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FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

January 26, 2016

Tom Weiskopf

San Diego, California

ANDY FIELD: Good morning. We'll go ahead and get started. Like to welcome you to Torrey Pines, 2016. My name is Andy Field. I'm the Assistant Director of the City of San Diego Park and Recreation Department and I welcome you here today for the Farmers Open.

As you've heard, you know we have this wonderful Invitational that comes or excuse me, Open that happens every year, and in five years we'll be hosting here the 2021 U.S. Open. So we're very excited about that and very glad to have all of you here today.

We are very excited to host the world's best golfers in the PGA TOUR as they compete on the North Course and South Course over the next four days. We look forward to seeing some fantastic golf and to showcase San Diego as a beautiful city.

As many of you are aware, last year the city solicited bids for renovation of the North Course of Torrey Pines Golf Course. The goal is to improve play, while preserving the spirit of the existing course and the layout that's beloved by those who come to visit and residents alike.

After a comprehensive bid review process, the city chose a team of Tom Weiskopf designs and Wadsworth Construction to undergo the task of implementing these renovations. Tom Weiskopf is, of course, well known to you all for his amazing play on the course with notable wins including the 1973 British Open, the 1973 Colonial, the 1995 USGA Senior Open, and his first win right here at Torrey Pines at the 1968 Andy Williams San Diego Open.

But Tom has also become a much sought after golf course designer having designed 68 courses around the world including TPC Scottsdale and Craig Ranch. We are pleased to be working with Tom and his team and we have invited him to talk about the renovation project and to provide a sense of the design vision. So with that, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you Mr. Tom Weiskopf. Tom.

TOM WEISKOPF: Thank you, Andy.

(Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, quite an honor for me to come back and to have been chosen, our company, to be involved in the, I don't know what you call it, a restoration, renovation, but a redesign of the existing North Course.

And if you go back in time a little bit in the '50s, a gentleman named Mr. Bell, who is very prominent in southern California as an architect, did a lot of respected golf courses, started the project here and unfortunately passed away. But his son, Billy, took over and finished it out. So that was in the late '50s, I believe. I don't know the exact date, but, obviously, one of the greatest sites I've ever been involved in or seen.

And of course like Andy said, it was such a thrilling moment for me, because back in '68, that was the first year that we played here at Torrey Pines. Somebody has to help me with the previous years. I remember Gene Littler and Bob Goalby and won at another course, yes, Stardust. And I started the TOUR in 1965.

So we came here and it was always the talk -- you always heard about this particular golf venue, and it was said many times and written quite often, that eventually they would come and play the national championship here, a U.S. Open. Which, obviously, they have.

But we kind of did the same thing, it was a little bit of a different setup, we played the North Course, we played 1, 2 and 3 and then we transitioned to the 4th hole of our tournament on the South Course, which is the first hole. So we excluded playing the long 3, which would be 12? 11. And then 12, that long difficult four and then the five that plays through the deep valley. So that's, that was kind of the routing that we played.

Then as we continued to come years after that, they decided to play both courses and alternate, as they do today.

So, it's had a vast history of some great champions. And so it was quite -- I was quite surprised when we were chosen, because I know how extensive these city jobs can be and the demand that's put on everybody. And not a lot of information was given out as to who else was competing. So I still today don't know.

Then we got the recognition of being the choice. So all I can say is, again, not to be redundant, one of the most fantastic sites for golf, world renowned, and to be part of it is quite exciting for me.

Now the challenge. What's the challenge that we have? The challenge is, how many rounds do you play, Andy? I've heard 75, I've heard 90, I've heard 100,000 rounds on that golf course? How many?

THE MODERATOR: It's a lot. I couldn't tell you.

(Laughter.)

TOM WEISKOPF: A lot. That's more than -- I think there's -- someone said the last, the first visit we came here, that was about, I don't know, two or three months ago, and someone said there's only one other golf course in all of California that actually plays more rounds of golf than they do on the North Course here. So that's the challenge.

