[oldalum]

It's never occurred to me that some holes are more influenced by wet and cold weather than others, much less that an entire nine hole stretch might be. 

But here again, I think you find it incomprehensible--or close to it--that the #12 and #14 ranked college teams could be leading the national championship after the first round--unless they have some unusual, and perhaps unfair, advantage.

On the first sentence, it's not just water, it's wind strength, wind direction in particular, and gusting too. Some holes have wider fairway landing areas so are more forgiving in adverse conditions. Same for greens. Other holes may have ample landing spots for normal length drives but tight margins for shorter drives (which is probably partly why the tees were moved up 30-40 yards on a number of holes before play started in the first round). Doesn't have to be true for 9 holes in a row, and probably isn't. But I think it would be unlikely on a majority of courses for the first 9 holes in aggregate to be affected identically as the second 9 holes by extremes in conditions.

On your second quoted sentence above, I can definitively say you think wrong. I completely agree with your point.

[oldalum]

It's never occurred to me that some holes are more influenced by wet and cold weather than others, much less that an entire nine hole stretch might be. 

But here again, I think you find it incomprehensible--or close to it--that the #12 and #14 ranked college teams could be leading the national championship after the first round--unless they have some unusual, and perhaps unfair, advantage.

On the first sentence, it's not just water, it's wind strength, wind direction in particular, and gusting too. Some holes have wider fairway landing areas so are more forgiving in adverse conditions. Same for greens. Other holes may have ample landing spots for normal length drives but tight margins for shorter drives (which is probably partly why the tees were moved up 30-40 yards on a number of holes before play started in the first round). Doesn't have to be true for 9 holes in a row, and probably isn't. But I think it would be unlikely on a majority of courses for the first 9 holes in aggregate to be affected identically as the second 9 holes by extremes in conditions.

On your second quoted sentence above, I can definitively say you think wrong. I completely agree with your point.