U.S. Open: What early finishers are saying about Torrey Pines and the test on ‘Moving Day’

SAN DIEGO – What will the South Course at Torrey Pines serve up for co-leaders Richard Bland and Russell Henley and their pursuers on Saturday? The Par-71 course is measuring at 7,616 yards for the third round.

The average speed of the greens this morning was in the mid 13s and are expected to settle to the low 13s and upper 12s as the day goes along. The greens were double cut and rolled this morning to achieve these speeds.

Here are a few notes on the teeing grounds:

• Hole 3 – left tee (142 tee; playing yardage is 119)

• Hole 9 – (595 tee)

• Hole 13 – (605 tee)

• Hole 15 – primary tee (513 scorecard yardage)

• Hole 16 – left tee (194 scorecard yardage)

• Hole 17 – right tee (440 scorecard yardage)

• Hole 18 – (555 tee)

Akshay Bhatia (+2, 73): “It’s gettable. It really depends on how the weather turns out. Some greens are really firm, and some weren’t, but there’s definitely some gettable pins. I think, in my opinion, I don’t think the course is playing as hard as everyone thought. 5-under is leading, and in 2008, 1-over was top three. So it’s definitely very scorable, and I think 4-under will be a good, solid score today.”

Ian Poulter (-3, 68): “We got mild wind, so because of that and a little bit of overcast today, the greens are drying out, but there’s still opportunities on this golf course. If you put it in play, you’re going to have a few looks to make birdie. The par-5s, obviously, can be gettable, and you just need to play smart golf. There’s a number of very tricky holes, a couple of very tight pin locations you need to be sensible on.”

Jason Gore, USGA player director, involved in course setup and third-round marker:

“It all depends on how they want to play. I mean, there’s a lot of hole locations that look really gettable, and they’re not. Like No. 1, you can see the whole thing, and you’re like, oh, my gosh, I’m going to shoot right at this, and it just kind of boing. It’s just going to take off.

“You have to play aggressive to conservative targets, that’s what they’re going to do. The greens are so good, they’re going to make putts, and they’re at the perfect – like they’re fast enough to be at the good speed where you just – you can make putts on these. They’re scary, but they’re not frightening if that makes sense.

“We were really smart about putting the holes in places that – you know what, you’re going to have a frightening putt, but it’s not going to kill you. So, you have to think hard, play a little bit more break and let it die, but I think the golf course is set up fantastic. They’re going to make some birdies. They’re going to make some bogeys. You’ve seen the scorecards where they show them on TV. It’s a ton of squares, a ton of circles. Somebody is going to come out of it well.

“You can see Jordan (Spieth) and Paul Casey are playing well today. If you’ve got good ball control, you’re going to be able to score. If you don’t, you’re going to be working.”