When you think about it, when you look at what you have to do as a designer or an architect, I don't know what I -- I'm more of a conceptualist, I guess you would say. I have very good people that work for me that create the technical side of it and the drawing side of it to implement my ideas and stuff like that.

But I've always designed toward this statistic: It's a statistic that comes from the National Golf Foundation. So I'm going back 30 years. 30 years ago there were 26 million golfers. Defined as a golfer was anyone that his or her, that played at least six rounds of golf in his or her season. I mean that defined a golfer. 30 years ago.

I don't know how many people we have playing the game today, so that's a handful of rounds. But here are the big statistics that I've always thought were important to adhere to and respect:

92 percent, let's just say there's 25 million players, golfers. 92 percent do not break 90. That's in a par 72 situation, which we have here. That's bogey golf.

60 percent of the 92 percent do not break 100.

One half of one percent -- now let's assuming everybody is playing by the rules, of course we do, we never hit a mulligan, you know, that's good, when it's out, it's longer than the putter. But one half of one percent break 80, better 80. They might even break 70, that one and a half percent. That's 130,000 -- 125,000.

Very difficult game. And believe me, I can adhere to that now when I go out when I play now, I just remember what I could do that I can't do now. I mean, it's a tough game.

So, there's only -- that leaves us with what stat? That's six and a half percent that break 90, but don't break 80. So when you have, let's call it 80,000 rounds. We have to get these people through this golf course. We have to make them enjoy their experience. We want them to come back and play it again and again and again. Especially the locals.

But we want to create and adhere and promote the reputation that this site has. All around the country, around the world. Because it is possibly one of, if not in the top 3 to 5 destination, pay-for-play places that we have anywhere in the world of 36 holes of golf.

So, we're going -- what we're going to do is we're going to increase the green sizes. That will help us get more pin placements and have a variety of challenges from a day-to-day aspect.

It also helps the wear and tear. And these old courses -- I've been involved in renovations and some of my old courses, they tend to shrink. These greens were much bigger when they were first designed. I know they were. Probably two to four to five feet of width going around these greens. Because for the guys that have to trim our side burns, if you just keep missing it just a little bit and a little bit, then you look in the mirror and if you're conscious of it, you like it where it should be and it's gotten longer.

Well, when you're mowing a green and most of the old style greens like these were, were kind of round. So they're just missing it and they're missing it by that much (Indicating) a fraction every day. The next thing you know, over 25 years, 30 years, it's -- the greens have shrunk in. Well that's monumental. So we're going to increase these green sizes from about an average of 4,500 square feet to about 20 to 25 percent bigger with more pin placements.

A lot softer slopes in them. Because the old style which this was, had a lot of pitch from back to front or from side to side. That's how they drained the water off of them. And those pitches on some of these greens are three, four, five percent. So, when you look at that, well that's great if you keep these green speeds at about eight or eight and a half, which was probably the speeds by which they putted at when they were first built.

But with the mowing equipment that we have today, we can cut them so fast, so quick, and at that percent of slope, they become pretty difficult and almost unmanageable for most of the people that play the game. It slows the game up.

There are 58 bunkers that exist. There's 30 on the front nine, there's 28 on the back nine. We are going to change their location and their shapes. We are going to redo whatever the ones that stay, they're going to be redone with better drainage, better sand, and we're going to change the position of those on the golf course where they exist now. Because some of them are so far outdated. Why? Because of the equipment that all of us have the ability to play with today. We almost hit the ball as far or further than we did 20 years ago. Most all of us that play. We can. That doesn't mean we hit it straight enough, right?

So that's another concern. So we won't exceed that number of 58. Right now I have scheduled 56. So, that's about you know, let's look at Augusta.

Now Augusta has solid trees, beautiful golf course, that only has 45 bunkers. So the trees add an aspect of, there's not a great need for bunkering there.

