Asked to compare the layout to past PGA venues, [Raymond Floyd] said that "if you're comparing it to the one down the street in '71 (now JDM but then PGA National), they're about the same.

"Growing bent grass (here) is growing a plant out of place, which would be like us growing Bermuda," said Don Hearn, president of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and superintendent at Weston Golf Club in suburban Boston. "You are putting undue pressure on a golf course superintendent in the South.

"Bent put under undue stress isn't going to survive. If you lose it and try to keep Bermuda, what you've got left is Bermuda with a lot of dirt.