The US Open setup will be different this year with a novel idea: the further you miss the fairway, the higher the rough. And shorter holes will have proportionally even thicker rough, even on small misses.
Here is an exerpt from the USGA article written by David Shefter
"...there will be one fundamental aesthetic difference when the 156 competitors arrive on site: the primary rough heights won’t be consistent. In a break from past practice, the USGA has decided to employ varying primary rough heights, depending on the hole and its yardage."
For instance, the short par-4 sixth hole (321 yards), which is drivable by some of today’s longest hitters, likely will have thicker rough in the drive zone and around the green than, say, the 514-yard ninth hole, the longest par 4 on the course.
Longer par 4s are likely to possess less penal rough than shorter par 4s or par 5s.
Each hole also will have two distinct cuts for the primary rough. In layman’s terms, a shot that barely trickles into the primary rough won’t be as severely punish as one that misses the fairway by 15 yards. Essentially, the USGA is matching the penalty with the crime. The farther offline a player goes, the more severe the penalty.
To accomplish this, the spectator ropes will be widened just a bit to permit offline shots to find the thicker rough instead of areas that have been trampled down by foot traffic.
Fairways will average 26 yards in width, followed by a 6-foot area for the intermediate cut (1½ inches in height). The first primary cut will be some 24 feet before the secondary primary cut comes into play. Look for the first primary cut to be between 3-4 inches, with the secondary cut growing at least 6 inches.
“Within 44 or so yards you have a chance to hit the ball or have a shot to the green,” said Mike Davis, the USGA’s senior director of Rules and competition. “If you can’t keep it within that area, you won’t, and shouldn’t, have much of a shot."
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