Here, we use it for -- bunkers, to me, I've used bunkers and they're called bunkers, they're not called sand traps, they're called bunkers, I'm a traditionalist. I'll reminisce of what you see at Riviera Country Club, the big high crowns and the fingers that walk down their accesses into and out of the bunker, that kind of style. Try to give it an old style look, like it really did exist at the turn of the 20th century. But we're going to stick right there, 58 is the most.

So, we re-did the city of Scottsdale's course there, the TPC and we went from 68 bunkers there to 62. And it really gets down to where they're positioned in the golf hole strategically to be avoided, to play at as a line of play, and to maybe be behind a green or next to a green to keep you from going into a worse position.

So, that's what I -- I learned that by reading about MacKenzie. I grew up at Ohio State University. That's where I learned how to play, and I'm still a MacKenzie disciple.

But, so we're going to cut the slopes that exist on these greens down to one to two percent maximum in areas, pinable areas. We're going to give it 20 to 25 percent more area to play to, so you could position pins, flag sticks on a day-to-day basis and create a different challenge all the time.

The other way what we're going to do here, we have a landscape budget, and I haven't talked to those people yet. I've seen some of their suggestions, but we're also cutting back at least five acres of turf to minimize the water usage. That's part -- it's going on all around the country. There may be more. If we could get more, we're trying to get it right in front of the tees, so it isn't in a tighter situation or playable situation. So we're trying to cut back on water using a by a minimum of five acres. We may go more, six, seven, I don't know. Those are things that are going to be discussed.

Then, we're going to get down to having areas to play from which are the teeing grounds where we'll have at least five sets of tees.

We'll have a championship distance. That's max. What the pros will play, because people want to play and always want to play where the pros play. They really think that they can do what those guys do. No. Maybe occasionally they can make that long putt, they can make a hole-in-one, they can hole out, they can hit a long drive, they can do all that.

But so they will -- that's one of the popularities of this site, is people can come here and play where the pros play and challenge themself about what they have seen at a tournament over the years.

So, we're going to be about -- we can't get great length here. We're going to be right around 7,100 from all the way back max. We might be 50 ahead of that, 7,150. We might be -- we don't know yet until we build the golf holes and you have the California Golf Association come out and measure it. So I can't give you -- let's start with approximately 7,100.

Then we go to 6,600 for the men. Give or take a hundred on that. 6,650, 50, 5,550.

Then we go to what we call, I love these, the senior tees. Right around 6,100. That's the third set.

I can't tell you what color they're going to be, but I always think of them, I don't have here, but I always think of them as white.

Then we go to championship ladies at about 5,758, right in there. And then the forward tees, the furthest down every golf hole is going to be approximately right around 5,100.

So, young kids, older ladies, even older gentlemen, they're still red, I guess, a lot of guys have trouble with going up on a red tee, you know.

But one thing I always talk about and have talked about that I've noticed is that length should never been the determining factor or challenge of any golf hole. It's the strategic requirement. Some of the best holes we all have played have been the shortest par-3s, like the 7th at Pebble. The reachable 5. The drivable 4, which we're going to have here at 16. We're going to change that to a drivable hole at about 330 yards from all the way back to the middle of the green. Now it will be one of the biggest greens on the golf course, with some of the most contour and oddly enough, I feel pretty good about it. I was -- I'm the only guy for 30 years that's put at least one on every one of my golf courses. So if there's a trademark or, not a signature, I never use the word signature hole, it's the drivable 4. We see it all the time. Week after week. And it's great.

I just got the idea and I thought it would be great if I could ever be in the design business, to make sure that we had one on every one of our golf courses. I got the idea when I played at St. Andrews for the first time. I was over a week early and the four drivable 4s, or short 4s, on that course are 9, 10, 12 and 18. Now you never, because of the direction they go in, seem to be able to drive them all in one effort, one day.

But over time, about a week before the tournament and during that week, I thought, well that's pretty neat, I've been on all these short 4s, you know. But there's some risk reward involved in those holes also.

