By Alex Miceli

Newport, R.I. – Entering this week’s Women’s Open, there was little doubt that Newport Country Club in late June wasn’t going to mirror the 1995 U.S. Amateur.

That championship was held in August when Tiger Woods won the second of his three consecutive U.S. Amateurs. It was also contested on crusty fairways that were rock hard.

They were so hard that week that it wasn’t even necessary to cut the grass because nothing was growing. 

That won’t happen this week. Mother Nature won’t let it. That’s because after 13-plus inches of rain over the least six weeks in the area, and more than a half-inch over night Friday, there’s little chance the course will dry out. Most of the venue remained mushy and muddy throughout Friday.

Amanda Blumenherst hurdles over one of the many areas that contained standing water on the course early Friday. (John Mummert/USGA)

"What you know is you don’t know what your going to get because Mother Nature has much more of an impact here then most golf courses we go to," said Mike Davis, the USGA’s Senior Director of Rules and Competitions. Davis oversees the course setup.  "We kept the setup from [Thursday] absolutely intact - same teeing grounds - because it rained so hard."

Wind and damp conditions caused Davis to adjust his original plans, which evolved from numerous site visits. Part of those plans included a longer golf course than what the women are playing this week.  In total, 11 of the 18 holes were moved up Friday with the course playing at 6,497 yards. Originally Davis had the first two days at 6,564 yards and then planned on moving two of the par-3 tees back on the weekend. That strategy was based on conducting the championship on a hard-and-fast course until the weather altered everything.

The complexion of the links-style setting had changed, limiting any roll on the fairway. Furthermore, it has forced players to narrow their targets and putting an emphasis on accuracy.

"We played it Tuesday [and] Wednesday when you’re getting roll up to the green and now you’re basically getting your carry-yardage and that was it," said a frustrated Wendy Ward, who shot 6-over 77. "Every time we took one club more we still came up short.   We thought we finally pulled the right club on the last hole and hit it over the green."

Davis doesn’t know if the unpleasant conditions would make much of a difference on the scorecard.

"When you’ve got wet conditions like this and wind, that’s a pretty hard combination," he said.  "Having said that, with the balls really bouncing, you have to think about what happens after it bounces too, so it just very different. I don’t know if it is easier or harder."

One noticeable difference Friday could be traced to green speeds. Generally flat at Newport, the greens were much slower then they had been earlier in the week. On Wednesday, they were a tad under 10 on the USGA Stimpmeter. The goal was to get the greens to 11 by the start of the championship.

Many players left putts short Friday.

"I didn’t get the speed because they were so slow today," said Meg Mallon, the 1991 and 2004 Women’s Open champion. "Just because of the dampness of them, that was kind of an adjustment."

Going forward, Davis is at the mercy of the elements to dry out the course as best as possible. If that happens, the greens will get faster and so, too, will the fairways. But for now, Davis is going to stay with the revised setup. That’s assuming that the wind doesn’t blow harder. If so, he’ll have to analyze everything again.

"I don’t think so, but maybe," said Davis. "It’s all going to depend on the winds that are predicted here on out.  If we keep getting an east, or God forbid, the north winds, then definitely we will move some things."

Alex Miceli is a freelance writer whose work has appeared previously on www.uswomensopen.com.