow."
Bob Sowards of Dublin, Ohio, posted 1 under, the lowest score among the 20 club professionals competing. Brian Cairns of Bloomfield, Mich., tied Japan's Ryo Ishikawa for the highest score, 15 over. Ishikawa, 19, put six shots in the water in posting the worst round of his professional career.
U.S. Amateur
The 2014 U.S. Amateur Championship will be played on Atlanta Athletic Club's two courses, according to Adderhold.
Each course uses the same types of grass in the fairways. However, the Riverside Course has bent grass greens. Adderhold said the club's board was considering a switch to the "Champion Ultradwarf" Bermuda greens used on the Highlands Course so that the golfers will have consistency.
The AAC has never hosted the U.S. Amateur.
Etc.
Former Georgia great Bubba Watson had one of the more uneven opening rounds. He rocketed up the leaderboard with 3-under 32 on the back nineand followed with 7-over 42 on the front nine. The 10-stroke margin was the widest among nine-hole scores during the first round. ... The PGA winner will receive $1,445,000.
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