So those holes happened at that time, as we know it now, through the evolution of equipment. I mean it wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that anybody ever hit the ball over the burn in front of the first hole in St. Andrews in two, on the fly. I mean these guys today hit a 4-, 5-iron off the tee and a little flip sand wedge.

So, when the equipment changed, the holes that were in that short range of 290 to 330, they were two-shot holes with the equipment that they were playing with.

So, we presented that, everybody seemed to like it, I hope. It would be kind of unique. So the finish of Torrey Pines North Course is a great risk reward situation, because you got 14, which is a 5 and then you got a nice 4 at 15, a drivable at 16, and then we're going to lengthen the 17th, take the ponds out, and things like that and make that a little bit more of a challenge. Then you have a reachable 18 for these guys. So a lot of things can happen in those situations. You'll see it next week at the TPC of Scottsdale, the 17th hole. It's determined many a champion.

So the basic -- again, we can't think about the guys that are going to play it one time on either Thursday or Friday. It's the 90,000 plus people. We have to get them around, we have to make it enjoyable, we have to make it beautiful, with bunkering and holes in the locations of their corridors, with the backdrop of the Pacific and all that, Andy, I'm looking forward to it.

So, any questions? I know I went through that real quick, but I gave you your yardages, I gave you -- yes.

Q. The South Course went through a natural revolution even prior to Rees Jones changed it for the U.S. Open. I was wondering, is there anything that's very, very different from the original drawings of William Bell and Billy Bell from '57 to what it's evolved into now that you would like to incorporate again?
TOM WEISKOPF: No, we're happy with the routing. I think it's a very good routing. Why change it? So many people have enjoyed playing golf here. You could change -- when do you stop when you start on these things?

Let's keep the first hole a 5, let's keep 18 a 5, let's keep 14 a 5, and let's keep the 9th hole a 5. Now there's -- I've looked at the routing, I've studied it, I've walked it, I've played it. I think there's a few things that we could do, but those will be up for discussion.

We have a very adequate budget. We have a great construction company that I've worked with, Wadsworth Construction Company. They have been on my bid list for 30 years. I think I've been involved in 18 or 20 golf courses with them. They have excellent shapers.

Everybody seems to -- I asked that question, your question, and let's just kind of keep it the same. Let's just improve the strategic quality of each hole, the beauty, if we can, of each hole. Let's enhance it. Let's make it a playable, fun, but challenging golf course.

Q. Having played the TOUR and having had great success, there's the great debate as it relates to the U.S. Open and your designing this for the average fan, but you're designing it also for the U.S. Open. Where do you draw the line between building a "obstacle course" versus a golf course to save the integrity of par for the U.S. Open? Is it a big debate?
TOM WEISKOPF: Well, no, that's a very good question. I think any good design -- it wouldn't be difficult to build the world's hardest golf course. It wouldn't be difficult for me to make that so hard at 7,100 yards. But you got to remember again, let's go back to the purpose of it. It's to make people come here, enjoy themselves with a round of golf where the pros play, and it is what it is. I'm not going to compare that to the South Course. I mean that has great length. That has, what is it? 7,600 from all the way back now. We don't have room to do that. That's not the purpose of this golf course.

But to your point, the USGA has always gotten -- par has always resonated as their goal. If we can test the world's greatest and par wins, then we have won. I really think that's their attitude. So how do you do that? They do it with extremely difficult pin placements. They do it with extremely firm and unbelievably fast greens and narrow fairways and rough that's for the average guy is unplayable. It's unplayable for them, too. This is a tough rough. This grass here is tough. When you get that stuff up like that, it doesn't have to get much higher than that and it's tough.

So, I don't know, I played in a lot of U.S. Opens. I had my chances. I finished second twice or once, sorry, third twice. But nobody remembers the score, do they? They always remember who won last year, right? Jordan Spieth.

1-over won at Merion at 6.930 yards. I worked on the telecast there. 6.930. Again, Merion. Not one guy broke that shot par. That was the English kid, Justin Rose, right? 1-over par. 6,900. You would think that -- I thought they were going to tear it apart. But when I got out there on-site and I'm walking around and the fairways are -- you walk single file down the fairways, the threesome, you know what I mean? It was so narrow. The rough was so tough. The greens were so firm and fast. And actually they weren't that firm because it rained a couple days.

But again, there's nothing wrong with that. That's the way they do it. All these guys know that. That it's going to be a tough week.

But you're part of history whenever you can win a Major, aren't you? So why not have it different.

You know, it wouldn't be very much fun to play, but if every week you set it up like a U.S. Open, they would all be better players at the end of the year, everyone of them. They would learn how to really respect the proper shot. Making the right choice. But you always remember who won, not the score. To me. But that's the USGA. They're different. They're doing pretty well right now because brown shoes are back in style.

Q. Andy, I have a bookkeeping question. Total cost of the renovation and what's the time frame when it begins? Will it be done all in one sweep or in segments or how does that work or maybe Tom can address that.
ANDY FIELD: I'll start by saying that the intended start of the project will be after next weekend. So we'll get through this week with the tournament and then we have a Superintendant's gathering next weekend and then after that we anticipate starting. Then I'll turn it over to Tom for additional details.

TOM WEISKOPF: I don't know what the budget is --

ANDY FIELD: Oh, budget.

TOM WEISKOPF: I don't know what they have allotted.

ANDY FIELD: So 12.6 million.

Q. Still want the job? Is it enough?
TOM WEISKOPF: Is it enough? Oh, yeah.

Q. How long will it take?
TOM WEISKOPF: Well, I'll ask Mark from Wadsworth. I'm going to remember five and a half months. August 15th. Okay. So I wasn't even close. So you got March, April, may, June, July, August. Six months. Well, I was close.

Q. August 15th to end the construction? Before the growing in, right?
TOM WEISKOPF: Correct.

Q. Did Phil Mickelson have any input in your redesign? That's the first question. And the second question is, did average-Joe golfers have any input along with pros in redesign?
TOM WEISKOPF: I didn't -- I was quite surprised that Phil wasn't, you know, chosen, to tell you the truth. It made all the sense in the world. I don't know why he wasn't. I haven't talked to Phil. I saw him at Christmas time up at the Yellowstone Club where I live, and he comes up with his family. But I didn't have a chance to talk to him. He was engaged with a bunch of family and I just left him alone. So I have no idea. No, he has not mentioned anything about the project to me. We have not talked.

I'm always open to suggestions. Nobody has all the answers. I can remember a lot of situations -- it always happens when you're involved in a golf course design. There's always a hole or two that you just don't feel comfortable with, you've done your best effort to strategize it correctly, and it just doesn't feel right or look right. Many a time I've always said to my guys or other, the owner or some other people, what do you think? Anybody got an idea? And somebody will come up with an idea and I say to myself, I've said it many a time, why didn't I think of that? That's where we have to go.

Like I said, nobody has all the ideas. You throw out ideas. There's just always a big -- there's a map of the routing and everything, you throw that dart all the time with your idea at the end of it. Sometimes it sticks. Sometimes it wiggles for awhile, and then you construct it and then it's obvious that the bunkers that you planned is on the left side, but it should be on the right side. You make that change. Sometimes your ideas, you say to yourself, why did I even say that? That was stupid. That doesn't make sense.

So, it's a process. The nice thing about it, that I feel comfortable about, is the fact that I'm going to be here. I'm going to rent a house. I'll be here on a daily basis if needed. Nobody makes any decisions from Weiskopf Design but me, Tom. I'm the guy that at the end of the day you can like me or hate me. So it's that important to me. I'm an on-site type of guy. I always have been. I've never taken on more work than I personally couldn't be there to handle to make decisions that needed to be made to keep the construction going and reach a schedule.

Scottsdale, we did it on budget, under budget and on time. Under budget and on time. Because if you're out there enough, you always say, geez, I never saw that.

If you're there once a month or once every two months, things just pass you by. You don't see the forest for the trees. So you're always challenging your stuff as much as you can to make the right decision that looks good, makes it playable, maintainable, too, and is the right thing for the golf course.

Q. The people I've talked to, the men's club and ladies club people, the South Course has almost become too hard for them. Even from the forward tees. They actually look forward in their tournaments to playing the North Course. How in tune are you going to be with them, who like you said, are going to be the except for two days, they're going to be the ones playing the course most of the time? And they -- are they worried about tricking up the course maybe some length, the bunkering you're talk about, how in tune are you to their needs and obviously the playability factor of the North Course?
TOM WEISKOPF: Well, what is the yardage for the forward tees on the South Course? Can anybody help me with that yardage? Anybody know?

Q. The whites are probably 65 or 66?
TOM WEISKOPF: Okay. So we're going to start at 51. That's a savings of yardage right away.

Another one of my philosophies is, if you can put the ball in two thirds of the fairway, one side or the other. If you could putt the ball, which you can't, you have a shot requirement of 150 or 200 yards or whatever it is, 80 yards. If you could use a putter and putt the ball from that right side of the fairway, you could putt the ball to two thirds of the green. In other words, the openings will be open. The trouble is on the sides. That's my philosophy. That's what I think is good golf. You should penalize the errant shot, but not the person that can hit it straight.

So some of the bunkers will be less deep as to what exists right now. But we won't probably have a bunker -- there might be one or two that will be in that five foot range of depth, but that would be max. Most of the bunkers are going to be in that two to three and a half, four foot range. So if you look at that chair, probably the top of the chair is about two and a half feet. Most people can negotiate that.

But I've never had a problem from the ladies or the seniors. Can't make everybody happy. But it's a different golf course than the South Course. The purpose is totally different. There's got to be a difference of price between the two, right?

Q. There is.
TOM WEISKOPF: What is it?

Q. 229 versus 150.
ANDY FIELD: 229 versus 150.

TOM WEISKOPF: Well I figured that, but that has the U.S. Open as a resume. Everybody wants to go there. That's affordable compared to Pebble. What are they? 450 or whatever? Whatever.

No, it will be -- now the fairway widths, people ask me about that. They will follow the what I feel is the right contour. There probably won't be a fairway less than 25 or 26 yards and that would be on the 16th hole, the drivable, where there's got to be some requirement even for laying up.

But they may go up to 36 yards of width. They're going to be wider than -- even though they know we know that they're going to play two days there on the North, okay, they're going to be wider than the South.

Q. We're very happy to answer this gentleman's question. We're very happy that you're addressing the golf course to the seniors. We have no senior tees out there now, and I think that will help many of us that are approaching or are in the senior bracket. And the biggest thing we're happy about is you're taking those angles out of the greens so that we don't add to our statistics, greens missed while putting. So thank you.
TOM WEISKOPF: Well, thank you. I never usually bunker both sides of the fairway either. That's just one of my -- I just like one side has the bunker on it, not both sides. Not where they're kind of equidistant either.

And like I said, never penalize somebody that can hit it straight, but can't hit it far. They can roll one on the green. There's got to be a place for people to recover from.

Now I can't tell them how to play. They have to figure that out after awhile. But I feel very confident that our scheme, or our strategy for this golf course will work. It will be much prettier. I think it will be much more evident where you want to be off the tee to start with.

The bunkering is -- has been adjusted to the modern player. I know how far when we did the Scottsdale TPC there, they have quite a -- they probably play 60,000 rounds on that golf course. I'll give you an example: My last three years on TOUR, they were the first three years of the playing cards that are the statistics, like the baseball cards, okay? And in those three years, my last three years, I was a long hitter. I was one of the longer guys. I was never the longest, but I finished in the top-10 in driving distance in those three years. I finished 8th, 5th and 6th. I averaged 271 yards. That wouldn't finish in the top 250 with these guys. I mean, these guys average 292. That's -- we took five years of statistics and 292 was their average at Scottsdale. Ball might not go as far here.

So if you play at 5100 and that bunker starts at 280 to 300 yards out there or 290 to 305, that distance for the championship ladies and the senior player and the men's tees, are going to be somewhere around there, but not quite to it. That's how it worked out in Scottsdale.

But the longer hitter of those people that played from those tees, they still had to avoid that strategy or to stay out of that bunker just like the guy that played at 7100. So that's, that's what I'm trying to do.

If you looked at the strategy plan and you took a pair of scissors and you cut every hole in half, at the end of the day there will be as many bunkers on left half of the golf course as the right half. Hopefully, that isn't going to favor any style of play, whether you're a hooker or a fader or anything.

Like I said, we're going to try to get down to one bunker only on one side of the fairway. One or two, but they're going to only be on one side. They're not going to be on two sides. So you're going to have a chance to avoid those.

Q. They have narrowed the scoring gap for the tournament event by growing the rough, narrowing the fairways, and then the green speeds have been such that these guys end up above the hole, it's death because they're just so fast with the slope. Beyond the moving of the fairway bunkers, and you can keep the rough up however you want, what's the challenge going to be on the approaches for the TOUR player once you're done, do you think?
TOM WEISKOPF: Well the challenge will get down to, if we can get the speed for that week, this week, if we can get that speed up to 11 or 12, if they don't put the ball in the right place, they're going to be challenged from 20 to 40 feet to 2-putt. They won't make a lot. I guess, our greens are so subtle that last year the very long hitter, heck of a player, at Scottsdale, just came on TOUR a year or two ago, help me with his name, man, he can hit it a long way.

Q. Tony Finau?
TOM WEISKOPF: No, he's from Florida. Gosh.

Q. Brooks Koepka?
TOM WEISKOPF: Koepka. Yeah. And that's a short golf course. That's only 7,200. And it was dry and firm. He led in driving distance, he shot 15-under. They have been kind of playing that score, around that score, for about the last 10 years. But they had some rough. They have no rough this year. So you can't stop them.

Like I said, it doesn't make any difference what they shoot, it's did they enjoy themself, did they have fun, did they want to come back. We want them to come back. That's another challenge of mine. It won't be that easy, but they're going to have to grow a little rough. That controls it more than anything with firm greens.

Q. Will you spend time out here this week watching them play?
TOM WEISKOPF: No. I usually work the U.S. Open and The Open Championship, and I watch them play the week before and practice and that kind of stuff. I know them. No, I have some things I have to do. I've got my grand kids coming up to ski and the skiing's great and I'm not going to learn anything by watching them play, because it's going to be a different golf course. I'll watch it on the weekend on TV, but they're very good at what they do. Believe me. Real good. Quite remarkable.

Q. I got a chance to see you play a lot of golf at L.A. at Riviera in the '70s because that's the era I grew up in?
TOM WEISKOPF: That's when I had hair.

Q. You did have hair. And you were quite the shot maker. You hit some shots I didn't even think were physically possible. So, having said that, are there any holes on the North Course if you put your sort of championship high skill shot making abilities to test, that you really found fascinating as a championship golfer strategically?
TOM WEISKOPF: Well, there's a lot of really outstanding holes on the golf course. I think that 13th hole is one of my favorites. The dogleg to the left around the ravine. Long 4? That's a special hole. I think the third hole's a very pretty hole, the par-3 down over the ravine again. I really like holes 4, 11. The par-5s are the weakest holes on the golf course, because they're short. But the par-3s are very good. The 12th. A lot of good holes. We just want to even make them better, if we can, but still playable. But just a different look to them.

Q. One follow-up, is the day of a small putting green dead forever? Are you tempted -- there's so many great holes around its world that have small greens, are you ever tempted to just throw one in the mix?
TOM WEISKOPF: Oh, yeah, there will be a couple real small ones. Oh, yeah. Like I said, there won't be one smaller than 5,000 square feet. All of us agree that that's too small with the amount of play that you get, it puts too much wear and tear on that surface and it doesn't allow you -- you know, 5,000 feet is not, it's maybe just guessing, 50 percent, a third bigger than the room we're in right here. I don't know. Pretty close to that. That's small.

So, when you have, if you had a flag stick right where we're sitting, Andy and I are sitting, then and you go to the -- you don't -- but if you just turn the green a little bit and you add 20 more percent and you have a pin in the front right and the back left, there's a difference thereof, instead of maybe 35 or 40 feet, it might double. Or at least 50 percent longer. There will be some small ones, oh yeah.

Q. With the South Course, when they redid it the Coastal Commission allowed that you guys to push the greens and a lot of the holes a little closer to the canyons and the ravines, are you going to be able to do that a little bit, not sticking them out on the points, but are you going to be able to creep them a little bit more so this they might come into play a little bit or give them better views and vistas?
TOM WEISKOPF: Yeah, we have that in mind. And there is a restriction as to how close we can come. I can't remember what it is right now, but we're going to move -- examples are, a good example be would be the 4th hole. We could get that green over closer to that edge. The 7th hole. The 8th hole. There's a lot of holes, 11.

Yeah, we're going to do that. It will probably be about as close -- I'll refresh my memory and see how close those greens are, like 4, the great 4th hole here, isn't it the 4th hole here on the South Course? And that moved closer than when I played.

Q. Like for example, like 6 at Pebble Beach. They kept the fairway wide, they just widened it, to the cliff line. Now, give you a 40 yard fairway but move the fairway towards that angle, give the guy an angle maybe to set up a shot into the green where it's a risk reward.
TOM WEISKOPF: You can only do that when you have a bunker on one side of the fairway. Because then you can move that fairway out away from it closer to that or move the bunker closer to allow you to get what you're talking about. That's why I don't like two bunkers about in the same place, you know. Yeah, you've got to have some challenge. It's such a spectacular site that -- but it has to be a fair hole where you're smart enough and know that you don't have the capability to hit it at that back left pin, let's just say that's next to the ravine, from me to you, and like that thing that scarce everybody when you play the 14th hole here, on the South Course, right? It's got a negative edge green, so you don't want to go long, but if you pull it a little bit, you're over there out of play, unplayable, stuff like that.

But you got to have every chance that you can maximize a hole strategically and make it a little bit more of a challenge hole, but still give the player, if he's smart enough, a bogey is not a bad score on a hole like that. In fact, that's like making par for a lot of handicappers that we talked about, those statistics. But we're not going to be ridiculous about it. There's no need to. Our goal is to want everybody to come back and continue to come back, tell their friends about it and make sure that they get on an airplane in Chicago with the weather is terrible, fly into San Diego and enjoy weather like this and have a golf course that he can he enjoy and feel good about and then if he wants to play next door, he can go there.

Q. Get beat up?
TOM WEISKOPF: You know what I mean. I'm looking forward to it. I've studied it very hard. I think that we have a good plan. A good start. At least on paper. Now, during the execution of construction, that's where it really comes in where you adjust those bunkers strategically to impact the shot a little bit more, you widen that area by six or eight feet, extend the green a little bit more behind the bunker for that one challenging moment. All that's thought about. I try the best I can to come up with at least two challenging, very challenging pin placements on every green. That are different. Front to back. Sometimes the front's are the toughest pin placements. We want to make it look like it was built at the turn of the 20th century. Like it's really been here. And it's a good routing. The par-3s will be the equalizer against the 5s. They be will be the tougher challenging holes compared to the 5s. That's the Alister MacKenzie philosophy, balance the 5s with the 3s.

ANDY FIELD: Okay. Well, that concludes the formal portion of the press conference we appreciate everybody coming today.

TOM WEISKOPF: Yeah, thank you.

ANDY FIELD: Thank you very much. Enjoy the Open.

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